The voluntary miracle of Santragachi Jheel
It’s a war that’s bringing in the birds. Nature activists have commenced hostilities against water hyacinth in Santragachi Jheel, one of the three winter destinations for migratory birds in southern West Bengal. Forty tonnes of hyacinth are being removed from the lake every day. And the birds have started coming home.
The forest department of West Bengal government did not have funds to clear the hyacinths this year. Nature activists feared that the birds might never come back and a citizen’s forum took over the cleanup initiative. “We were planting bird boxes in Southern Avenue on Sunday the 16th for activist Muder Patherya. When he pledged support for the project, we contacted the Chottodal Club, adjacent to the Jheel, the next day. The cleanup started on the 19th and 40 per cent of the lake has already been opened up,” says Arjan Basu Roy, part of the 12-member core committee of the project.
Basu Roy is a senior member of Nature-mate, a nature club registered in 2005. The project has roped in celebrities like cricketer Arun Lal, local industrial establishments and NGOs like ‘News’. “I threw 34 feet yesterday,” says birdwatcher and Nature-mates member Prasenjit Dawn raising his red nylon cord knotted to a brick. Like fishing baits, these bricks are hurled deep into hyacinth beds and pulled back to corner piles of plant stocks near the shore. A backhoe pay-loader provided by Quippo—a local engineering farm—waits at the edge to lift them to the ground. Companies manufacturing manure from hyacinth pick up the stacks from there. “We hired 25 workers who are experts in similar projects. They will build islands for the birds. Unlike the local whistling ducks that can sit on hyacinths, Himalayan species like Ferruginous Pochards, Garganey or Shovelers land only on clear water or well defined landmasses,” Dawn explains the whys of the cleanup.
Apart from the Santragachi project, Nature-mate has been involved in the Sundarbans tiger census and rescue operations of wild animals. Nature-mate, however, identifies itself as a group of butterfly enthusiasts, having initiated six butterfly gardens in Kolkata with financial assistance from the Forest Department, the biggest being in Central Park, Salt Lake. “We hope there’ll be a matrix of su ch gardens across Kolkata by 2015,” says Basu Roy. Nature-mate has also involved school children in their butterfly projects.