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Team Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Team Mamata Banerjee have formed a mahajot (grand alliance) — to fill up water bodies and wetlands.
These precious ecological patches are being filled up here, there and everywhere, all with the blatant patronage or tacit support of local politicians, both CPM and Trinamul, and the administration.
Metro visits three such fast-disappearing water bodies.
A wetland in Birati
Where: In Uttar Badra of Birati, within ward number 28 of North Dum Dum municipality; beside the railway track connecting Barasat and Dum Dum near Durganagar. Status: Filling up fast. Space: Nearly 150 bighas. What we saw and heard: Operation Fill-Up. A line of trucks loaded with rubble, fly ash and clay winds its way through a temporary passage created by breaking down the road dividers and guard rails of the Belghoria Expressway.
With Trinamul, CPM and Congress toughs supervising the fill-up, against a payment of Rs 1,200 per truckload, it is smooth sailing for a realty project.
The local Congress councillor, Subodh Chakrabarty, admitted to the fill-up and said that he had told the contractors and local youths to stop the work in the absence of a valid permission to fill up the wetland. “I have asked the contractor to come for discussions to the municipality,” said Chakrabarty.
Those doing the dirty were in no mood for “discussions”. When Metro visited the spot and demanded an explanation, the toughs took the standard dadagiri line in Bengal: “Ja korar kore neben… (Do what you can…).”
How will the loss affect us?:
• The area beside the expressway acts as a natural water recharging base and also stores the drainage water of areas like the North Dum Dum and South Dum Dum municipalities. Around 3 lakh residents of the area can be affected by severe waterlogging if the wetland is lost.
• The wetland acts as a local pollution arrester; its absence will lead to an alarming rise in air pollution levels.
BIKRAMGARH JHEEL
Where: Spread over wards 93 and 95, in Jadavpur and Golf Green, behind South City.
Status: Going, going...
Space: Originally 100 bighas of water body, the only major water sprawl in south Calcutta other than the Dhakuria Lakes, is now just about 20 bighas and shrinking fast.
What we saw and heard: Where there is a will there is a way. The will here is to fill up Bikramgarh Jheel. The way here is provided by private enterprises big and small and, of course, political patronage.
Another slice of the water body has been gobbled up recently, with a gate reading 87 Prince Ghulam Hossain Shah Road, choking the water flow. There is talk of CPM workers facilitating the fill with support from the Trinamul leadership in ward 93.
The encroachment cries were loud enough to draw mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya, local MLA public works department minister Kshiti Goswami, mayor in council (environment) Sushil Sharma and senior officials of the CMC (under whose control the jheel is from 2003) for an inspection.
“We will soon take a decision to rejuvenate the jheel and free it from encroachers,” claimed Sharma.
How will the loss affect us?:
• Bikramgarh remains the drainage catchment for the entire area. According to environmentalist Mohit Roy, any filling of the water body will immediately affect about 10,000 people in the vicinity, from Bikramgarh to Poddarnagar, with waterlogging during monsoon. In the longer run, more than 50,000 people in the two wards will be hit.
• Groundwater recharge will be affected in the entire zone, which has already been declared a vulnerable area by the CMDA for its receding groundwater level. Apart from the gradual scarcity of groundwater in buildings and highrises drawing water, subsidence cannot be ruled out in the longer run.
• Loss of local biodiversity, which is at present studied by school and college students.
BILKANDA JHEEL
Where: Along the Barrackpore-Dum Dum Expressway, near Sodepur.
Space: 211 bighas.
Status: Filled up; a township is supposed to come up here
What we saw and heard: An expanse of land with electric poles criss-crossing it. The tell-tale signs of the recent fill is evident from the flat ground with virtually no trees.
A mini city will come up, filling a vast stretch of wetlands. In 2003, the pollution control appellate authority of the state dismissed the prayer of the promoters seeking permission to construct on the filled-up land, and told them not to proceed without permission from the state pollution control board. The promoters moved high court, which asked the local administration to fix the land character. The matter is still pending.
“If any water body or wetland has been found to be filled up illegally, there is scope for restoration,” said the environment department’s chief law officer Biswajit Mukherjee.
The CMDA has “no clue”.
How will the loss affect us?:
• The Bilkanda wetland area is part of the drainage catchment as well as water-recharging point for a vast zone in North 24-Parganas and part of Nadia. Urban development expert Tapas Ghatak warned that Khardah, Panihati, Titagarh and some fringe panchayats will be hit harder by waterlogging.
• The area will also lose its groundwater recharge zone and local carbon sink.
Do you know of a water body being filled illegally? Tell ttmetro@abpmail.com
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