Seven-member panel set up for upgradation of Rabindra Sarobar

KOLKATA: A seven-member committee has been set up to upgrade Rabindra Sarobar, the city's oldest artificial lake.

The committee is headed by Krishnendu Acharya, a professor of Botany Calcutta University.

The committee members visited Rabindra Sarobar recently to make an on-the spot study. They will suggest that kind of trees that will be planted. It has been decided that a medicinal plant garden and a butterfly garden will be set up.

Hundreds of morning walkers visit Rabindra Sarobar in the morning and evening. The committee will also recommend how better amenities can be provided to the morning walkers. There is a mosque in one of the islands. Bird watchers from across the city visit Rabindra Sarobar and take photographs of the rare birds.

Chandrima Bhattacharya, state minister for Urban Development and Municipal Affairs said steps had been taken to beautify and upgrade Rabindra Sarobar. The flora and fauna will be preserved. The trees will be planted as per recommendation of the committee.

Many trees of Rabindra Sarobar got uprooted and damaged by Amphan. Following recommendations of the experts, many trees that got damaged had been brought back to life.

In 1920 Calcutta Improvement Trust (now Kolkata Improvement Trust) took over 192 acres of marshy land. The excavation was done by Cecil Henry Bompass after whom a road in South Kolkata has been renamed. It was known as Dhakuria lake. It was named Rabindra Sarobar to pay homage to Tagore on his birth centenary in 1961.