Once river-fed, now cesspool

(Top) Hastings tank now (Bishwarup Dutta) and in 1984

Many tanks have vanished without trace from the face of Calcutta over the years. One such was the tank situated opposite Esplanade Mansion with Raj Bhavan in front. It was filled up to build Curzon Park. An ancient tank that had been drained of water some years ago, and whose cemented bowl has turned into a breeding ground of mosquitoes is located at Hastings on the south-west of Calcutta.

Hastings tank amidst Leonard Square was a river-fed waterbody, which maintained its level of seepage and evaporation loss with the ebb and flow of the tide of the Hooghly. 

The tank is mentioned in Thacker’s Directory of 1944 in the sections on Leonard Road and Middle Road. It is not known who Leonard was, but it is possible that he was Owen Leonard (1772-1848), a tutor at the Kidderpore Military Orphan School. It is mentioned as Tank Place in the PM Bagchi Street Directory of 1915.

Without water, the tank turned into a depressed playground where children used to play. The square was fenced with cast iron railings and trees and shrubs grew around its banks.

Back in 1983, an advertisement put out by the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) appeared in newspapers inviting tenders to develop the tank. But following a hue and cry, the plan to fill it up was scuttled. Early in this millennium, under a Calcutta Environment Improvement Project funded by the Asian Development Bank, the bowl of the tank was cemented.

The former local councillor as well as mayor-in-council, parks and gardens, CMC, Faiyaz Ahmed Khan, had proposed around 2000 that the empty tank be turned into a swimming pool, although it was too deep for that. But unless it is re-designed with all safety features in place and a water filtration plant installed, it will be a potential death trap and a health hazard. A changing room was built at one corner of the square and the original cast iron railings were replaced recently, although the earlier style was absolutely fine. But generating more work for the contractor increases the scope of lining one’s own pocket.

G.M. Kapur, state convenor, Intach, who lives on Chapel Road running alongside the tank, had written to the CMC in 2007, suggesting that it be turned into a reservoir for a rainwater harvesting project. But it lost impetus and it was not pursued further. And now it has turned into a cesspool.

Bilkis Begum, the current local councillor who belongs to the CPM, says the bowl of the tank has a “porous layer that just can’t hold water”. To set things right funding is required. But that will not be available till the new CMC budget is ready. Till then, malaria and dengue may plague the local people.