The pollution control appellate authority, a quasi-judicial body that can review orders passed by the West Bengal Pollution Control Board, has appointed a high-power “expert committee” to tackle a dispute that could define the future of land-use of the East Calcutta Wetlands.

The case in question, doing the rounds of the high court and the apex court since 1998, is a petition filed by Dimple Vincom Pvt Ltd against the state board, following its refusal to give a no-objection certificate for a proposed water park “within the wetland area of east Calcutta”.

The committee’s brief is to find out “whether the proposed project… will cause any environmental degradation or any substantial undesirable erosion of the wetland area”.

The August 10 order pronounced by the three-member appellate authority chaired by Justice Gitesh Ranjan Bhattacharjee asked the expert panel to “go into the details of the project and the situation at the ground level in the concerned area” before making “observations and recommendations”. The report should be submitted within two months.

P.N. Roy, chairman of the environmental impact assessment expert committee of the state government, will head the expert committee. The fact team also comprises pro vice-chancellor S.K. Sanyal of Jadavpur University, the head of the architecture department of Bengal Engineering College, the state chief environment officer and a member of the Institute of Wetland Management & Ecological Design.

The recommendations could have far-reaching consequences, as a number of projects have been stalled since the 1992 Calcutta High Court order.

“We purchased the land in 1994 and the WBIDC cleared the project, but we have not been able to start work… We propose just five per cent construction on nine acres of land, the rest will be waterbodies and greenery,” argues N.K. Jhunjhunwala, partner of Dimple Vincom.

“Once you allow one project, the floodgates will open,” warns S.R. Banerjee, state director of World Wide Fund (WWF) for Nature. “Also, since this is a Ramsar site now, no development work must be allowed without a proper management plan,” he adds.