May 10: Wanton destruction of Silsako Beel, a natural wetland in the Hengerabari area, may spell doom for southeast Guwahati. Ironically, Dispur itself has a hand in this ecological disaster.

Local residents of the area claim that the beel covered some 200 hectares in the early eighties. But it has now been reduced to almost half its original size as the beel is being filled up for building quarters for officers and staff of the Assembly and private residences.

Concern has been expressed within officialdom and environmental NGOs. Their fears are also heightened by the fact that with elections scheduled for next year, more land settlement would be awarded to garner goodwill.

Several organisations, like the Greater Zoo Road Citizens? Forum, Brihattar Japorigog Unnayan Samiti, Save Guwahati Build Guwahati and Abhijatri, have demanded cancellation of all allotments and eviction of all encroachments on the water bodies and channels in the city.

Apprehensions have been expressed that there will be more waterlogging in thickly-populated areas, stretching from Panjabari to Satgaon along the express highway. For, every monsoon, excess floodwater from this area is drained into the Brahmaputra through the beel.

Aaranyak secretary-general Bibhab Talukdar rued that the government is still making land settlement in the areas surrounding the beel.

?Many proposals for allotment of land within the periphery of the wetland are in the pipeline. If immediate steps are not taken for protecting the beel, it will vanish in no time,? Talukdar said. Aaranyak is a non-governmental biodiversity conservation society.

Though these organisations have been insisting that the Silsako Beel should be reclaimed and the drainage channels between the beel and the Brahmaputra cleared of encroachments, efforts by the government to protect the wetland have so far remained only on paper.

An official source said: ?The modus operandi is to fill up areas of the beel with earth. Then, such areas are shown as peripheral areas in the documents. Allotment is then made towards private parties. If such practices are not curbed, there is no way the wetland, that acts as a natural stormwater drainage for the city, can be saved.?

Sub-divisional officer (revenue) of the Kamrup (metropolitan) administration, D.R. Rajbongshi, could not be reached for comment.

The same is the case with small wetlands of two or three hectares in other parts of the city.

Pallab Das, a nature lover, said Satgaon Beel ? which is an extension of Silsako Beel ? is also being destroyed owing to human activity.

?If the beel and its link with the Brahmaputra are not protected, it will have a cascading effect. New areas like Panjabari will be inundated in the near future,? Das said.