Excursion to Nature Park

Anindita Das

A report on biodiversity done in Nature Park ,Taratala. Date:-07-06-2011 With sincere guidance of Dr.(Smt.)Senjuti Roy Mukherjee and Dr.Trijit Nanda. Thakurpukur Vivekanda College (Zoology Study Center) Kolkata- 700063

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Academic Excursion Report-2011

MSc-Part-I-Zoology Paper-IV Enrollment No: Roll: Registration No: No:

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CONTENT
Acknowledgement. Introduction. Purpose. Map of the Study Area. Composition of the Team. Tour Schedule. History of the Nature Park. Nature Park in recent time. Governmental approach in Nature Park. Biodiversity. The fisheries & Aquaculture. Ecotourism. Conclusion.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
On behalf of Zoology Department, Vivekananda College, we the students of Part I, M.Sc. visited the huge biodiversity of the Nature Park. We are very thankful to our teachers, especially to Dr.(Smt)Senjuti Roy Mukherjee & Dr. Trijit Nanda whose enthusiasm and proper guidance, every moment added a new dimension of spirit to our tour, I also thankful to my team members.

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INTRODUCTION
Practical knowledge is essential for theoretical studies. Concerning zoological aspect, the eco-system is the basic functional unit of ecology. Since, it concludes both the organism & each influencing the property of other by interaction and both are necessary for the maintenance of the life line of earth. So, traditionally University courses in Zoology have been dominated by lab-based studies through dissections, than field observations. It is universally admitted that the field study is the one of the most essential & valuable part of study to the students of this field. We, the students of Vivekananda College, Part I got the advantages during our excursion.

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PURPOSE
Our college arranged an educational tour to Nature Park to observe the Wetland Ecosystem along with natural habitat.

Now a days many animals are going to extinct due to many reasons. So, this tour helps us to gain knowledge

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about those species, their niche and their ecological importance. Our college had arranged an educational tour to Nature Park for observing the floral and faunal life and their diversity in natural habitat, which is impossible in our locality. Different types of mammalian, avian, crustaceans can be observed in their own habitat and characters like their flooding dwelling areas and inter relationship between them within this ecosystem. Fishery and waste water aquaculture and its management are also a remarkable output of this park and we learned many these about this project.

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MAP OF STUDY AREA

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COMPOSITION OF TEAM

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STUDENTS LIST
Sl No Name 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Suman Naskar Papiya Pati Suchandra Patra Bahni Das Tapasi Jana Pulama Ghosh Anindita Das Jhuma Saha Jhuma Das Sulagna Sen Subhendu Ghosh Nilakshi Sengupta Krishna Das Snehasish Mukherjee Haraprashad Naiya Debapriya Banerjee Tanushree Adhikari Jollly Sinha Binita Das Avijit Dey Sl No Name 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 Md.Samayan Shiladitya Biswas Amitabaha Dalal Sumana Dutta Subhra Ghosh Arpita Mondal Bilkis Begum Shreyasi Mondal Priyanka Manna Tanmoy Basak Tanushree Mondal Moumita Sarkar Udya Sankar Chakroborty Indrani Sinha Pinak Suvra Hazra Aparna Santra Animesh Ghosh Debnath Dutta Debasis Pal Amit Mondal

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21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

Koushik Das Sourav Dutta Suprana Mondal Arijit Banerjee Mrinmoy Das Subhankar Das Moumita Chawdhury Rupak Sen Antra Pal Krishendu Chakrobarty

51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60

Sourav Mondal Susmita Das Moumita Dutta Sarmila Sinha Sahini Chakroborty Aiswaraya Chatterjee Tanmoy Kundu Nasrin Nahar Manashi Mondal Sirsha Sircar

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DETAILS OF PROGRAMME
Date: Duration: Participants: 7th June, 2011 01 day

i) Teachers----2 ii) Students----60 Name of the teachers:Dr. (Smt)Senjuti Roy Mukherjee Dr.Trijit Nanda

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TOUR SCHEDULE
Date-07/06/2011
Time 9:30 AM Schedule Reporting at the Nature Park 1 CD was displayed regarding the Nature Park. Short description was given by Mr.Ashok Patra, Board of Director of the Society about Nature Park. Some questions answer is done there with him. Some photos have been taken. Tiffin Time. Discussion about Field Report. We visited the entire Park and observed different things within the park with a guide and also with our respectable Professors.

9:30 AM11:00 AM

11:00 AM 11:30AM 11:30AM12:00PM 12:00PM1:30PM

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HISTORY OF NATURE PARK

Mudialy fishermens co-operative society leased in from the Kolkata Port Trust. After leasing this unused marshy wetland from the KPT, the poor fishermen of the MFC cleared if of not only natural weeds but also of local anti socials and used it for waste water fisheries in the process cleaning the water and converting the wetland into Smiling Nature Park as it is known today. Rather it was imposing a negative externality by allowing it, on the one hand, to become a den of criminals to operate from this solitary place in the proximity of the dock area and to be flooded with polluted wastewater from the city and the local industrial complex and ultimately to be released to the sacred river called the Ganges.

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The present society is really the product of a long and determined struggled by a group of fishermen from and around the village of Amta migrates probably around 1932 when the Damodar River had dried up, to the wastelands near the Kolkata dock. Then a society is formed and in 1956 the society got the land on lease for 3 years. Soon, the members started working to remove the weeds and thus recovered the maximum possible water area of 72 hectares for fish culture. Unfortunately due to some disturbance of local administer the process of development was deprived and after a prolonged struggle and initial setback the members ultimately got the registration in 1961.

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NATURE PARK IN RECENT TIME

Nature Park is man-made greenery located in a densely populated area about 10 km south-west from the heart of Kolkata. It is based on 80 hectares of wetland.

Daily 70% of the average loading of sewage water comes from industries and the rest from house holds, which is passed through the first of a series of 8 pond termed as anaerobic tanks where water is treated as manually using either lime or biochemical water hyacinth is usually kept near this tank to facilitate the absorption of oil, gas and heavy metals. In the 2nd tank, water flows from the narrow space and in breeding ground for exotic fishes. These include omnivorous society like
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Tilapia,Singhi,Magur,Koi etc. Then the water flows into 3rd one and permitting better utilization recycled nutrients, mineral content, sewages for fish culture .At last it is attached with Hoogly River. There are 14 dominant types of fishes as fauna,prawns and crabs,3 snails,1 sponge and two snake fauna.moreover carp other zooplankton is also important. Beside growing or promoting fish and plants duck, tortoise is also visible. In the case of plant different types of alage,kachuri pana etc are special and some fruits trees like mango,guava,banana tree and some big trees like banyan tree is also available.

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THE GOVERNMENTAL APPROACH IN NATURE PARK

Members of MFCS are all fishermen by profession and 98% of them belong to the same caste. The society since its inception has an elected board of six directors. Since, 1984-85, the state govt. has placed CEO on deputation from the Fisheries Directorate, who acts as the government representative on the board and supervises the function of the society, besides imparting technical knowledge to the members. Other than the daily wage received by permanent and associate member ,they also receive bonus plus benefit of leave encashment(about 1/5th of 365 days)for working through out the year irrespective of weekends and holidays. Of this incentives 25% in paid in the form of cash and the rest in the form of either National Savings Certificates or Kisan Vikas Patra in the name of respective members. The objective is to promote thrift and self help among the members and also to free them the clutches of moneylenders and harmful habits. No wonder, this society has been given a special award by the District Magistrate, 24 Pgns for its big support to the small scale saving programme of the nation. First, the society has since 1965. The society started implementing the following long-term plans:-

1) Sending its members in rotation to the State Fishery Research Station to learn scientific fish culture. 2) De-weeding and de-shifting of tanks. 3) Intensive fish culture and scientific training with the help of its own laboratory for developing and balanced eco system.

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BIODIVERSITY
Biodiversity in the variation of life form within a given eco systems, biome or for the entire world and after it is used as a measure of the health of biological system. In Nature Park there are many kinds of species of animal kingdom like fishes, crustaceans, snakes and reptiles aquatic macrophytes, birds, arthropods and mammals. Floral diversity is also visible densely like coconut tree, date, palm tree, krishnochura, redhachura, banyan, tulsi, pudina etc are important. Some aquatic flora like kochuripana,topa pana,pata pana,kolmi dam etc are visible in wet land of Nature Park.

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Floral Diversity Krishnochura,Radhachura,Banana tree,Pantha Padap,Coconut, Banyan,Babla,Sal,Khejur,Jackfruit,Mango,Guava,Eucalyptus,Bamboo, Lichi,Pudina,Tamarind,Bakul,Kadam,Asfal,Rangan,Kolke,Basak,Tulsi,Cha tim,Ashok,Hatisur,Talakuch,Gandharaj,etc

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Faunal Diversity Birds-Turkey, peacock duck,hen, dove,badri,sparrow,parrot,cuckoo,kite,kingfisher, king crow, koel etc

Mammals-rabbit, chital, guinea pig, mole, rat, various type of snakes like jol dhora ,bali bora,laudoga,shakhamuti etc.

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Floral Chart
Fodder Plants Dust Abosorbing plant canopy tree Agri hoticultureral Plants 30 30 30

10

35

30
25 20 15 Series1 Series2

10
5 0 Fodder Plants Dust Abosorbing plant canopy tree Agri hoticultureral Plants

Distribution of Flora

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FISHERY AND AQUACLTURE

Fisheries in this country seem to have been a subject of neglect and even strong opposition from different quarters. First the religious sentiments have traditionally gone against this sector. Secondly the given sectors association with economically and socially backward community with the organizational power. Third one is the fisheries especially because by its association with brackish water aquaculture has attracted too much of worth of environment. So much, so that the entire banking sector had turned into blind to the need of the entire sector. Fishery is the most profitable business now days. They cultivate fish with fewer expenses and produce variety of fish. Some environmental fish or ecofriends like Tilapia,Magur,Koi are automatically very common in Nature Park. But like various types of carps are cultured here simultaneously. The fishermen cultivated fish by making artificial breeding in the H2O of purified tanks. So at the same time water in purified as well as fish cultivation is also done. Here jeol fishes (Koi,Magur,Singi etc. exotic fishes )carps (very economic fishes)prawn are cultured. Some other aquatic animals like crab,snail are also found which have economic value in the market.

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Subsiding fishery some small side business have grown up to support this culture like plantations, rearing of wild animals, construction of park, scale of sheep and goat, fishery training etc. These are under taken by the authorities.

Centering the core business (fishery) the peripheral business has grown day by day to enrich the Nature Park. Here a list of core and peripheral business is described. Core business 1) Sale of Fish 2) Order supply of fish 3) Sale of consumer goods

Peripheral business 1) Plantation 2) Rearing of wild animals 3) Sale of sheep and goats

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ECO TOURISM
Fishery of MFCS is the main structure of economy of Nature Park. After the fish culture, another way of earning is tourism in every biological park. Its biodiversity drag people here. Some local people & society have arranged special system for public visiting. The purpose is of course to earn money. Not only so, the park is garnishing with flowers, lake, some place for rest etc. Society also has arranged boating. The beautiful and peaceful area created where some open place to breadth is visible which is vanished from Kolkata in this era. Various people come here to spend a quality time with their relatives or partner or alone in this calm & quiet place. The local people specially, aged people also come here for relaxation. The songs of birds, fresh air, lake views, and the silence are only gathering people. The authority has placed very nominal money as an entry fee. So, simultaneously with aquaculture this park makes its own identity as a local tourists spot. Some people also come here for studying biodiversity too.

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CONCLUSION
Educational tour is conducted to provide the idea of field work to the student. Maintaining the biodiversity is an essential factor not only for human existence but also for the existence of animals and plants. Human intervention in the nature has destructed the ecosystem leading the entire life on the earth under threat. So development must be made keeping in mind the interest of the future generation which is referred as sustainable development. Tour to Nature Park has revealed to us that age old survival of mankind depends solely on the survival of plants and other animals.

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