From Planned Green City to Dustbowl

Chandrasekhar Mukherjee, in his mid-thirties, was used to donating blood regularly till 2022. All that came to an end as he was diagnosed with a slew of diseases led by respiratory distress. Mukherjee feels, and doctors admit, that the dust bowl of Durgapur is responsible for his current situation. 

Prithvi Raj, a young doctor, has come to Durgapur recently and installed an air filter in his residence. The filter, meant to function for at least six months, has turned slate black from milk white within three months. Prithvi Raj has had to procure a new one.

Middle-aged social activist Kabi Ghosh, born and brought up in Durgapur, has his work cut out every day when he enters his ground floor organisation office in upmarket Bidhannagar and removes the thick layer of black dust atop his table. Ghosh feels vanishing public buses and booming private vehicles as well as high number of autos and totos (e-rickshaws) are responsible for the high pollution in the city, alongside industrial pollution.       

The examples referred above are more the norm than the exception for Durgapur, located 170 kilometres northwest of Kolkata. The city has recently been tagged by IQ Air in its global study as the 24th most polluted city in the world, based on the level of highly toxic pollutant PM 2.5. Durgapur sits at the top of the pollution ladder in West Bengal, followed by twin industrial city Asansol.

Interestingly Durgapur, a city planned and designed at the behest of the state’s first Chief Minister Bidhan Chandra Roy around seven decades back, is a ‘Smart City’ and boasts nearly 26 per cent greenery; underlining the importance of taking multi-sectoral action in air pollution control. Currently, the city adopts water sprinkling as its main strategy to counter air pollution, while the prepared ‘Graded Response Action Plan’ remains largely on paper.

“The findings underline the importance of implementing a multi-sectoral strategy to counter air pollution embedded in both holistic policy and practice. In our recent study on National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) cities, we have found that most improved cities like Varanasi could achieve success as they could adopt multi-sectoral strategies for controlling dust and other pollutants; only water sprinkling will not do,” explained Anumita Roy Chowdhury, an air pollution expert and executive director of think tank, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).

Such planning gets handicapped in absence of adequate data. “We are still waiting for the final report from IIT Delhi on Durgapur’s air pollution emissions inventory, source apportionment and atmospheric carrying capacity study. But it seems that the high amount of road dust and industrial emission, clubbed with vehicular and trans-boundary pollution impacts the city,” explained Kalyan Rudra, West Bengal Pollution Control Board (WBPCB) chairman to Down To Earth (DTE).

WBPCB sources admit that the report has been long due, with several deadlines being already missed. IIT Delhi, being quizzed, however claimed that they have already submitted the report to the WBPCB. “We have submitted the report to WBPCB,” wrote a senior IIT Delhi scientist, linked with the study, to DTE.

Clueless administration

The chairperson of the city corporation, equivalent to mayor, seemed clueless on how to counter the surging air pollution in the city. “It’s a fact that air pollution is a problem in the city despite it being a planned and green one, with about 26 per cent greenery. We are trying a few things but are handicapped as no funds have presently been released to us under the NCAP. This is because the corporation is not being currently run by an elected body,” Anindita Mukherjee, the chairperson, told DTE.

“Durgapur is part of an industrial belt driven by coal. Industries driven by coal are located either within several wards or at their fringe. But transport-related issues are also present,” admitted the official. Mukherjee accepted that the number and routes of public buses have dwindled over the years and shared plans to introduce a few new buses including electrical buses but was not sure about the roadmap.

While the official pointed out a lack of funds as the chief cause behind the current crisis, Central Pollution Control Board data shows that the city could not even utilise the funds already received. Data accessed shows that the city, till March 2025, could only spend Rs 26.78 crore of Rs 44.58 crore released since 2020-21. That is barely 60 per cent.

The ailment runs deeper than funds. WBPCB sources claimed that Durgapur has hardly been proactive in countering pollution. Officials of the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), the ministry-appointed advisor to the city in terms of implementing NCAP, could not remember when they last had a meeting on combating air pollution in Durgapur.

City officials, in turn, passed the buck to the WBPCB. “We neither have the financial nor the human resources to counter the problem. As you can understand, legal and illegal coal businesses thrive in the area under the patronage of local mafia, and we can do little. It is WBPCB’s responsibility to monitor the highly emitting and violating industries in the zone,” said an official refusing to be quoted. It is a claim that locals vindicate. “WBPCB is quite ineffective in countering rising industrial pollution within Durgapur,” pointed out activist Ghosh.

“We undertake occasional monitoring. But unless the local administration becomes active, the situation is difficult,” defended a WBPCB official.

As a result, the concentration of PM10, respirable particulate pollutant and the parameter considered under NCAP, was recorded at 106 micrograms per cubic metre (µg/m³) of air during 2023-24. The figure is less than the immediately precedent years, but still about 75 per cent higher than the national permissible limit of 60 µg/m³.

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