Calcutta's wetlands (bheris) have got a new lease of life.
The Calcutta High Court has ordered the West Bengal
government to stop reclaiming the wetlands. The court
also directed the Calcutta Municipal Corporation to use
the Town and Country Planning Act's provisions to prevent any private organisation from encroaching on these wetlands, which serve as natural sewage treatment plants for Calcutta.
Delivering the order, justice U C Banerjee noted that
the state cannot change the nature of the wetlands, for
any reason, from agricultural to residential or commercial and nor can it allow any private party to do so.
Half of the 8,000 ha of the wetlands, which also provide thousands of fisherfolk a source of livelihood, has
already been reclaimed. The West Bengal government
and the Calcutta Municipal Corporation have plans to
make a World Trade Centre on another 75 ha in the
Chinta Singh bheri, a part of which has already been
reclaimed. While the court order will allow this project
to go ahead, it will save any more of the wetlands from
being reclaimed for other projects.
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