Boatmen struggle to stay afloat in Bhitarkanika

Kendrapada: It is difficult to run a family with a monthly income of Rs 6,000, but this is a reality for Khageshwar Sahoo, 54, a launch driver of forest department. He has been working in Bhitarkanika National Park in Kendrapada district for over three decades.
Khageshwar, who belongs to Mahu village under Aul block, is not alone. Around 85 boatmen, forest watchers and turtle guards receive such a measly sum.They claimed that despite waiting for 30 years, they are yet to be regularized. Khageshwar is due to retire in 2019. "It is getting impossible to manage with peanuts," said Khageshwar.
"The forest department appointed me as a boatman in 1980 and assured me that the post will be approved within five years. I have been running from pillar to post, but yet to receive regular salary," he said.
"I used to get a remuneration of Rs 300 in 1980. In 1990, I started getting Rs 1,500. It went up to Rs 4,000 in 1996, and to Rs 6,000 in 2011," said the boatman.
Khageshwar said, "I have ferried chief ministers, governors, senior bureaucrats and many VIPs in motorboat. I narrated my plight to them, but it fell on deaf ears."
Many persons, who worked as daily wage workers in the forest department, have been regularized, he rued. "I could not provide proper education to my two sons due to paucity of funds," he added.
Like Khageshwar, Janakar Behera, 55, a forest watcher in Eakakula, receives a paltry remuneration of Rs 6,000 a month. Same is the ordeal of Basudev Behera, who guards the forest in Gupti.
"People, who protect wild animals from poachers, lead an insecure life. The state government should make their job permanent with proper salary," said Prafulla Nayak, a human rights activist.
"Around 100 persons work as daily wage workers in the park and its nearby areas. Services of many boatmen have been regularized in course of time. Lack of proper education is the main impediment for these persons to get permanent jobs," said divisional forest officer of the park Kedar Kumar Swain.