Photo Publication – IX

Click Your Township, Salt Lake, The Telegraph, Calcutta

Dated 17 May, 2013

Also see: Jane’s Walk of East Calcutta Wetlands

Click Your Township is a column in the Salt Lake supplement of The Telegraph where readers can exhibit there photography skills by clicking their township of Salt Lake and Newtown.

Three of my photos of wetlands beyond Salt Lake (Sec. V) was published in the Salt Lake supplement of The Telegraph dated 17 May, 2013.

Salt Lake, The Telegraph, 17 May 2013

The caption read “The best place to photograph stunning clouds is the wetland (bheri) behind sector V. With scattered white clouds creating a striking contrast against the deep blue sky, this is photographer’s heaven. The panoramic shot was shot from behind Godrej Waterside, combining eight shots horizontally. I used a Nikon D60with 18 – 55 mm lens and a Graduated Neutral Density filter. I am a mathematics teacher by profession and am attached with various management & IT institutes of Salt Lake on a part – time basis. I am also a travel writer with a passion for photography.”

East Calcutta Wetlands

A Photographers Heaven

Also see: Jane’s Walk 2013, East Calcutta Wetlands

“If the Maidan is the lungs of Calcutta, the East Calcutta Wetlands would be the kidney!”

Bonani Kakkar, Environment Activist

Godrej Waterside from East Calcutta Wetlands

Located on the eastern fringes of the city the East Calcutta Wetlands is an interesting mix of natural and man made water bodies interconnected by a complex network of canals. Covering an area of 125 square kilometers, the East Calcutta Wetland include salt marshes and salt meadows, as well as sewage farms and settling ponds and is the world’s largest wastewater fed aqua culture system.

The East Calcutta Wetlands provide a very cheap, efficient and eco-friendly system of solid waste and sewer treatment system for the city of Calcutta (Kolkata), hence

Sadly for majority of Calcuttans the East Calcutta wetlands is just a quick glance from the passing car window along the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass or a glimpses from the office window of Salt Lake (Sec. V).

I have been no stranger to the East Calcutta Wetlands (locally called bheri). For the last two decades I have been exploring the region through long walks and bicycle rides.

I still remember the long bicycle rides through the bheris taking me all the way from Salt Lake (Sec. V) to Chingrighata on the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass.

East Calcutta Wetland Panorama, with Salt Lake (Sec V) skyline (File Photo)

East Calcutta Wetlands is also a photographers’ heaven. It was also the place where I learned my basics of photography starting with a point and shoot film camera. It was also in the East Calcutta Wetlands I graduated to analog SlR and then to a DSLR.

East Calcutta Wetlands

It is also the place where I used to experiment with high end photography skills like HDR and panorama shooting.

These three photos published in the “Click your Township” column of the Salt Lake supplement of The Telegraph, Calcutta was shot on July 2012.

It was a Sunday and the monsoon was at its height, it rained heavily in the night and in the morning I rose of to see spectacular white feathery clouds against deep blue sky.

I at once packed my camera and headed for the East Calcutta Wetlands from my residence in Salt Lake. I soon made my way past the Godrej Waterside building deep inside the wetlands.

After about two hours I got my dream shots but not before covering about 4 km on foot. I returned exhausted but with a bag full of photographs, which took hours of processing in my computer.

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