Sustainabots for preserving East Kolkata Wetlands

Sustainability is the avoidance of depletion of natural resources in order to maintain an ecological balance.  Our students decided to work on the East Kolkata Wetlands. It is an outstanding example of sustainability. It uses nothing from humans and is a completely natural process and we must save the East Kolkata Wetlands.
Although providing wide number of benefits, the wetland is suffering from various crises which in turn adversely affect the livelihood of the community dependent on the Ecosystem Services of the wetland.
  1. Loss of livelihood for fishermen of wetlands: This is due to the variation in pH of water in the ponds. The variation in acidity & alkalinity is due to the variation in incoming municipal waste.

  1. Industrial waste dumped along with municipal waste: To assess the level of contamination by industrial waste there has to be a reliable source of sampling and assessment of incoming waste water.

  1. Encroachment of land, Siltation of fishponds and canals and Heavy metal contamination.




Of the problems faced by EKW we have chosen the following two problems:

  1. PROBLEM: Loss of livelihood for fishermen of wetlands

SOLUTION – ROBOT 2: We have created a floating robot that can analyse the pH levels of the water from the ponds. Based on the pH levels of the water it can react accordingly by dropping neutralizing agents in the water to maintain the pH levels.


  1. PROBLEM: Industrial waste dumped along with municipal waste