KOLKATA, 13 MARCH: About 33 water bodies in the Ramsar-protected East Kolkata Wetlands were filled illegally for the construction of the Newtown-Rajarhat Township.
Members of East Calcutta Wetlands Management Authority met chief secretary Ardhendu Sen on Tuesday and submitted guidelines allowing limited construction by the residents of the wetlands.
The chief secretary is the chairman of the authority.
Around 1.5 lakh people live in the 12,500-hectare East Calcutta Wetlands, where the high court has banned construction to prevent any change in the char
The state government has altered its original plan and decided to shift only aquatic and water-based animals to the proposed eco-park at Bhagabanpur in South 24-Parganas.
The high court on Thursday directed four traders, who claimed to have purchased a part of the East Calcutta Wetlands from the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC), to hand the plots back to the civic body by February 15.
The health and livelihoods of people in rural and peri-urban areas in developing countries is often strongly related to ecosystems services and water supply, sanitation and hygiene (WASH). Although provision of both is integral to water
Marsh Mongoose Herpestes palustris is the only extant endemic mammal of the East Kolkata wetlands, which has been declared a RAMSAR site in 2002. Since its first description by the scientists of the Zoological Survey of India, the population of this species has dwindled to an alarming state due to reclamation of the Salt Lake City and Rajarhat expansion, as well as from other anthropogenic causes. Recently, during a field survey only a small population of this endangered mongoose was found in a single location.
Waste water fed fisheries are a common feature in different parts of the world. Yet not all work as efficiently as those operating at East Calcutta Wetland for more than 70 years now. The objective of this study is to unravel the reason for the markedly greater efficiency of the Bheris in fish production compared to other water bodies like rain water ponds or sewage fed fish ponds elsewhere.
