Troubled waters

KOLKATA: Rabindra Sarovar, or the Dhakuria Lake, was accorded the status of a national lake in 2003 after environmentalists shouted themselves hoarse against the abject biodegradation taking place at the green refuge. Eight years down the line, despite its hallowed status of being part of the National Lake Conservation Plan, and high court orders banning all kinds of polluting activity in the sprawling 192-acre complex, things are back to square one.
TOI took a walk on Monday morning around the "celebrated" lake complex which includes 119 acres of land and 73 acres of water only to find people bathing and washing merrily, branches of trees cut mercilessly and bushes and small trees torched at random. Plastic cups were strewn around some dumped in the water itself.
The clock seemed to have actually turned back to 1997 when Subhash Datta, representing the Howrah Ganatantrik Nagarik Samiti (HGNS), along with two other non-governmental organizations, Rabindra Sarovar Banchao Committee and Paribesh Dushan Rodh Committee, filed a petition in the green bench of Calcutta high court.
Those days, the lake was in real bad shape with slum-dwellers from Gobindapur polluting the water. In fact, Dutta had filed several PILs, starting 1991. The matter was finally disposed off after several suits in 2006. By then, the issue had reached the Supreme Court, which ordered the state government to clean the lake and its surroundings and maintain it following environment norms.
All that is now history. Among the glaring violations are the diesel-run speed boats, which are now having a free run in the waters. Sumita Banerjee of Lake Lovers' Association said: "All these years, no one dared run speed boats so openly in the lake. These boats, run on diesel, are a major source of pollution and are banned from plying on the lake under court orders. With the authorities looking the other way, this national property has become a hub for law-breakers. Eight clubs are situated inside the Sarovar complex. The authorities have put up notice boards specifying the rules, but no one cares to find out whether they are followed. All these clubs need to be censured."
The Bengal Rowing Club is among the oldest of these clubs almost heritage. Some of them have been in existence ever since Calcutta Improvement Trust (CIT) acquired the marshy jungles to create the Lake. In May, 1958, CIT (now KIT) christened it Rabindra Sarovar.
Soon after the Lake got its national status, an extensive boundary wall was constructed in the rear. But now it is periodically broken to make way for antisocial elements.
"Whatever happened to the government's elaborate plans for beautification of the Lake?" demanded Debjani Ghosh, a morning-walker. She was referring to the urban development department's ambitious plans in 2006 after which a lot of thought went into creating a Rs 50-crore picture-perfect green project for Rabindra Sarovar. It would have been India's first lake rejuvenation programme based on environmental conservation and global warming.
"Every other day, we have to run to the police, filing FIRs against torching of trees that are more then 100 years old. This place has become an anti-socials' den," Ghosh sighed.
Walking to the Rabindra Sarovar police outpost, TOI found a sole policeman who had just woken up. He asked us to speak to the "man-in-charge", sub-inspector S D Jha. But Jha refused comment. So did Sudhin Nandy, KIT's executive engineer and in-charge of Rabindra Sarovar. "We keep receiving complaints and try to act as much as it is possible," was all he would say.