E-commerce Expansion Engulfs Kolkata Wetlands Near Tragedy Zone
Just 50 meters from the devastating warehouse fire in Karimpur, which claimed numerous lives, the landscape tells a story of relentless urban transformation. Towering over the area is the Urbana condominium complex, and in its shadow, two massive sheds buzz with non-stop activity. These structures house three major e-commerce facilities serving customers across the city, positioned strategically to the west of the ill-fated godowns.
The Disappearing Wetlands
To the east lie what remains of the East Kolkata Wetlands, though they are now barely visible from ground level. A bird's-eye view is necessary to spot the shrinking water bodies in the distance. From such a vantage point, one can clearly see the aggressive spread of large steel sheds, which are rapidly consuming these ecologically vital wetlands.
Behind Urbana, a 1.5 square kilometer area—officially still part of the East Kolkata Wetlands but in reality just eastern Kolkata with wetlands buried under tonnes of earth—operates around the clock. This zone contains warehouses for every major e-commerce firm operating in Kolkata: Amazon, Flipkart, Big Basket, Blinkit, Swiggy Instamart, and others.
24/7 Operations and Gig Workforce
During daylight hours, hundreds of delivery partners stream into the area to collect orders before heading westward to deliver them to housing complexes and apartment blocks. Many facilities continue operations through the night as well.
When the Wow! Momo and adjacent Pushpanjali Decorators godowns erupted in flames early Monday morning, a few gig workers from the nearby Flipkart 'dark store' attempted to approach the scene. However, the intense heat forced them to retreat. Although these workers later learned about the recovery of nearly two dozen charred bodies from sheds similar to those they work in daily, they had little time to process the tragedy.
"We work nine hours a day and are constantly on the move," explained a delivery worker from the neighboring Flipkart dark store, who has been operating there for 1.5 years. "Some of us witnessed the fire. Nearly all of us inhaled the acrid smoke that lingered for an entire day. The deaths are tragic, but life must continue."
Rapid Warehouse Proliferation
The expansion shows no signs of slowing. Another Flipkart store is being constructed in the adjacent shed, which previously housed a Big Basket dark store for four months. A short distance away stands a Swiggy Instamart store that has been operating for 1.5 years, while the oldest facility in the area is a Zepto store established three years ago.
Numerous similar godowns cluster near the Meghnad Saha Institute of Technology. While some support e-commerce operations, over a dozen house vehicle service units. Beyond these lie scores of plywood warehouses. Merely 1 kilometer from the fire site, two new sheds are under construction on reclaimed bheris (fish farms), mirroring previous developments. Adjacent to them sits a recently reclaimed plot destined to become the next warehouse facility.
Transformation of the Landscape
"This entire area consisted of bheris and farms just five years ago," recounted a local fisherman who lost his livelihood when the bheri he worked in vanished. "Then the pandemic arrived. With wetlands monitoring effectively suspended, deals were struck, and bheris were filled in. The pandemic-fueled e-commerce boom created a ready market, and warehouses sprouted everywhere. Now, the growth has taken on monstrous proportions, threatening to completely devour the East Kolkata Wetlands."
His son now works as a gig worker in one of the warehouses that emerged on what was once their fishing ground, symbolizing the area's dramatic economic and environmental shift.
