Sector-wise land use determined after satellite survey:

Substantially waterbody: 5852.14 hectares Agricultural area: 4718.56 hectares Productive farming area: 602.78 hectares Urban & rural habitation: 1326.52 hectares

Confusion dogs more than 10,000 plots, on the eastern flank of the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass, owned by various cooperative housing societies.

The owners? plan to start construction has hit a roadblock, following the government?s announcement that a conservation policy is being considered for the East Calcutta Wetlands and Waste Recycling Region.

The plots fall within an 8,000-hectare buffer zone of the East Calcutta Wetlands, which comes within the purview of the proposed policy.

The owners, who procured the plots seven to 10 years ago, have no idea whether the policy will allow any construction activity in the buffer zone. They are facing problems in every step in mutating the plots or getting construction plans sanctioned.

?The Institute of Wetlands Management and Ecological Design (IWMED) has completed an aerial survey of the area and the draft policy is being finalised,? said Biswajit Mukherjee, senior law officer of the state pollution control board.

?I hope the policy will be announced in a month or two. The institute has been asked by the appellate authority in some pending cases to finalise the issue urgently,? he added.

The East Calcutta Wetlands, Mukherjee said, is one of the 19 international Ramsar sites. The area conforms to the definition of wetlands as adopted by Ramsar Convention (Iran) in 1971.

The conservation agenda dates back to the late-90s, when the department of environment constituted a committee for formulating guidelines on a management plan for the East Calcutta Wetlands.

But even after the lapse of more than five years, the department has yet to come out with practical suggestions on the kind of human activities to be allowed in the buffer zone.

The delay has resulted in mushrooming of illegal constructions, the owners of which do not pay any tax to the civic authorities, or local panchayats or the state government. The Calcutta Metropolitan Planning Committee (CMPC) stresses the need for a definite policy for the region to prevent any unplanned or illegal construction.

An environment department official said the entire East Calcutta Wetlands system will be classified into five sectors. A compendium showing plot-wise land-use will be published soon.

?We must be pragmatic in allowing restricted change in the land-use pattern, or else waterbodies will continue to be filled up illegally,? the official added. He called for involving the people in the conservation drive.