<b>Subir Roy:</b> Kolkata wetlands an endangered species

The reality on the ground is that the wetlands are slowly and steadily disappearing

The east Kolkata wetlands, the biggest ecological asset of the city and a Ramsar site, are on their deathbed. A political heavyweight has been appointed as de facto undertaker to do the last rites, so to speak.  

A Ramsar site is a wetland (shallow waters) which is designated to be of international importance under the Convention on Wetlands, an intergovernmental environmental treaty established nearly 50 years ago (1971), by Unesco. (It came into force in 1975 and takes its name from Ramsar, the Iranian city where the convention was adopted.) A city should consider itself lucky to have such