Officials from the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation (BMC) will meet their counterparts from the East Kolkata Wetlands Authority this week to prepare a plan of action in regard to unauthorised buildings and under-construction sites in the area, officials said.
No permanent building is allowed in the East Kolkata Wetlands, which was declared a Ramsar Site in 2002. The water bodies in the East Kolkata Wetlands act as the city’s kidneys and treat the sewage naturally.
The water bodies are mostly used for pisciculture and are called bheris in local parlance. The entire area has a complex ecological balance as it supports hundreds of varieties of flora and fauna
The BMC has two wards — 35 and 36 — parts of which are within the East Kolkata Wetlands. The two wards, behind Sukantanagar, have bheris such as Khasmahal, Kulipara and Chhainabi that are within the wetlands.
According to an official of the civic body, several concrete buildings have come up without any sanction from the authorities in Khasmahal, Kulipara and Chhainabi.
This newspaper has reported that the civic body would start a survey of such buildings in these two wards and the findings will be shared with the wetlands authority.
“We will share our findings. The meeting next week will be held to discuss an action plan regarding these buildings and under-construction sites,” a senior official of the BMC said.
In these two wards, the civic body has found more than 100 buildings that
have come up illegally over the past few years, sources in the BMC said. Many of these are within the East Kolkata Wetlands.
Sabyasachi Dutta, chairman of the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation, said he had written to mayor Krishna Chakraborty alerting her about these buildings as well as the under-construction sites.
“We hope something will be done as the area has a very fragile ecosystem and acts as the natural sewage treatment plant for the entire city,” Dutta told The Telegraph.