Air pollution increasingly threatening the mangrove ecosystem of Sunderbans: Study

Air pollution poses a significant threat to the Sundarbans, a crucial mangrove ecosystem in West Bengal that protects the region from extreme weather, warns a recent study by leading environmental scientists The study, titled “Acidity and oxidative potential of atmospheric aerosols over a remote mangrove ecosystem during the advection of anthropogenic plumes,” and authored jointly by leading scientists from the Bose Institute, Kolkata, and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur, has shown how huge amounts of pollutants, mainly enriched with black carbon or soot particles, arriving from not only Kolkata metropolis but the entire Indo-Gangetic Plain region, are significantly deteriorating Sundarbans’ air quality, thus affecting its ecosystem.

In the study, old motors in local boats were identified as a major source of heavy toxic metals in the air.

According to Dr Abhinandan Ghosh from IIT Kanpur and one of the authors of the study, because of the low per capita income of the people of Sunderbans, they have to continue with their dependence on solid fuels like firewood or dung instead of shifting to cleaner fuels like liquid piped gas.

“The rampant use of kerosene lamps for domestic lighting is also very common in the Sundarbans. Additionally, it would be worth mentioning that the only medium of inter-island transport in the Sundarbans delta is diesel-driven boats or vessels, most of which run on low-efficiency engines,” he added.

Study co-author, Professor Abhijit Chatterjee from the Department of Chemical Science of the Bose Institute, claimed that the study clearly shows that the transported and regionally emitted air pollutants have a significant effect on the ecology and biogeochemistry of the pristine environments of the Sundarbans mangrove ecosystem that need to be solved with utmost priority.

In the study, the authors have suggested 10-point recommendations to stop Sundarbans’s air quality and overall ecosystem degradation. The recommendations include solar energy promotion, wind energy utilisation, electric transportation, subsidised LPG, regulated tourism, banning diesel generators, banning of toxic shipments, closing down of pollutant factories, regulation of brick kilns and land use and strengthening of coastal regulations.