East Calcutta Wetlands

The wetlands cover 125 square kilometres and include salt marshes, and agricultural fields, sewage farms and settling ponds.

The name East Calcutta Wetlands was coined by late Dhrubajyoti Ghosh, Special Advisory (Agricultural Ecosystems), Commission on Ecosystem Management, IUCN[2][citation needed], who reached this incredible but neglected part of the city when, while working as an engineer for the Government of West Bengal's Water & Sanitation Department, he was searching for an answer to the question: What exactly happens to the city sewage?

Devised by local fishermen and farmers, these wetlands served, in effect, as the natural sewage treatment plant for the city.

[3][4] In 1991 the West Bengal Government accepted an offer by a non-resident Indian to build a World Trade Centre and allotted 227 acres of wetlands for this purpose.

[5] Not only did it go into the definition of wetlands and a review of their status in countries such as Australia and the US, he also brought to bear his own research on their functional values and role in "maintaining micro-climatic conditions, absorbing pollution...habitat for aquatic flora fauna... providing a spill basin, and the fragility of the ecosystem."

The outcome was that the proposal for the World Trade Centre was turned down in its original form and strict conditions were laid: "I do not find any justiciable reason to disagree with the opinion expressed by the environmentalists that wetland should be preserved and no interference or reclamation should be permitted.

To make an order directing demolition or alteration of any hoarding, frame, post, kiosk, structure, neon-signed or sky-sign, erected or exhibited illegally for the purpose of advertisement on any land within the East Kolkata wetlands.

To make an order to prevent, prohibit or restrict any mining, quarrying, blasting, or other operations for the purpose of protecting or conserving the East Kolkata wetlands.

To enter any land or premises, including to collect samples of air, water, soil and other biological resources, within the scope of this project.

There are about 100 plant species, which have been recorded in and around the East Calcutta Wetlands, including Sagittaria montividensis, Cryptocoryne ciliata, Cyperus spp., Acrostichum aureum, Ipomoea aquatica, etc.

Snakes found in the East Calcutta Wetland include the checkered keelback (Fowlea piscator), smooth water snake (Enhydris enhydris), buff striped keelback (Amphiesma stolata) and Common bronzeback or Daudin's bronzeback (Dendrelaphis tristis).

But the 8,000-hectare East Kolkata Wetlands Ramsar Site, a patchwork of tree-fringed canals, vegetable plots, rice paddies and fish ponds – and the 20,000 people that work in them – daily transform one-third of the city's sewage and most of its domestic refuse into a rich harvest of fish and fresh vegetables.

For example, the Mudially Fishermen's Cooperative Society is a collective of 300 families that lease 70 hectares into which wastewater from the city is released.

Wetlands are under threat due to exponential expansion of real-estate projects in eastern Kolkata especially in the Salt Lake and Rajarhat sectors.

Microbial Diversity is an integral part of biodiversity which includes bacteria, archaea, fungi, algae, protozoa and protists (Ghosh, A., 2007).

Soil samples collected from ECW shows the presence of various new strains of microbes which are not only ecologically important but also have commercial value (Ghosh, A., 2007).

Urban Wastewater: Livelihoods, Health and Environmental Impacts in India: The Case of the East Calcutta Wetlands by Gautam Gupta, Jadavpur University (see: www.iwmi.cgiar.org/ ... /Urban%20Wastewater%20WS_Kolkata.pdf ).

Economic valuation of wetlands - A guide for policy makers and planners, Ramsar Copnvention Bureau, Gland, Switzerland.

'Report of the project of The Salt Lake Reclamation & Irrigation Company Limited', in Selections from the Records of the Bengal Government (containing papers from 1865 to 1904), Calcutta, India.

Costanza, R., d'Agre, R.,m Groot, R. de, Farber, S., Grasso, M., Hannon, B., Limbujrg, K., Naeem, S.O., Neill, R. V., Paruelo, J., Raskin, R. G., Sutton P., and Belt, M. van den (1997).

Development and Management of the Calcutta canal systems and wetlands, Report of the committee constituted by the Department of Environment, Government of West Bengal.

Report of the committee to look into all aspects of the existing and permissible land uses in the East Kolkata Wetland Area, Department of Environment, Government of West Bengal.

_____ (2004)Report of the committee for formulation of the guidelines for preparation of management plan of East Kolkata Wetland, Department of Environment, Government of West Bengal.

'Developing Waterlogged Areas for Urban Fishery and Waterfront Recreation Project', AMBIO, Journal of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, vol.

Ecological Study of Some selected Urban and Semi-urban Centers of West Bengal and suggesting certain controls of the Ecosystem, Ph.D. thesis, University of Calcutta.

____ (2002) Wetland Ecosystem, West Bengal State Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan, National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan, Department of Environment, Government of West Bengal and Ramkrishna Mission Narendrapur, West Bengal, India, executed by Ministry of Environment and Forest, Government of India, technical implementation by Kalpavrissh and administrative co-ordination by Biotech Consortium, India Ltd., funded by Global Environmental Facility through UNDP.

Models for Assessment of Freshwater Wetlands, Water Resources Research Centre, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA.

Maps and Diagrams: Their Compilation and Construction, Methuen & Co. Ltd., London Mukherjee, D.P., Kumar, B., and Saha, R.(2005) Performance of Sewage - Ponds in Treating Wastewater (unpublished report), Central Pollution Control Board, Eastern Regional Office, Kolkata.

National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan, West Bengal State Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan, Department of Environment, Government of West Bengal and Ramkrishna Mission Narendrapur, West Bengal, India, executed by Ministry of Environment and Forest, Government of India, technical implementation by Kalpavriksh and administrative co-ordination by Biotech Consortium, India Ltd., funded by Global Environmental Facility through UNDP.

'Ecology and Management of Wetland Ecosystems in India', Paper presented at the Regional Meeting of the National MAB Committee of Central and South Asian Countries, New Delhi.