A water body in Bantala, in a portion of Ward 108 of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, is being filled up, a caller alerted mayor Firhad Hakim during Saturday’s edition of Talk to Mayor.
Hakim called the additional officer in charge of Kolkata Leather Complex police station and asked him to visit the place and lodge an FIR if there was an attempt to fill up the water body, a bheri.
Answering questions from journalists later, Hakim said some of the water bodies in Ward 108 were part of the East Kolkata Wetlands, a Ramsar-protected site.
Attempts to fill up water bodies in the ecologically sensitive wetlands is common. Allegations of encroachment of the wetlands are also many.
An official in the state environment department said more than 500 FIRs had been lodged since 2006 on complaints of filling up of water bodies in the wetlands. The East Kolkata Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Act was enacted in 2006.
Encroachments, illegal constructions and even buying and selling of land are threats to the wetlands, said officials in the state environment department.
All such activities are banned in the East Kolkata Wetlands.
The 12,500-hectare East Kolkata Wetlands was included in the Ramsar list of “Wetlands of International Importance” on August 19, 2002. The Ramsar Convention is an international treaty for the conservation of Ramsar sites. India is a signatory to the treaty.
“Please file an FIR after visiting the site,” mayor Hakim told the police officer over the phone.
An officer of Kolkata Leather Complex police station told The Telegraph on Saturday evening that a team of officers visited the site and found that it fell under Anandapur police station.
“We have informed Anandapur police station about the complaint,” he said.
