‘Incentive to locals should help protect East Kolkata wetlands from land sharks’ – Times of India

KOLKATA: Naturalists and wetland conservationists hope the Amrit Dharohar scheme will help incentivise locals to protect East Kolkata Wetlands and prevent sell-out of bheris or fish farms to land sharks. Bengal has the third highest number of wetlands (1,327) and the highest number of small wetlands (1,38,707).
Apart from the Ramsar site to the east of Kolkata, there are five other major wetlands under the National Wetlands Conservation Programme: the Sundarbans, Ahiron Beel, Rasik Beel, Santragachi Jheel and Patlakhawa-Rasomati.

After Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh, Bengal has the third highest wetlands in India. The Amrit Dharohar would encourage optimal use of wetlands and enhance biodiversity, carbon stock, eco-tourism and income generations for local communities, said FM Nirmala Sithraman.
Bonani Kakkar, founder of environment action group PUBLIC, told TOI while the wetlands had been recognised as Ramsar site for its wise use-it acts a natural sewage treatment for Kolkata and produces much of the city’s fish and vegetable requirement -it was being destroyed by land sharks. “The move to promote the unique conservation values of the wetlands is welcome. If properly implemented, it can be a huge help in wetland conservation as 70% of the wetlands have been lost,” she said.
The three-year Amrit Dharohar scheme proposes to encourage the optimal use of wetlands, and enhance biodiversity, carbon stock, eco-tourism opportunities and income generation for local communities.
Calling for the need to explain the function of tourism by setting up an eco-friendly interpretation centre, Kakkar said promotion of eco-tourism was an integral part of the wetland mandate but it needed to be done in a manner that it did not negatively impact its biodiversity or character. “The most important is that the initiatives should benefit local communities. Only then can they conserve the wetlands,” she said.
Dhruba Das Gupta, wetlands researcher and project fellow, IIEST, Shibpur, also felt the Amrit Dharohar proposal was a welcome step to allocate for wetland conservation but stressed the need to make clear administrative decisions regarding roles and responsibilities of the Centre and the states, and wise use of resources after proper prioritisation of tasks. “
We have to ensure the fragile wetland and mangrove ecosystems are not built over in the name of promoting ecotourism. Taking the local community into confidence during planning stages will be crucial to ensure optimal effectiveness,” she added.