Table of Contents
Abstract 5
List of Figures 15
List of Tables 17
1. Introduction 19
1.1. Background and Context 20
1.1.1. Urbanization and Wetland Loss 21
1.1.2. Wetland Management Issues 22
1.1.3. Relevance of Community Participation in Wetland Management 33
2. Aims, Objectives, and Scope 35
3. Introduction to the Case: The East Kolkata Wetlands 39
3.1. East Kolkata Wetlands Management Authority (EKWMA) 44
3.1.1. Composition of the EKWMA 45
3.1.2. Evaluation of the EKW Management Action Plan 2021-2026 46
3.2. Human Interventions and Subsequent Transformation of the Wetlands 53
3.2.1. Colonial Period 53
3.2.2. Post-Colonial Conversion of the EKW: Reclamation for ‘Salt Lake’ Township 53
3.3. Contestations around the EKW: Power Play among Key Stakeholders and Allied Structures 54
3.3.1. City-based Civil Society Organizations and the State Government 55
3.3.2. Populism, Land Grabbing, and Disenfranchisement 56
4. Theoretical Framework 59
4.1. What do Urban Environmental Transformations entail? 59
4.2. Relevance of the State in the context of Urban Environmental Change and Associated Conflicts: The
Indian Perspective 61
4.3. NGOs as the Mediator between the Community at Stake and the Urban Local Government 66
5. Methodology 69
5.1. Selection of Stakeholders 70
5.2. Data Collection for the Empirical Study 72
5.3. Framework for Understanding the process of Participation 73
6. Analysis: Mapping of Conflicts through Fisher Groups 75
6.A. Organized Fishing (Cooperatives) 75
Case 1: Captain Bheri Fishermen’s Cooperative Society Ltd. 79
6.A.1. The Nexus between Institutional Frameworks, Government-Cooperative Society Negotiations,
and their respective Bargaining Power 83
6.A.1.1. Policy Bottlenecks: Entitlement Issues 83
6.A.1.2. Implementation Challenges 85
6.A.1.3. Planning Disputes 87
6.A.1.4. Perceptions of Co-workers and Conflicting Attitudes 89
6.B. Unorganized Fishing (Other than Cooperatives) 91
6.B.1. Case 2: Har Hare Bheri 93
6.B.2. Case 3: Saheb Mara Bheri 97
6.1. Dynamics of the Nexus between the Private Owner, the Bheri Manager and the Fishers 99
6.2. Intra Group Conflicts between the Unorganized Fishers 101
6.3. EKWMA Initiatives for Conflict Resolution 105
6.3.1. Legal Measures to check Encroachments 105
6.3.2. Building Awareness 107
6.3.3. Future Interventions for EKW Conservation 107
7. Discussion: 111
7.1. Differences between the Organized and the Unorganized Fishers 111
7.2. Identifying Spaces for Negotiations: Interlinkages between Government Agents, Party Union, and
Fisher Groups within the Context of Political Patronage and Community Participation 121
8. Conclusion 127
9. Bibliography 133