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Pollution cloud on Bengal
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| The Statesman , Monday, January 31, 2005 |
| Correspondent
: Jayanta Basu |
| Calcutta, Jan. 30: If Laloo Prasad Yadav’s Bihar is really affected by “an immense wintertime pool of pollution” as claimed by a Nasa study yesterday, experts feel that adjoining states, including Bengal, are also within the ambit of the pollution spread referred to by Nasa.Nasa scientists yesterday said on the basis of a four-year study that though “high pollution levels were found over much of India, a concentrated pool of particles was discovered over Bihar”. The source was identified as “inefficient burning of a variety of biofuels during cooking and other domestic use”.“Long distance trans-boundary movement of pollution is well-known though the intra-regional movement is still not all that well understood… however it is quite possible,” said air pollution researcher Anumita Roy Choudhury of the Centre of Science and Environment. “Bengal may be affected due to possible trans-boundary movement of pollutant particles as it is geographically pretty close,” agreed Siddhartha Datta of Jadavpur University.
He, however, feels that “one has to consider the wind movement as well”. Nasa’s own report states pollutants “can last from a few weeks to several months in the atmosphere, allowing them to travel long distances and impact air quality”.Interestingly, the West Bengal Pollution Control Board’s own data shows significantly high level of particulate concentration in ambient air in areas close to Bihar, giving credibility to the theory of trans-boundary movement of air pollutants.According to the board’s findings, areas like Ranigunj and Asansol — close to Bihar — had suspended particulate matter concentration of 682 and 576 microgram per cubic metre, respectively, during January 2003, almost three times more than the national standard of 200 microgram per cubic metre. “The situation in the Asansol, Ranigunj and Durgapur belts might have been worsened by the emissions from highly polluting sponge iron units in the area,” said an environment official.“Not only Bengal, Jharkhand should also be affected, broadly having biofuel use characteristics similar to Bihar,” said Tapas Ghatak, a geophysicist of the Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority with ample experience of working in the area.
“The burning of coal underground and sometimes on the ground in the Dhanbad-Jharia belt of Jharkhand for more than three decades may be contributing to the spread of particles over the region,” Ghatak added.The impact of the pollution could be disastrous for the people. “The result is a pollution episode that can affect both human health and local climate,” warned Professor Larry Di Girolamo of University of Illinois, a co-investigator in the project. “The air-borne particles can damage delicate lung tissue, and by altering the radiative heating profile of the atmosphere, the particles may change temperature and precipitation pattern,” Girolamo adds.
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The Statesman, Monday, January 31, 2005 |
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