Make promoters pay to restore ponds: Experts
KOLKATA: Ponds and wetlands are under siege. Every day a new pond is
being filled up in the city and peri urban areas with total disregard
for the acts and rules against the aggression. Why so? The state
government doesn't have an inventory of waterbodies and wetlands in the
state, and doesn't have a clue to enforce the law.
So much so that the Calcutta High Court on February 3, 2012, directed the state government to set up a high-power committee to take stock of the damage and suggest ways to prevent the infractions of law. The 12-member expert panel recommends that authorities should impose costs on the offender trying to fill up a pond and use it to restore the waterbody to its original status. The panel in its report to the chief secretary also wants a temporary ban on land use conversion of waterbodies and wetlands, irrespective of the purpose or provisions of law.
So much so that the Calcutta High Court on February 3, 2012, directed the state government to set up a high-power committee to take stock of the damage and suggest ways to prevent the infractions of law. The 12-member expert panel recommends that authorities should impose costs on the offender trying to fill up a pond and use it to restore the waterbody to its original status. The panel in its report to the chief secretary also wants a temporary ban on land use conversion of waterbodies and wetlands, irrespective of the purpose or provisions of law.
The panel comprising experts such as Kalyan Rudra, Dhrubajyoti Ghosh, Susmita Sen,
and K D Raju suggests that the government should lift the ban only
after the state prepares a detailed inventory of waterbodies and
wetlands. The fisheries department has a State Data Centre. But the
records are maintained by more than one department for instance land and
land reforms, fisheries, and municipal authorities without a proper
coordination. The panel recommends the government to engage the state
environment department as the nodal department to examine the status of
the parcel of land (wetland or water body).
As many as 210 ponds in the city out of a total 5,000 in 2006 have been filled up, suggests a study by a city based group - Vasundhara Foundation. Some of the major waterbodies - Bikramgarh Jheel, Joypur Beel, a host of waterbodies at the Baisnabghata Patuli area and Tiljala, the one at Mahendra Roy Lane - are only instances to refresh memory. But many more have been filled up during the last six years, though there is enough legal provisions to book the alleged culprits.
The court directive came after an NGO, Forum for Human, Legal & Ecological Rights, Bansdroni, moved the high court with as many as 18 specific complaints against the filling up of waterbodies. This apart, the expert panel received as many as 94 complaints. Twenty-seven complaints have been referred to land and land reforms department, another 27 to the fisheries department, while the rest are pending with several authorities from the Kolkata Municipal Corporation to other civic bodies in North 24 Parganas to Hooghly. Acting on the petition, the high court passed the order of setting up the expert panel "so that such complaints do not recur."
The expert panel after holding a total nine meetings from March to August held that the filling up of waterbodies is likely to have a telling impact on drainage. "Further, we received reports about a perceptible rise in temperature. We should mention here that in addition to the readily perceptible losses, the less perceptible losses include the diminishing recharge of groundwater (wetlands being the foremost ecosystem responsible for recharging groundwater) and increasing soil erosion," says Dhrubajyoti Ghosh, regional chairman, South Asia Commission on Ecosystem and member of the government appointed expert panel. The panel wants the authorities to impose costs on the offender filling up a pond to restore the waterbody to its original status.
As many as 210 ponds in the city out of a total 5,000 in 2006 have been filled up, suggests a study by a city based group - Vasundhara Foundation. Some of the major waterbodies - Bikramgarh Jheel, Joypur Beel, a host of waterbodies at the Baisnabghata Patuli area and Tiljala, the one at Mahendra Roy Lane - are only instances to refresh memory. But many more have been filled up during the last six years, though there is enough legal provisions to book the alleged culprits.
The court directive came after an NGO, Forum for Human, Legal & Ecological Rights, Bansdroni, moved the high court with as many as 18 specific complaints against the filling up of waterbodies. This apart, the expert panel received as many as 94 complaints. Twenty-seven complaints have been referred to land and land reforms department, another 27 to the fisheries department, while the rest are pending with several authorities from the Kolkata Municipal Corporation to other civic bodies in North 24 Parganas to Hooghly. Acting on the petition, the high court passed the order of setting up the expert panel "so that such complaints do not recur."
The expert panel after holding a total nine meetings from March to August held that the filling up of waterbodies is likely to have a telling impact on drainage. "Further, we received reports about a perceptible rise in temperature. We should mention here that in addition to the readily perceptible losses, the less perceptible losses include the diminishing recharge of groundwater (wetlands being the foremost ecosystem responsible for recharging groundwater) and increasing soil erosion," says Dhrubajyoti Ghosh, regional chairman, South Asia Commission on Ecosystem and member of the government appointed expert panel. The panel wants the authorities to impose costs on the offender filling up a pond to restore the waterbody to its original status.
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