Janardan Maurya points out at the troop of black coracles, basking on the garbage ridden bank of the Chimbel rivulet when asked about his profession. The round rubber boats, a cheap replica of the ones used in Karnataka are good enough to mangle through the black toxic waste that are now a part of the eco-sensitive floodplains at Ribandar. With the government turning a blind eye, the marshes along the national highway 4(A) are slowly losing the green cover, being illegally replaced with hutments on reclaimed land, creating an ecological as well as social problem. Maurya is one of the 30 inhabitants who are paying a rent to live in miserable conditions. “We are employed in the fishing business. We send our children to school but anytime we can be evicted from here as the whole settlement is illegal. We are paying Rs 1,500 rent to live here. The owner was given the land for agriculture, but he has filled the fields and erected huts. He has assured us that the officials would not bother us,” Maurya said. He also showed an area on the opposite bank of the rivulet where a large numbers of scrap dealers have established base. “They deal with all kinds of waste plastic, metal, wires. Around six to seven of such dealers are there. The smelting of items to take out metal takes place after dark. They dump the waste in the water,” a resident said. Locals said the low-lying fields belong to the Morombi-O-Grande comunidade. Four illegally reclaimed spots were recently inspected by the flying squad from the collector’s office and the reclamation work was stopped. But despite the order, villagers alleged that the illegal structures keep sprouting, as no order has been given to restore the area into its original form. There is no access to clean water or sanitation forcing the children to play at the same place where they go for defecation, locals said. Experts said landfilling is a violation of the Section 17 (A) of the TCP Act as action is prohibited in low-lying areas which form a part of the river’s floodplain and its direct proximity to the water bodies may also be committing coastal regulation zone (CRZ) violations. They also said the violations and destruction pose a bigger danger than anticipated. Explaining the importance of the mangroves on the biological population that is living in and around the floodplains, former NIO scientist and GCZMA member Arvind Unthawale said such activities are an open violation of CRZ I norms. “Mangroves grow in brackish waters and if the reclamation cuts the water source, these mangroves would dry up and die. They are the highest producer of coral population and also provide the food for the biological population. If we allow them to die, we are also killing the fishes and the birds that come there. Either they will die or they will move somewhere else,” Unthawale said. The recent inundation at Chorao during the high tide was also due to the destruction of floodplains, he said. “Reclaiming a floodplain by deforestation will ultimately put the human population at risk,” Unthawale said.