Kolkata

Kolkata, formerly recognized as Calcutta, is the capital city of India's West Bengal state. It came into existence as a crucial trading post for the East India Company, but is now known for its brilliant colonial architecture and cultural festivals, as well as having religious significance in the form of the Mother House.

But the intrigue and fame of Kolkata is not what needs to be focused on, rather it should be the drastic reduction in the presence of water bodies in the city itself.

The region of Kolkata experienced a very intriguing and concerning phenomenon. The city that has close to 5,000 waterbodies has lost 44% within the last two decades, according to Mohit Ray, who is part of the environmentalist and human rights group Vasundhara. Around two and a half decades ago, according to Ray, the city had an astonishing 8,700 waterbodies, which then declined and was studied empirically.

According to India Water Portal, "Urban water bodies are a special group of surface water resource. A large number of people use these surface water sources for bathing, cleaning and other requirements. These include migrant labourers or the poorest people without any access to civic facilities. Many of these water bodies are used for pisciculture providing livelihood to hundreds of urban fishermen. These water bodies serve the purpose of open spaces in crowded urban localities. In many cases the banks of these water bodies are the only spaces for development of greenery."

Water bodies are an imperative resource for so many people, serving the needs of the greater urban population in a city like Kolkata. Their disappearance is all the more concerning when considering how integral they are to the society and the functionality of people living there. Not only do they aid in services and resources, they are also centers for societal and cultural activity.

Urbanization presents a danger to the existence of these water bodies, but it is not this alone that has had a severe impact on the environment in Kolkata. The mass migration of refugees from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) during the partition and directly following it meant a massive influx of people into the city and the low, marshy areas. This led to rapid expansion of the city as demand hour housing grew and as a result, the few open spaces Kolkata had filled up instantly. The water bodies were filled up, and with no laws or restrictions in place to control how people used them, the pollution and lack of care for the water's wellbeing led to an excuse to fill in the waterbodies instead of dealing with the pollution itself. This, combined with an overall negligence for the waterbodies themselves, resulted in the disappearance of hundreds of waterbodies throughout the city.

The lack of proper management of waterbodies makes it difficult for groups to trace the history back of the thousands of missing waterbodies in Kolkata. But this is not the only thing that is dangerous about the missing water bodies.

After the flooding in Chennai, many worried about whether or not Kolkata would be able to withstand the same severity of storm. The conversion of their canals into high-rises, parking lots and road extensions mean they lost valuable resources in combatting fierce weather patterns.

"Khal," or the old canal systems, performed their duty to the city as a drainage system for centuries, but many of these wastewater conduits are silted. Gully pits have been blocked, meaning the lag in time for the water to reach pumping stations leads to flooding on the surface is almost instantaneously in the event of massive rainfall. The lack of proper solid waste management in Kolkata, paired with the overburden of plastic, are two huge things to blame.

Saurabh Chakraborty, a member of the Paschim Banga Vigyan Manch, spoke on the issue in Kolkata. His group brought about a petition to save the waterbodies in the city, because if action is not taken, they believed the city faces an even worse threat than Chennai. While the concern dates back to 2015, it is still a relevant consideration in ensuring the safety of the city and its people.

Older maps of Kolkata (Calcutta) show a drastically more vibrant and diverse image of the land. When comparing the evolution of the map, it is clear how the presence of humans and the construction of buildings on top of water bodies or near them contributed to the phenomenon of "disappearing water bodies." Filling these resources in to accommodate new people and business resulted in almost half of their water bodies being gone completely, meaning less access to what it provides for the society as a whole.

Wetlands, swamps, and various canals formerly used as systems to protect the city have been reduced dramatically, all for the need of humans. Both the refugee migration population needing somewhere to live and the demand for buildings, as well as an overall lack of care for the water bodies has led to the depletion of thousands of resourceful water bodies, which needs to be taken into consideration and adjusted if the city is to protect itself from torrential rains.

Another element to consider the human impact in Kolkata is to analyze the Hooghly river more closely in the various maps. What was once a wild, untouched river is now viewed as an obstacle, with a major road going right over top of it. This plays into the discussions we have had about how we view water bodies and the consequential nature of human interaction and development.

On the other hand, below is a map of depicting the flow of the Ganges into the Bay of Bengal. There is no emphasis on the existence of borders and civilization, rather just a river in its natural form, depicting the flow into the larger water body. The way that water has been seen as a natural, beautiful thing versus now is jarring to see and understand.

Overall, the disappearance of the water bodies in Kolkata is an overwhelming situation. It endangers the livelihoods of people living there and also serves as its own historical study into understanding how the influx of people and urbanization paired with a lack of concern for the environment can end up biting back at mankind as they lose their natural protector.

https://scroll.in/article/765164/with-scant-attention-from-authorities-kolkatas-water-bodies-are-fast-disappearing

https://www.indiawaterportal.org/articles/water-bodies

https://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/vanishing-water-bodies-pushing-city-of-joy-to-tears-115121900011_1.html

https://zeenews.india.com/news/eco-news/kolkatas-waterbodies-lost-to-urbanisation_1615015.html

https://www.oldmapsonline.org/