[Reader-list] my belated posting02

[nilanjanb at 123india.com]

Posting 02
Beginning from the end: It’s literally like ‘beginning
from the end’! The final day is nearby. I mean the day
for the presentation there at sarai. Now only I have
realised that the months have actually gone by. I got
so habituated by downloading other’s postings and going
through those (I won’t request you to believe that I
have read all of those as I will be meeting you all
soon) that I forgot various aspects of self-concern!
Authenticity of this statement depends on your
interpretation. Naturally I won’t go for anything
‘absolute’. 
You know reader list has a major draw back. By giving
free of cost home deliveries of innovative research
findings, ideas, writings, debates, information, it
gives people like me, who has a serious block about
writing, the chances to relax.  Through out these
months I felt relaxed realising that so many
interesting works are going on and so many postings
.
So I thought let me take this opportunity to pacify my
‘writing skill’ and hide behind a bunch of brilliant
postings. 
But I have realised that this is no more possible.
Actually I have done a single posting, a brief
introduction of my project. I was on time then you
know! But that’s long back so I don’t have the courage
to request you all to excavate for that mini note.
Rather I begin my second posting introducing my project
work.

Urban Ecology Documentation/ Mapping 

The eastward expansion of the city is causing the fast
transformation of the semi rural and rural landscape
into highly urban settlements in the eastern fringe of
Calcutta. Kalikapur, a densely populated locality
inhabited mostly by the people from poorer economic
strata, a unique ecosystem with very rich mosaic of
original vegetation, with groves of indigenous trees
and bushes, swamps with reeds, and number of water
bodies, has strangely survived the onslaught and now
remains as a refuge threatened by the fast approaching
urban expansion.  A considerable number of Kalikapur
residents have significant dependence on the local
wilderness for their dietary supplements, fuel and
fodder. They, and particularly their children, are
quite knowledgeable about these available, ‘free’
resources, in the locality and also in adjacent urban
settlements. The proposed research was aimed to study
such indigenous knowledge, and the unique practice of
resource use and sharing, in a framework of
urban-semi-urban ecosystem. An outline ecological
mapping along with the ethnographic history of
Kalikapur region was being planned. There was another
objective- documentation of the urban transformation,
which is taking place in and around Kalikapur region. A
small group comprises of knowledgeable kids from
Kalikapur, and kids from the adjacent urban locality,
who have operational computer knowledge, would be
formed. Kalikapur kids will work as field guides and
the urban ones will guide the documentation (paper,
photographs, computer storage) mainly. A participatory
bio-resource documentation, and exchange of knowledge
and skill between these two groups would be actively
initiated. Documentation is to be done with the help of
various media forms like photographs, audio, video, 
sketches, and computer.

 
Beginning after the beginning:  Again, to begin with I
must say that I am fortunate enough to stay in such a
locality like Purba diganta which is adjacent to
Kalikapur. We built a house 17 years back and since
then I am staying there. That had actually enabled me
to observe the unique phenomenon like existence of
Kalikapur and the on going urban transformation in the
eastern fringe of the city Calcutta. 
When I started working on my project I thought that to
understand the unique existence of  Kalikapur it would
be important to study the development of East Calcutta
in the context of the growing up of Kolikata as a city.
Here is some reflections:
Calcutta is situated in the world’s largest, highly
dynamic delta of the Hoogly-Brahmaputra Rivers. The
location where the city is situated today used to be
mangrove swamps which was part of greater Sunderbans, a
few hundred years ago. Rural agricultural landscape
crept into this frontier once the delta matured above
the inter-tidal level. A vast area especially towards
the east remained under swamps originating from the
moribund courses of river channels. To begin with,
Calcutta grew along the east coast of the river Ganga
which defines the cities spatial limit west ward. When
the British arrived in India and set up Calcutta, most
part of the modern East Calcutta was covered with
salt-water marshes. These salt-water marshes were
between the River Hoogly to the west, and the
Bidyadhari River, now dry, to the east. The river
Bidhyadhari was one of main trade routes then, which
started silting up due to several human interventions.
In 1884 a drainage system was completed for directing
the city sewage into the salt water lakes in East
Calcutta and then finally into the Bay of Bengal
following the natural slope of the land towards the
south-east through the Bidyadhari and the Matla rivers.
  Excavation of several canals, construction of railway
lines, cross-damming, and land filling by dumping
city’s garbage took place which had actually expedited
the process of drying up. Ironically, in the year 1928
the Bidyadhari river was officially declared ‘dead’ by
the then Government of Bengal.
Much later around 1960’s reclamation of salt lakes
started taking place slowly. Originally the limit of
Calcutta Corporation was restricted to the eastern
railway zones up to Shealdah rail lines. The Beliaghata
area used to be called East Kolkata, but with the
inclusion of Tollygunj Municipality within the city
limits by 1961, the configuration of East Kolkata has
changed dramatically. In the 1980’s with the
construction of the Eastern Metropolitan By-pass the
process of urbanisation gained pace. East Kolkata in
the present context means an area from the Beliaghata
canal up to Garia point. At present East Kolkata
comprises 29 moujas under the jurisdiction of six
police stations viz. Tiljala, Salt Lake, Bhangor,
Kasba, Jadavpur and Purba Jadavpur. Since mid eighties
development projects gained momentum. Starting from a
huge stadium, business and office complexes, hotels, to
the residential complexes, amusement parks, and a film
institute, came up fast along the both sides of the
By-pass..
My study area Kalikapur, is a place along the western
side of the By-pass which still retains its almost
original rustic look. Purba diganta is a fully
urbanised area in the west of Kalikapur and both the
places are connected by a common road, one end of which
ultimately reaches the By-pass. While the residents of
Purba diganta are mostly urban middle class people, the
residents of Kalikapur are from the lower middle class
and the poorer sections of the society. May be due to
their close vicinities these places do share a
relationship among themselves. Which I found could also
be very significant to study along with our
documentation of selection of biodiverse patches of
vegetation in Kalikapur.