Land sharks eating into East Kolkata wetlands

SLOW DEATH Realtors pump out water, fill land and sell them as plots at a premium

KOLKATA: In 2014 Asit Mondal, who is in his forties and a real estate promoter, purchased a pond spreading over 32 bigha from Ganesh Naskar. The deal was of ~1.45 crore, of which Mondal paid an advance of f ~81 lakh. Naskar paid off about a dozen workers of the fishery and pumped out water to create a level plot.

But, it triggered suspicion among a few locals, who conducted their own investigation and found out that the land belonged to the state government and the occupants – the Naskar – only has user rights. The locals also found that the government vested the land back in the seventies. The Naskars ‘sold’ the pond using land records previous to the vesting.

“I never knew I was walking into a trap. Later I came to know that conversion of land character in this area is illegal,” Mondal told HT. In September, Mondal sought refund of the advance amount after angry locals filled up the tank again with water and released fishlings there.

Welcome to the new pattern of illegal land sale in East Kolkata Wetlands (EKW).

How are fishery ponds being sold to realtors? HT investigation revealed a pattern: the owner strikes a deal with realtors, uses the advance payment to compensate workers at the fishery pond, pumps water out of it, waits for a few months and then starts filling it with soil, rubbish and garbage. Then the land is divided into plots and demarcated with small concrete pillars.

Declared a ‘wetland of global importance’ by the Ramsar Convention in 2002, the EKW is considered an ‘ecological wonder’ sprawling across 125 sq km that not only treats most of Kolkata’s waste water but also provides the city a lot of fish and vegetables.

The ecological soft spot EKW has attracted attention of real estate operators, thanks to Kolkata’s locational disadvantage. EKW watchdog: Conversion of land character is illegal. Illegal sale producing old documents has to be checked... In case anyone has information of land character being converted, we request them to tip us and prompt action is taken — Activist:

The entire battle for saving this precious ecosystem will go in vain until filled wetlands are restored —

of Kolkata Commons Centre for Inter-disciplinary Research and Analysis The metropolis cannot expand to the west where the Hooghly river acts as a natural boundary. Its expansion to the north and south is also quite saturated. EKW forms the eastern fringe, the only expansion zone.

“There are rules on restrictions construction here, so much Environmentalist: Strangely, when local residents want to modify/expand their own houses, police arrive and harass them. But when builders come to convert waterbodies or tanks, the police are nowhere to be seen —

environmentalist

so that even original inhabitants are not free to expand or modify their existing humble houses. One should continue with complete ban on outsiders constructing houses but needs of existing households should be treated realistically,” said Dhrubajyoti Ghosh, environmentalist who discovered the uniqueness of EKW in the 1980s.

Fishery ponds – the nucleus of the ecosystem – are the most vulnerable spots. They are changing hands despite a ban on change of land character since 1992.

Ganesh Naskar selling the tank is not the only example. At Bhagabanpur mouza within Kheyadah II panchayat jurisdictions, a 30-bigha fishery pond known as Khetror Khol was sold using documents predating the vesting of land. There are many more such instances, locals say.

“The entire battle for saving this precious ecosystem will go in vain until filled wetlands are not restored,” said Ashesh Sengupta of Kolkata Commons Centre for Inter-disciplinary Research and Analysis, which along with EKW Management Authority (EKWMA) organised a meeting in Kolkata, attended by senior Ramsar authorities, in February this year.

The EKWMA, which is responsible for the protection of the wetlands, denies allegations of negligence. “Conversion of land character is illegal. The illegal sale producing old documents has to be checked by the local self-governments. In case anyone has information of land character being converted, we request them to tip us off and prompt action will be taken,” said Sandipan Mukherjee, chief technical officer of the authority.

Environment minister Sovan Chatterjee told Hindustan Times that action was being taken to protect the wetland.

Incidentally, there has been no survey yet to find out how much waterbody has been lost to real estate activity over the past few years. But, one can see offices of agencies dealing in land and supply of building materials have mushroomed in EKV.

“Whenever we lodge a complaint with EKWMA, they lodge an FIR with the local police and it ends there,” said Bonani Kakkar of non-government organisation PUBLIC.