The narrow lanes and concrete jungle that is Howrah once hid an oasis or two that helped maintain ecological balance besides being good catchment areas and sources of water. But realty boom has led to the disappearance of most of these waterbodies, many of them choked by garbage dumps.

One such pond in Ward 23 and two more in Ward 44 of the Howrah Municipal Corporation (HMC) are on their way to extinction. While the pond in Sarada Chatterjee Lane is now less than half its original size, the two in Batore Malikpara and Ramrajatala Rama temple are beyond recognition.

Environmentalist Subhas Dutta, who has filed several petitions against pond-filling, has little hope. "I have been fighting court battles for several years against the filling up of waterbodies in Howrah. They are essential not only for maintaining ecological balance but as an immediate source of water in case a fire breaks out in a locality. But 80 per cent of these ponds have been filled up and the few that still exist are likely to disappear soon," he said. Metro takes stock

Sarada Chatterjee Lane

Once spread across 25 cottahs, the pond in Sarada Chatterjee Lane of Kadamtala has long been reduced to a meagre 10 cottahs. The water is still clear and local youths engage in pisciculture here. A few elderly men in the neighbourhood cast their nets and fishing rods in the afternoons, hoping for a catch. Some time ago, a part of the bank and the road around the pond were concretised by the HMC. A stretch at the northern end next to the concrete road is filled with garbage though a vat has been built on one side.

A local club, Jhilerpar Balak Sangha, built a two-storeyed clubhouse on the southern bank of the pond, less than a year ago. "Our club is over 15 years old. Earlier it was a small room with a tiled roof next to the ghat. We have built this new room recently," said a young club member.

On the eastern side of the pond, a house has come up in the past year. A part of the house juts into the pond. Gopal Pal, the owner of the house, runs a small business of renting out sound and lights systems for social functions. He was not available for comment.

A beautification project is on at the pond with trees and lights being put up. But nothing is being done about the encroachments. Wooden pins have been placed at least 10 feet from the bank into the water, signs of further attempts at filling up the pond.

Local residents had filed a mass petition a few months ago. "We submitted a mass petition with the local councillor, MP, MLA, the mayor and also at the local police station to stop rampant dumping of garbage in the pond. A huge amount of domestic waste is being dumped with the obvious intention of filling up the pond. That was stopped with help from Bantra police station. Now, the pond is being cleaned and beautified but it will become smaller," said one of the petitioners who did not want to be named.

The pond and a playground in the area belong to the family of Sarada Chatterjee, erstwhile zamindar of Udaynarayanpur. The family is based in Calcutta and has long stopped visiting the property in Kadamtala. "Sarada Chatterjee's sons and daughters, Gayatri Chattopadhyay, Geeta Chattopadhyay and Billanath Chattopadhyay, are the present landlords. They live in Calcutta and cannot visit the place too often. Although they have been told about the filling-up, they are not in a position to take any action as they are old and ailing," said a source from the family.

Councillorspeak: "The pond in Sarada Chatterjee Lane is being beautified. The existing constructions have been there for a long time and so cannot be demolished. We have to do our work excluding those portions of the pond," said Mousumi Ghosh, the councillor of Ward 23 of HMC.

Copspeak: "We cannot take any action until a complaint is lodged by the HMC or the fisheries department. When the petitioners had come to us some months ago, we visited the site, but what we saw was that local people were dumping garbage in the pond. We urged the locals to stop this and asked them to alert us in case anyone was spotted throwing rubble to fill up the pond," said Gautam Talukdar, the inspector-in-charge of Bantra police station.

Batore Malikpara

A narrow lane from Sastri Narendranath Ganguli Road leads to Batore Malikpara in Santragachhi, where a huge waterbody called Cheetu Jheel is now a canal of dirty water. The lake, was at one time, not less than two kilometres in length and 35 feet in breadth. Dense overgrowth covers the area and it is evident that both sides of the waterbody have been encroached upon. Residential houses have come up on the filled-up land.

At present, a small room of the local club, Malikpara Aikatan, can be spotted in the front where young boys sit and play carom or watch television. A car parking area has been built around the clubhouse and is rented out to local residents.

The pond had been created by members of the Kar family to drain out excess water from the area during heavy rains. Later, drains and sewerage pipes directed towards the lake polluted it with filthy water. "This lake was made by our forefathers but over the past 35 years or more, it has been encroached upon by outsiders who have come to live here from other places," said a member of the Kar family.

"Pisciculture was practised in this pond at one time but later the fish died and the water became polluted. Since then, more people have filled up the pond and built houses there. We had tried to speak to various authorities, including the then deputy mayor, Debesh Sanyal, at one time but he did nothing," he added.

A group of residents of Batore had protested against the rampant filling-up of the lake around 15 years ago. "When we were young, the water was clear and it was a good place for taking a dip in summer. Later, when people from the washermen's colony nearby started encroaching upon it, we sent petitions to the HMC to stop it. But they washed their hands off the issue. Now the polluted water of the canal has become a breeding ground for mosquitoes," said Rabin Chatterjee, a resident of Batore who had been among the protesting residents.

Councillorspeak: "There are several private ponds in the HMC area. If the owners maintain them or give them out for pisciculture, the ponds can be kept alive and there would be less encroachment. The HMC cannot take the responsibility of maintaining all the ponds in Howrah town on its shoulders," said Shyamal Roy, the councillor of Ward 44.

Ramrajatala Rama temple

A one-and-a-half-bigha waterbody to the right of the Ram temple, considered a debattar property, is now a huge garbage dump with dense overgrowth. At one time, when the water was clean, this pond was leased out to local fishermen for pisciculture. The revenue from that went towards running the temple. Makeshift shops and kiosks have come up around the pond that do brisk business all year round, especially during Ram puja. Local people are aware of attempts to fill up the pond, but no one is willing to fight it. "A trustee board, Ramraja Trustee Board, was formed without the consent of the descendants of Ayodhya Ram Chowdhury, the owners of the Ram temple. The members of the board are slowly trying to fill up this pond," said a descendant of Ayodhya Ram Chowdhury.

A G+4 building came up 12 years ago after a portion of the pond was filled up. The promoter, Partha Dutta, could not be contacted for comment. The neighbouring Ramrajatala market gets flooded because the pond is slowly choking.

"The pond is being slowly filled up for the past 15 years or more. Earlier, ashes from the earthen stoves of eateries and sweet shops were dumped into the pond. A shack in one corner is empty, but is sometimes used as a godown by the vendors," said a local resident.

Jatu Lahiri, the Shibpur MLA and a member of the Ramraja Trustee Board, said the pond has been a disputed property for many years. "Court cases are on where one section claims that the pond is debattar property while another says it is not. Over the years, vendors have been dumping garbage into the pond. No one has ever tried to stop them. As a result the pond has dried up," said the Trinamul leader.

Arun Roychowdhury, the member of the mayoral council in charge of cleaning ponds, said several ponds have already been dredged. "We plan to work on more such water bodies as more funds will be sanctioned. In most cases, these are private ponds. All we have asked locals to do is not to throw garbage into the ponds and to encourage youths in the locality to start pisciculture. In that way, the environment will be saved, there will be better drainage and a steady source of water during the summer months."