Understanding the Discourses of Changing Urbanism from the Perspective of East Kolkata: A Study of the Wetlands

Urban studies are no longer looking only into the spatial structure and function of a built landscape. Urban centres of today can be assumed to be synonymous with thriving entities with unique personalities moulded by their cultural, social, political and economic organisations. In this context, the idea of “urbanism” becomes important because it has been accepted to have become “a way of life” where there has occurred an “aestheticization of everyday life”. In other words, cities are being planned in a manner that they represent an extension of the inhabitants’ lifestyles. Ideas of sustainability and meticulous planning have become go-to phrases whilst envisioning such urban set-ups. But what warrants investigation is whether such plans are inclusive in terms of ecological, economical as well as social rights of every inhabitant. This paper attempts to explore the above concerns attached to the modern city set-ups with hybrid ecology where the natural and the man-made are often placed in juxtaposition. For a city like Kolkata, which holds dear the ambitions of becoming a global city, land as a means of promoting development is very difficult to come by. The recent expansion of the urban built-up area into the adjoining farmlands, water bodies and ecologically sensitive areas has been identified to be the reasons that are pushing the city towards ecological distress. The paper will use the case of East Kolkata Wetlands in order to question the extent of sustainability of the recent developments surrounding the East Kolkata Wetlands and look not only into the ecological perspectives but more importantly engage with issues pertaining to livelihood security and equity.