Kolkata was more polluted than Delhi on some days. But where’s the noise?

Delhi government at least seems to be trying to deal with air pollution. In Kolkata, little is being done to control the menace. Guidelines are followed more in the breach than observance.

Representational image showing aerial view of residential and commercial building in Kolkata, India | Reuters

I went to work at Victoria Memorial on Saturday afternoon and had to stand at the north gate of Kolkata’s most famous landmark for about 45 minutes. It left me gasping, gagging and gargling for a whole week. So toxic were the fumes spewed out by vehicles that zipped past — only private cars, taxis and two wheelers, mind you, not the usual suspects like autos, goods vehicles, and buses — the air was unbreathable. While we watched New Delhi’s air quality index plummet, what we in Kolkata missed is that this city is playing catch up and on some days this winter, its PM 2.5 count beat Delhi.

Poor, unhealthy, hazardous: that’s been the status of Kolkata’s air quality most of this winter. Yet, there has been a deathly silence from the political class on an issue that is fast becoming a matter of life and death. No pretence, even, of trying to tackle the problem. If you can name West Bengal’s environment minister without Google’s help, you deserve a prize. The Delhi government at least seems aware of the problem, appears to be trying to deal with air pollution, and has taken steps like odd-even cars and shutting schools on occasion. In Kolkata, nothing.

Data is out

India’s diesel capital—that’s what Kolkata was called after a 2016 study by the Centre of Science and Environment found that 65 per cent of new cars and 95 per cent of commercial vehicles in Kolkata ran on diesel, which has a higher carbon content and whose emissions trap more heat than other fuels. In short, diesel kills.

Yet, Kolkata remains one of the few metros in the country without any significant supply of CNG. As of December 2022, West Bengal had 46 CNG stations while New Delhi had 470. Bengal Gas, the company responsible for bringing CNG to the state, says in its latest annual report that it has increased the number of CNG stations in the last fiscal to 12 and plans to add another 10 by March 2024. Last year, it laid 55 km of pipelines to transport gas and has targeted another 125 km this fiscal. Vastly inadequate.

Auto rickshaws in the city have mostly switched to LPG but monitoring on the outskirts is poor. Waste burning and construction are two other factors worsening air pollution in Kolkata, say environmental activists. But little is being done to control the menace. Guidelines are followed more in the breach than observance.

What is worrying environmental activists is that data on Kolkata’s air pollution may be open to question. While Delhi has 37 monitoring stations, for instance, Kolkata has only seven. Of those, three are located in the greenest spots in the city: at Fort William, Rabindra Sarobar (which is the open expanse of Dhakuria Lakes), and Victoria Memorial. When data from all seven stations is averaged, the numbers look rosier than things really may be. Doubts are exacerbated, they say, when surface monitoring data is compared to data from satellite monitoring.

Numerous studies show air pollution is directly impacting the health of citizens. One out of every four persons in the city has reported upper respiratory distress this winter. Teenagers and senior citizens were identified as worst affected by this study. There has, according to reports, been a rise in the incidence of asthma among pre-teenagers who have no family history of the problem.

Levels of PM 2.5 are soaring to dangerous levels. The most toxic pollutant that can penetrate deep into the lungs, PM 2.5 levels in the city was about 92 micrograms per cubic metre in the last week of December while the country’s permissible limit is 60 micrograms per cubic metre.

Still no urgency

Doctors are calling for greater awareness, preventive steps and precautions. But like the government, citizens are largely silent. Helpless, perhaps. Pollution control is something politicians have to push but the absence of political will is startling, given that politicians, too, are breathing the same noxious air as you and I.

Environmental activists are at their wits end. Politicians are the real polluters, says Jayanta Basu, who writes widely on the issue. They can do a lot but have chosen to do nothing. Basu was at COP28 in Dubai and didn’t know whether to celebrate or lament the fact that Kolkata featured in the conversations and studies and discussions on climate change. That’s the point that politicians and people are missing, he argues. You can’t decouple pollution from climate change, which is set to badly impact Kolkata in the coming years.

Subhash Dutta, another activist who famously began his career decades ago by romping on all fours down an arterial road dressed as a tiger to protest one issue or the other, also laments the role of courts, which he says have become less proactive than in the past in all green matters.

The environment has become an orphan, he laments.

If Kolkata residents would just go stand outside Victoria Memorial on a smoggy winter afternoon and then go breathless for a whole week, maybe the environment will find a home.

The author is a senior journalist based in Kolkata. She tweets @Monideepa62. Views are personal.

(Edited by Prashant)