Purbi Kolkata

Conflict around wetland use in West Bengal
Finding a balance between conservation and usage is key to solving conflicts between various stakeholders of wetlands in West Bengal. Posted on 01 Feb, 2018 07:56 PM

Lower Gangetic Plains of West Bengal is blessed with a variety of wetlands ranging from coastal and marine wetlands to inland freshwater lakes, dams and swamps as well as the constructed wetlands in irrigation schemes and sewerage treatment systems and also the mountain wetlands.

Increased demand for wetlands pose a threat to fisheries sector in West Bengal. (Source: IWP Flickr photos; photo for representation only)
Thermal power plants can now use more water
Policy matters this week Posted on 31 Oct, 2017 09:04 PM

Norms relaxed to allow thermal power plants to use more water

An NTPC thermal plant (Source: IWP Flickr Photos)
Why East Kolkata Wetlands needs to be protected
East Kolkata Wetlands that provides many ecosystem services needs to be preserved to meet the SDGs and to mitigate the effect of global warming. Posted on 17 Aug, 2017 12:27 PM

Increasingly in both academic and social sectors, sustainable development goals (SDGs) are being quoted often and set as targets.

Five-star hotels under construction backdrop the Dhapa vegetable patch.
Water in TN's reservoirs dips
News this week Posted on 04 Apr, 2017 05:58 AM

Just seven to eight percent water left in TN’s reservoirs

TN farmers in the midst of a crisis. (Source: IWP Flickr photos)
Panel clears hydel projects in Arunachal and J&K
News this week Posted on 27 Feb, 2017 04:18 PM

Arunachal’s Etalin and J&K’s Sawalkote hydel projects get clearance

Pristine Arunachal Pradesh. (Source: Wikimedia)
Wetlands in deep water
On the World Wetlands Day, save a thought for India’s Ramsar sites, most of them at various stages of deterioration. Posted on 02 Feb, 2017 11:14 AM

February 2 is observed as the World Wetlands Day. The day marks the date of adoption of the Convention on Wetlands in the Iranian city of Ramsar in 1971. This year, the theme of the World Wetlands Day is Wetlands for Disaster Risk Reduction.

Deepor Beel in Assam (Source: IWP Flickr photos)
Rs 2000 crore action plan to restore mining ravaged areas in Karnataka
News this week Posted on 09 Feb, 2015 01:54 PM

Karnataka sets up firm to mitigate mining impacts

Coal mines in Jharsuguda
Teachings of the East Calcutta Wetlands
A self-organising sewage management system where fish and vegetables are grown, the wetlands earlier known as the Salt Lakes, teach how to live creatively with nature. Posted on 07 Jul, 2014 04:06 PM

The East Calcutta Wetlands are an unappealing mixture of poverty, sunshine and wastewater. The people here have patiently and wisely transformed this ecosystem into an oportunity for food, employment and purified water- for free!

Ecology & Traditional Wetland Practice
Ingenious system to manage sewage in Kolkata
Fisher folk of the East Kolkata Wetlands use sewage from the city’s lakes to rear fish. Watch an interview of the person who popularized this system that the locals invented years ago. Posted on 11 Sep, 2013 08:48 PM

They take your pain and give you what you need. They will absorb the excess showers that our cities can’t handle and replenish water underground when our taps run dry. Often underestimated, these shallow water bodies are also home to countless life forms and serve as winter destinations for distant migratory birds. Blame me for being philosophical but I equate wetlands to mothers.

Fishermen use wastewater of Kolkata to rear fish
Threat of land subsidence in and around Kolkata City and East Kolkata Wetlands – A paper in Journal of Earth System Science
The groundwater of the cities and wetland areas should be developed cautiously based on the groundwater potential to minimize the threat of land subsidence, the report says. Posted on 18 Jul, 2011 07:33 PM

This paper in Journal of Earth System Science attempts to estimate the possible rate of land subsidence of Kolkata City including Salt Lake City and the adjoining East Kolkata Wetlands located at the lower part of the deltaic alluvial plain of South Bengal basin. Land subsidence is an environmental hazard which is caused by overdraft of groundwater or oil extraction and results in gradual settling or sudden sinking of the earth’s surface owing to subsurface movement of the materials of the earth. 

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