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Kolkata air pollution
Kolkata is the most polluted metropolitan city in the country and is around 2.5 times more dangerous than the capital city of Delhi.
Mumbai is the second most polluted metro and Chennai a much safer fourth. Delhi ranks third while among all areas of the country, Vadodara is the
safest city to live in. According to statistics released by the Scientific and Environmental Researach Institute, quoting government figures, Kolkata had a suspended
paritculate matter (SPM), the measure of pollution, at a steep 511 compared to Delhi's 234 and Mumbai's 322.
Kolkata has upstaged Delhi as the air pollution capital of India,
accounting for more deaths due to lung cancer and heart attack than the capital
city. More than 18 persons per one lakh people in Kolkata fall victim to lung cancer
every year compared to the next highest 13 per one lakh in Delhi, according to
environmental scientist and advisor of Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute (CNCI), Twisha Lahiri.
Not only lung cancer, cases of heart attack were also rising fast in the Eastern
metropolis, Lahiri said quoting a six-year survey conducted by the cancer
institute. She said incidents of heart attack were occurring more frequently in the city.
CNCI scientists maintain that more than seven in 10 people here suffer from
various kinds of respiratory disorder, including children as well as elderly
people. Lahiri said roadside hawkers, shopowners, traffic policemen, auto-rickshaw
drivers, rickshaw-pullers and others who spend long hours on the road were the
most vulnerable. Children mainly suffer from breathing difficulties like asthma while elderly
people are victims of lung cancer, the scientists said.
High court directive on autorickshaws
The landmark high court directive on autorickshaws has finally led to the first step towards a pollution-free
Kolkata. It might not clean the city's air in one stroke, but it is sure to reduce pollution
significantly. Vehicles older than 15 years emit 20 times more fumes than new ones. They have been asked to withdraw by June 30. The
court directed that all auto-rickshaws, irrespective of their date of registration, will have to convert to either compressed natural gas
(CNG) or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).
Autos are believed to be worse. While an ADB study pegged their
contribution to total pollution load at 30%, a high court-appointed expert committee had recommended their phaseout in 2005.
Withdrawing autos can lower pollution more dramatically in a city like Mumbai than
Kolkata. The HC verdict will help the people of Kolkata to breath fresh again.
To
protect Victoria Memorial
Environmentalist Subhas Dutta on Monday,
June 10, 2008 filed a petition in Calcutta High Court, alleging that the state government had failed to carry out court orders to protect the Victoria
Memorial Hall from pollution. The order, passed on September 28 last year by a division bench, had asked the government to follow
certain guidelines to cut down on the pollution level around the monument.
“The court had directed the state government to shift the Esplanade bus terminus to a site at least three km away from the Memorial within six months. No action has yet
been taken in this regard,’’ said Dutta.
The West Bengal government issued the notification on March 28, 2008 acting on a six-month
old High Court Order. The order was the concern of High Court that the relic of the Raj (Victoria Memorial) needs to be protected from
the defacing fumes that tandoors and barbecues emit. Hotels and restaurants within a three-kilometers radius of Victoria Memorial
can no longer use the charcoal fired ovens to barbecue meat and fish or cook tandoori food. |
Howarh Bridge over Hooghly
river.
Polluting two-stroke vehicles
In Kolkata
Victoria Memorial
The Calcutta High court had directed the state government to shift the Esplanade bus terminus to a site at least three km away from the Memorial within six months. |
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Study of air Pollution in city.
An ongoing global air pollution study by the Us-based National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has found that carbon monoxide emitted by cars combine with nitrogen dioxide present in
the city atmosphere to cause serious damage to human lungs.
The research being carried out by the Ultra Violet Remote Sensing Group under the atmospheric chemistry department of
Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Center, has also reveled that the bulk
of Kolkata's dust particles come from West Asia and the neighboring regions.
The study in its first phase, is being conducted with
the help of Ozone Monitoring Instrument, a satellite recording images of air pollution across the globe. "The image
recorded before monsoon confirm that the dust particle in Calcutta and other parts of Gangetic valley are blown in from outside,"
explained Pawan Kumar Bhartia, in charge of the project. "We are in talks with Indian Space Research Organisation and other
Indian research institutes for studies on the ground and sea level.Investigation into India's air pollution is a complex process, as
the direction of air flow changes through the year."
Thick layer of
ozone over Kolkata has flown in from outside," said Nasa scientist.
The satellite images show presence of layers of nitrogen dioxide and aerosols in the city's
atmosphere, Nitrogen dioxide, in the presence of sunlight, forms ozone, which is extremely harmful for crops and lungs. While
nitrogen dioxide cannot move from one place to another, ozone flows to other areas. "It is to be seen how much of the thick layer
of ozone over Kolkata has flown in from outside," said Nasa scientist. The aerosol consists of solid dust particles and
sulphuric acid. "The dust particles are blown over the northern part of India to Kolkata before they move south towards Bay of
Bengal," added Bhartia. According to him, dust particles can travel 700 to 800 km in a day, which means they will take only a
couple of days to travel from Delhi to Kolkata.
Air pollution suffocates Kolkata
Some 70% of people in the city of Kolkata suffer from respiratory disorders caused by air pollution, a
recent study by a prominent cancer institute in India has concluded. Ailments include lung cancer, breathing difficulties and
asthma, caused by air pollution, the Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute
(CNCI) study says. The CNCI is one of India's foremost research bodies, and its investigation took six years to complete.
One of its key findings was a direct link between air pollution among the 18m people of
Kolkata and the high incidence of lung cancer. Kolkata tops all Indian cities when it comes to lung cancer - at 18.4 cases
per 100,000 people - far ahead of Delhi at 13.34 cases per 100,000.
The fuel of auto rickshaws is bad for air quality. The city's highly polluted air is leading to the growing number of lung cancer patients,"
says Twisha Lahiri, who conducted the CNCI study with five other researchers. The ideal count of Suspended Particulate Matter
(SPM) and Respiratory Particulate Matter (RPM) should not exceed 140 and 60 respectively.
Kolkata's air pollution results from
the horribly high levels of auto emissions.
(Burbon Road, Kolkata, packed all
the time with mini -buses and buses. )
But
Kolkata's average SPM count is 211 and RPM count is 105. And in the worst polluted traffic intersections, this count can be double the city's average during busy hours.
"Kolkata's air pollution results from the horribly high levels of auto emissions which the authorities have failed to control so far.
If this is not checked with a heavy hand, the impact on the health of Kolkatan's, particularly children, will be devastating," says city doctor Parthasarthi
Dutta. Street side occupants - particularly the hawkers who sell stuff - are the worst sufferers , the CNCI study says.
It says that 79% of hawkers who spend a long time outdoors have suffered damaged lungs.
The worst offenders are around 50,000 auto rickshaws - half of them unregistered - who use
"kantatel". This is a fuel made out of a deadly concoction of kerosene and petrol.
"The toxic fumes released by them pollutes the city's air more than anything else, but no one can touch the
auto- rickshaws because they have powerful trade unions," says environmentalist Subhas
Dutta. "It again becomes an employment issue," he said.
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In Kolkata 85% vehicles flout emission norms
Only one in every six vehicles in the city get the emission tested. The rest give a damn. Till December 2008, around 14 lakh vehicles were registered in the city.
All of these vehicles 9.5 lakh private and 4.5 lakh commercial were required to get the tailpipe emission tested twice a year.
In 1989, a nexus between transport
officials, operators and police has ensured that polluting vehicles
continue to ply on Kolkata's roads unchecked and uninhibited.
Faced with a scrap order for commercial vehicles that are over 15 years old, bus and taxi operators have threatened to launch an agitation from
July 24, 2009. But none have an answer to why their vehicles have continued to flout norms and ply without proper emission tests.
Incidentally, emission test centres had upgraded to advanced multi-gas analysers at an investment of Rs 5.5-6 lakh each in
2004-05 following a high court order on the curb pollution issue. But with most vehicles failing to report for tests and continuing
to ply on city roads unchecked, the court took up the pollution issue again, leading to the fresh scrap order that
operators are now finding unpalatable.
Asian brown cloud has robbed West Bengal of winter
Environmental experts feel a blanket of pollutants in the air, called the Asian Brown Cloud, could be
responsible for the climate change. "For the past few years we have not been experiencing winter in West
Bengal. This environmental change is caused by the formation of the Asian Brown Cloud," environmentalist Pranabesh Sanyal, who is also a member of the World Conservation
Union said. "The cloud has been formed due to increasing automobile pollution in the air, carbon soot (or particulate carbon) and chemicals used in the agriculture sector."
According to Sanyal, the Asian Brown Cloud is the main reason behind the apparent climate
change in India. "It's also causing delayed winter and absence of chill factor in West Bengal."
"Massive use of inorganic fertilisers and automobile byproducts lead to nitrous oxide emission in the air.
This has caused the formation of an atmospheric brownish haze layer over a vast portion of South Asia," he said.
Polluted waters of the Ganges River after the immersion of Durga idols
The Hooghly river was left so polluted after the first day of immersions that millions of fish and aquatic plants have
been massacred, and anyone who went into the water faced the danger of falling severely ill due to zinc and heavy metal poisoning.
The River Pollution Control Act categorically prohibits idol immersions in the river. Kolkata Municipal Corporation
also claiming to protect the Hooghly from pollution caused by immersions. Yet, all this has come to a naught.
Samples of water collected showed that dissolved oxygen had dipped to 2.1 mg per litre while the desired level is at least 5 mg per
litre. This is dangerous level as aquatic life cannot survive in such low oxygen content in water.
The volume of solid suspended matter as well as oil and grease in water were also alarmingly high.
The content of solid suspended matter in the water like zinc, aluminium and lead can affect those who bathe in the water leave alone those who drink
it,” said S M Ghosh of EMG.
This year (2011) Kolkata civic body is planning to offer Durga puja organisers the
option of melting the idols with jets of Ganga water instead of consigning them to the river, drawing inspiration from an
environment-friendly immersion process followed by Naihati Kali
pujas. In the proposed process, the melting of idols, after completion of the
religious rituals, symbolises immersion. "We want to introduce the wash-melt process, at least at Babughat, after
Durga Puja. Discussions are on with the fire services. The puja organisers will have the option of choosing this process or going for
the conventional one," said Debasish Kumar, mayoral council member (parks and garden) in first week of August 2011
Pollution due to illegal tanneries
The stench of hides being sun-dried and the odour of tanned leather hangs in the air
by the illegal tanneries that line the nearby railway tracks. The Supreme Court had in April 2002 mandated that all tanneries must move to CLC
by October that year. Yet, some 250-odd tanneries continue to operate in the
city, according to Paresh Rajda, a leading glove exporter based in Kolkata and
the eastern regional chairman of the Council for Leather Exports, a trade body sponsored by the Union ministry of commerce and industry.
“Of the almost 500 leather goods manufacturers in Kolkata...only 112 have bought
plots in the CLC and of them only about 10-odd have started some form of
construction,” says Rajda. Kolkata’s leather goods manufacturers suffered a major setback because they were
heavily dependent on exports. “Almost 95% of India’s leather glove exports and
60% of the leather goods exports originate in and around Calcutta,” adds
Rajda. The West Bengal Pollution Control Board claims to have forcibly closed 72 leather units over the past couple of months.
Survey report by CII
The Confederation of Indian Industry (northern region) recent
survey, which has dug deep into publicly available data, highlights several weaknesses of Kolkata in comparison with the other
cities while ranking it fifth among five metros. “The objective of the study is to prompt the authorities to do some soul-searching on how to do better in each parameter,”
said Amit Kapoor, the chairman of the Institute of Competitiveness, a CII arm. The study, based on data from sources like CMIE and
CSO, considered eight broad parameters to arrive at the best Indian city to live in.The parameters are demography, education, health, safety, housing, socio-cultural
and political environment, economic environment and planned environment.
A rank behind growth centres in other parts of the country may not come as a surprise to the victims of
inadequate civic amenities, disruptive politics, poor traffic management and rising pollution, but the survey has also challenged several myths about
Kolkata. In education, the study reveals high dropout in schools, which comes as an embarrassment for the Left
government. The city’s rank of 16th in “education level distribution” — an education sub-parameter tracking enrolment in higher studies — would deal another blow to
Kolkata’s image of being the country’s intellectual capital. The performance in health is a mixed bag, with
Kolkata ranking 24th for availability of hospital beds and doctors but first in vaccination, life expectancy at birth and infant mortality rate.
Kolkata tops lung cancer find
Poison in the air and love for the puff have made Calcutta the lung
cancer capital of India. A study has revealed that in 2007 Calcutta had
topped the metros in new lung cancer cases. The comparative study on lung cancer is part of the National Cancer
Registry Programme conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research.
In Calcutta, Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute (CNCI) is one of the host institutes of the programme.
The study found that Delhi had the highest number of new lung cancer
patients in 2005 ? 13.5 per one lakh people. The national capital was
followed by Chennai (12.4) and Calcutta (11.9). But in 2006-07, Calcutta
topped the list with 14.9 cases per one lakh people. "The data collected in 2008 reveal an 11.09 per cent increase in new
cases compared with the previous year. We fear Calcutta is still on top
of the list," said Karabi Dutta, the head of the department of epidemiology and bio-statistics at
CNCI. ?Air pollution is the major cause, followed by smoking, for the sharp
rise in lung cancer cases in the city,? said CNCI director Joydip Biswas.
Green body in bid to encourage biofuel use
The state government has, so far,
failed to check auto-emission and air pollution due to excessive use of fuels. Instead, both auto-emission and air pollution are on the rise in the city.
A concerned West Bengal Green Energy Development Corporation Limited
(WBGEDCL) is now planning to introduce special concessions for those who use vehicles that run on biofuels and biodiesel. The move, they believe, will reduce the use of petrol and diesel and cut down on pollution.
Kolkata cycle rally promotes environment awareness
Hundreds of cyclists took to the streets
on 2009 in a cycle rally organized with an aim to promote environmental awareness.
The rally was organized by the state-run oil refinery, the Indian Oil Corporation.
"We want to spread awareness amongst the people regarding the global warming, the
environmental friendly attitude, what we need and how we can protect the environment, why should you protect the
environment, all these points we are taking through this walk and this rally," said Aloke Kumar Singh, Indian Oil spokesperson.
The cyclists included participants young and old.
Kolkata Map
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An alternative to environmental hazard
A group of youths under the banner of Kolkata Social Wave encourages
people to shun the use of plastic and adopt alternative materials. The group has taken up a two-pronged approach: dissuade people from
using plastic of less than 40 microns and secondly train and employ marginalised people to come up with alternative materials.
The group, which is run by several youths including Anibrata Parmanik,
Priyanka Nandi, Atashi Ghosh, Somchandra Gupta and Rajnish Tiwari, is
trying to promote the use of custom- made 100 per cent organic paper and
cotton bags as an effective alternative to plastic bags.
City schools to fight global warming
The Apeejay School whose hundreds of youngsters, ranging from age five to 18,
trooped into the Park Street campus on Friday morning, faces covered in anti-pollution masks.
“It is part of our school uniform now. It will protect us from the pollution that is killing the children of
Kolkata,” said a student.
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