"kidney of calcutta"These wetlands of India are under threat from urban expansion

Tapan Kumar Mandal, a veteran Bengali fish farmer who has spent his life in the wetlands east of Calcutta, is concerned about the urban pressure on this vital ecosystem for the Indian megacity, which is nicknamed: “the kidney of Calcutta”. “We are slowly destroying the environment”, the 71-year-old former fish farmer told AFP, adding that “the pressure exerted by the population, which today is greater than ever, damages the natural environment”. For more than a century, these wetlands, spanning 125 km2, have served as a “biological treatment plant” for the Indian agglomeration of 14 million inhabitants, due to the practice of fish farming.