West Bengal: TMC govt to introduce new bill for wetlands conservation

The aforementioned bill is named 'The East Kolkata Wetland (Conversion and Management) Amendment Bill, 2017’, which the government plans to introduce during the ongoing budget session.

"The conservation of the East Kolkata Wetlands is essential for preserving the balance of nature, as it acts, among other things, as a natural waste management system for the city of Kolkata. During the previous Left Front Government, significant portions of the East Kolkata Wetlands were filled up illegally for the construction of houses. This Bill would help in the safeguarding of this natural urban waste management system," the release stated.

The East Kolkata Wetlands (EKW) are a key component of Kolkata’s waste-management resilience.

The 12,500 hectare space, which includes about 4,000 hectares of sewage-fed bheries (fisheries), has managed to survive the onslaught of Kokata’s eastward urbanization. No more than one meter deep, this unique ecological zone’s sewage-fed aquaculture and garbage-fed horticulture provide the city with a natural waste recycling process not quite replicated anywhere else in the world.

The wetlands despite land sharks and political apathy survived largely to its designation as a Ramsar site in August 2002. The Ramsar charter, signed at a convention on wetlands in the Iranian city of Ramsar in 1971, provides national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands.

Environmental groups in the city like Kolkata citizens’ group PUBLIC (People United for Better Living in Calcutta)  earlier fought for the preservation of the wetlands and remained worried about their fate amid political developments and administrative policies.

Image: Sujoy Dhar