A pond in Behala in southwest Kolkata on nearly half-an-acre of land that has been filled up gradually over the years is being recovered as part of a drive-by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation to reclaim water bodies in the city.
A portion of a wall around the plot of land on Bhupen Roy Road in Behala, off James Long Sarani, has been demolished to make way for pay loaders and excavators to reach the pond that is filled with layers of debris and wild outgrowth covering the water.
On Wednesday, the work of removing the top layer of debris began.
Senior KMC officials were present to oversee the work.
It will take close to a fortnight to restore the pond to its original form, officials said.
Hemmed by multi-storied buildings, the pond had been turned into a garbage dumping yard by a section of local developers who were allegedly eying the plot of land for real estate development, a section of local residents alleged.
“Unlike other ponds, this was not being filled up with truckloads of soil. Over the years, some of those who had vested interests in the land began dumping garbage there at night,” said Niranjan Das, a resident of Jayshree More in Behala.
“Since the pond was surrounded by a boundary wall, it took us some time to realise the real motive behind converting it into a dumping yard,” Das said.
Residents of the area claimed the pond belonged to a family in the locality — the Sens — who have allegedly remained unfazed despite several appeals to restore it over one-and-a-half years.
“We sent several notices to the landlord informing them that the pond was being filled up and that it had to stop. After the landlord refused to respond to the notices, KMC decided to take over the pond a few months back,” said Sushanta Ghosh, local councillor.
“Chief minister Mamata Banerjee has always remained vocal against ponds being filled up. So we decided to restore this one,” Ghosh said.
Illegal filling up of ponds and water bodies has been a recurrent theme in the complaints reaching Kolkata mayor Firhad Hakim, over the last few months. The weekly Talk to Mayor sessions often has callers complaining about the alleged filling up of ponds in parts of Kasba, Garia and Baishnabghata despite the civic body deciding to put up notice boards in front of some of them declaring them water bodies.
A section of residents alleged that several ponds that existed in and around Behala and Sarsuna till the mid-90s have disappeared resulting in water logging in areas that did not witness inundation earlier.
“Parts of Jadu Colony, Jayashree, tram depot and number 14 bus stand in Behala used to be dotted with medium and small ponds, which have now disappeared,” said Subho Halder, a resident of the area.
“Only a few, including one in Jadu Colony and one in Nafar Das Road, could be saved. Hopefully we will have a third now.”
In May, Hakim had held a meeting with the civic bosses and Kolkata’s police commissioner and said police and engineers from the building department would be held accountable for the illegal filling up of water bodies.