9 months ago

Kolkata Pollution Fueled by Road Dust, Not Just Vehicles: Study

Kolkata Pollution Fueled by Road Dust, Not Just Vehicles: Study
What’s Behind Kolkata’s Worsening Pollution? Spoiler: It's Not Vehicles - Check Here · timesnownews.com

Imagine the air in Kolkata is like a big soup of tiny particles that make it hard to breathe.

People used to think cars and factories were making the soup the dirtiest.

But a new study found something surprising!

The biggest problem is actually dust from the roads.

This road dust makes up a lot of the yucky stuff in the air.

Cars and factories also add some, but not as much as the dust.

In the winter, people burning things in their homes also makes the air worse.

Sometimes, pollution from other places, like Bangladesh, blows into Kolkata too.

So, to make the air cleaner, city leaders need to focus on cleaning up the roads and stopping dust, not just looking at cars and factories.

Key facts

Leading Pollutant
Road dust (35% PM10, 16% PM2.5)
Vehicle Contribution
10-12% PM10, 15-18% PM2.5
Industrial Contribution
14-16% PM10, 17% PM2.5
Transboundary Pollution
Approx. 13% ultrafine particulate matter in summer (from Bangladesh)
Kolkata Municipal Corporation Contribution
47% PM10, 40% PM2.5 (summer months)
Study Commissioned by
West Bengal Pollution Control Board
Study Conducted by
The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI)

Quotes

Kalyan Rudra

Chairman of the Pollution Control Board

“emphasised the urgent need for action targeting dust and smoke, rather than focusing solely on vehicular and industrial emissions.”
timesnownews.com

Sources

Related news