Chote Lal, a longtime resident of Khichripur in East Delhi, recalls, “Around 15 years ago, a talab (pond) existed here.” Once a vital lifeline for the village, this talab was where residents gathered to bathe and collect rainfall to sustain the community, while children played across a landscape free of concrete.

Today, that landscape has vanished, replaced by a Kendriya Vidyalaya and a School of Excellence, both government schools. Only a small portion of the original water body remains, now choked with water hyacinth and reduced to a garbage dump. 

Chote Lal and fellow resident Ram Chand, who moved to the area in 1976, further recall how the landscape has changed over the decades. 

“Cattle used to drink from this talab,” they explained, speaking to Newslaundry. “While this wetland wasn’t vital for us, it was for the villagers who lived here before our arrival. There was always water here, but the government eventually filled it in with soil to create land for the two schools and the road to a nearby residential colony.”

What was once a pond is now a garbage dump at Khichripur. (Image courtesy Akankhya Rout)

Environmental activist Anand Arya remarked, “These 2.25 hectares (covering the erstwhile talab) were granted protection by the Supreme Court in 2017, in a case where I intervened. The court ordered that such wetlands must be protected. On December 11, 2024, it gave directions to state authorities like the State Wetland Authority – the nodal agency under the Delhi government responsible for the city's wetlands – to demarcate all wetlands and conduct ground-truthing (site visits to verify their existence). To identify wetlands, some surrounding areas were also marked as ‘zones of influence’ from where water flows into the wetlands. But I am not sure if digital demarcation has been done correctly.”

In the Supreme Court case, Anand Arya vs Union of India, advocate Jayant Bhushan, appearing on behalf of the petitioner, stated in December 2024 that Delhi has achieved only 20 percent wetland boundary demarcation........

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