Saving the Civet

Residents of Kasba in south Kolkata are opposing the construction of a law college because it would interfere with the lifestyle of civets in the vicinity.

West Bengal is no stranger to agitations, but this one is still unusual. Residents of Kasba in south Kolkata are opposing the construction of a law college campus because it would interfere with the lifestyle of civets in the vicinity. The vacant plot, which has many trees, belongs to the college. A community of 50-strong civets lives on the top floor of a four-storied residential building near the college’s land. The four-legged mammals, which look like mongooses, hunt and play on the college’s land. The locals are fond of them, and when labourers started erecting a boundary wall around the college land, protests started. The locals complained to the forest department, which asked the college ( which has a campus in another part of the city), to rehabilitate the civets. But the college is in a fix—it doesn’t have any land with fruit trees where civets can be relocated. And purchasing such land would be an expensive proposition. So construction plans have had to be shelved.

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Jaideep Mazumdar