Filling up of wetlands: Awareness drive launched in Malda

Malda: The Land and Land Reforms (LLR) department in Malda has been playing an active role to stop illegal filling up of wetlands and changing the nature of such water bodies to conserve nature. The news brings enormous joy to the environmental activists and their associations and to the people in general also.

In Habibpur Block, for a first in the district, the department is distributing leaflets and putting up hoardings to make people aware against such illegal filling up of water bodies and that such act is strictly punishable. The officials are also asking everyone to inform the department against such activities for a quick response. On the other hand, the LLR department has also started the restoration of the Tiakati water body in Ward 13 of the English Bazar Municipality (EBM) area, more than half of which has been allegedly filled up.

Sapan Tarafdar, block land reforms officer (BLRO) Habibpur, along with other officials has been putting up notices which saying: “Under Section [4D] of the West Bengal Lands and Land Reforms Act, 1955 and Section [17A] of the West Bengal Inland Fisheries (Amendment) Act, 1993, filling of wetlands is a statutory offense and punishable with severe punishment” Leaflets bearing the same caution have also been distributed among people with an urge to inform the department at the earliest about such activities. The department in Habibpur has already stopped and restored 3 water bodies covering a land of almost 4 acres in total.

Tarafdar said: “We shall be taking the strictest action against any such person or agency involved in illegal filling up of waterbodies in the block. The people can directly inform me if they notice any irregularities.”

On the other hand, a JCB machine was employed on Friday morning in presence of Rajashri Manna, BLRO English Bazar and other officials to restore the Tiakati water body. It is an old wetland connected to the Mahananda River. ‘Sahakar’, a non-government organisation (NGO) and Paschim Banga Vigyan Mancha brought the matter to the notice of the district administration a few months ago. Manna said: “We notified the locals about the wetland in May but no steps were taken by anybody so the department engaged itself to restore the water body.” Rupak Debsharma, secretary of Sahakar, said: “We are very happy with such a positive step taken by the district administration. We thank all the officials involved in this initiative.”