Kapurthala admn begins clean up of Kanjli Wetland again

Aparna Banerji

Kapurthala, October 26

The Kapurthala administration has yet again started “kar sewa” at the Kanjli Wetland — Doaba’s only Ramsar site — to clean the wetland of water hyacinth.

Once home to a thriving forest, the wetland, which had begun attracting migratory birds in good numbers in winters till a few years ago, is currently choked with water hyacinth. Due to this, the site has failed to attract birds in recent years.

In a statement today, the Kapurthala administration said: “In a historic step, the cleanliness drive of Holy Bein has been launched today with ‘community participation’ at Kanjli Wetland by Rajya Sabha MP Balbir Singh Seechewal and Kapurthala Deputy Commissioner Vishesh Sarangal.”

However, locals were quick to ask what caused the once-clean Kanjli Wetland to choke in the first place. Even Seechewal, an environmentalist, is himself sceptical about some parts of the process.

He said, “The wetland had been cleaned but the hyacinth keeps coming back. Last year, Rs 5 crore had been earmarked for a project here. I don’t know what happened to that money. I only got involved in the clean-up exercise as we need to clean the wetland for the arrival of the migratory birds. The administration and the departments concerned need to do their jobs. This needs to be an annual exercise.”

The DC said, “It is a common concern for all of us that this is a Ramsar site which should be developed nicely. I also exhort everyone to clean the site and make it a community exercise.”