Learn From Chennai Poem by Asit Kumar Sanyal

Do you know East Kolkata wetlands
Which cover 12,500 hectors?
I know it
It has 400 hectors fish farms (bheris) within
Criss-crossed by a system of
Creeks and canals.

Kolkata Corporation has no STP
City's entire sewage
Flows through these canals
Purifying itself in the fish farms
That act as oxidation ponds
And drain out through the Kultigong river
Towards Sundarban forest.

The canals also absorb
city's monsoon storm water.
City's garbage also offloaded at nearby Dhapa
The wetlands considered as
A goose that gives golden eggs
The area yields 55,000 tons of vegetables,
10,500 tons of fish a year
And pumps in Kolkata markets.

Farming and recycling sustain
20,000 families directly
And 50,000 families indirectly
If wetlands are developed
And given to the builders
For making concrete jungle
What will be the future of 70,000 families?
How Kolkata will dispose off
the sewage and storm water?

If Kolkata faces paralysis and health hazards
like Chennai last year
Who will be responsible for it?
Whom to catch for killing the ecosystem?