Old Mirrors Traditional Ponds of Kolkata

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Foreword This is no more required to emphasis the importance of environmental preservation in today's world. However new environmental components need to be highlighted and special care to be provided to preserve them. For last two decades the people of the city of Kolkata has carried out a spontaneous unique environmental movement to save the water bodies of this city. As a political activist and also as an elected representative, I had the occasion to take part in this movement to save and improve these water bodies. As I took charge as a member of Mayor-in-Council of Kolkata Municipal Corporation, I was given the responsibility of the Environment section, a new section in the Corporation. Though the arena of environmental action was not quite outlined in Corporation's books, I can humbly say that at least I could devote much of my endeavour to save and improve a number of water bodies in this city.

These activities brought me in touch with Dr. Mohit Ray, who has been studying the city's water bodies throughout the last decade as an environmental scientist and also is involved in public action to save these water bodies. He has unveiled a new chapter on these water bodies by finding out the rich history of a number of these water bodies in this city which forms an integral part of this city's narrative history. He first highlighted that the city has water bodies excavated several centuries ago and are still in regular use by common people. Through extensive exploration of several years, he also has made a list of old traditional ponds which needs to be preserved. Our Corporation has a list of official heritage buildings and in future, I hope the same status would be provided to these water bodies.

I think this study has started a new chapter in urban history. In future other cities and towns in the country will follow suit to find out their heritage ponds. This will be another new environmental movement. I am sure that Kolkata Municipal Corporation will try to preserve and improve these special water bodies in coming days. This exemplary book will be helpful to the environmentalists, city planners and the students of urban history.

Introduction This was a journey to understand my own self brought up in an area named Jheel Road, amidst a number of small and big water bodies, we somehow forgot their great caring touches for a longtime. Becoming a part of a community movement to save a water body of this crowded city, and subsequently more so, I could then try to understand these hundreds of ponds from a scientific and environmental perspective. During that study, roaming throughout the city from one pond to another, I could see the reflections in some of these ponds, bringing back memories of several hundreds of years. Besides their water quality, ecology, pisciculture I could also find old temples, fascinating stories and some tales of a magic reality. I then knew that these old mirrors have lot of thing to tell. Details of these tales are there in this book.

My personal research got a help when Sarai - Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), New Delhi provided me a fellowship in 2007 to complete this journey. CSDS is an independent institution under Indian Council of Social Science Research, Government of India.

However the publication could only see the light of the day due to other lovers of these much neglected urban ponds. Mr. Sushil Sharma, Mayor-in-Council (Environment) of Kolkata Municipal Corporation, has been active in saving these water bodies and is aptly supported by Mr Anindya Karfarma, Director General, Project Management Unit, KMC. I am greatly indebted to them for bringing out this volume as another step to generate awareness to protect our urban ponds. For this study my first acknowledgement goes to another Sarai fellow Ms Soma Ghosh. The research and field work was helped by Nilanjan Dutta, Dr. Purnendu Mandal, Dr. Protiva Mondal. My friend and eminent writer Sandip Bandyopadhyay went through some of the memoirs in Bengali to find out about these old ponds.

I also thank Ms Gouri Chatterjee, Mr Prokas Das, Mr Kamalesh Sengupta for providing support during the field studies. My special thanks go to Ms Mitali Roy and Ms Saswati Ghosh who went through the text and provided suggestions for improvement. I am also much indebted to Mr. Arup Mondal, Deputy Manager KMC, for corrections in the text.

I also take this opportunity to thank earnestly all the people who gave us interviews, provided valuable information and guided us to those ponds. Calcutta and Kolkata, both names of the city have been used in different references. The terms water body and pond have been used in the same meaning in the text. This work is only a beginning. I am sure more traditional ponds will be added to my list in the coming days. I also hope that other researchers and urban centres in the state and country will bring out such information to save our precious water resources.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages