File photo of Calcutta High Court. | Photo credit: The Hindu
The Calcutta High Court on Monday (January 19, 2026) took suo motu cognizance of the worsening air pollution in Kolkata and its surrounding areas like Howrah. As the AQI in Kolkata fell below that of Delhi on some occasions, the Calcutta High Court also issued a notice to the state government demanding a response to the issue.
The suo motu case is to be heard along with a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by advocate Akash Sharma on Kolkata’s continuing worsening air pollution and seeking intervention by the state.
We ask for an answer by February 28
On Monday (January 19), a division bench of Chief Justice Sujoy Paul and Justice Partha Sarathi Sen asked the state and other respondents in the PIL to respond to the concerns by February 28 and said the case would be listed for hearing thereafter.
In the PIL, advocate Sharma mentioned that he had informed the West Bengal government and the West Bengal Pollution Control Board about the deteriorating AQI, but “no enforceable” action was taken.
“Therefore, the continued exposure of the residents of Kolkata and Howrah to ‘very poor’, ‘severe’ and ‘hazardous’ levels of air quality constitutes a direct and sustained violation of the fundamental right to life and health guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India,” the PIL further stated.
The PIL further said that this is not a one-time outage but a recurring problem where responsibility shifts between departments, resulting in a lack of coordinated action.
Experts warn of a multi-layered problem
Professor Abhijit Chatterjee of the Bose Institute, who has been heavily involved in the issue of air pollution, said that the high AQI and pollution levels in Kolkata this winter were not due to higher pollutant emissions, but rather higher pollutant accumulation compared to recent years, supported by atmospheric and meteorological factors. He added that one of the key factors is the boundary layer. This is the height above the surface to which pollutants are captured. The higher the height, the lower the level of pollution near the surface.
“The extreme cold has reduced the boundary layer, trapping pollutants closer to the surface and significantly increasing local pollution levels…Added to this is the burning of waste, including e-waste, rubber and other synthetic materials in the city at night, which releases large amounts of organic compounds and helps create haze early the next morning,” Mr Chatterjee told The Hindu on Monday. (January 19)
He said strict measures were needed against indiscriminate burning of waste and called for widespread public awareness.
Analysis by Respirer Living Sciences using the Atlas AQ platform revealed that for 82 days in 2025, Kolkata’s AQI was driven primarily by toxic gaseous pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) and ground-level ozone (O₃) rather than particulate matter (PM2.5 or PM10). The firm said this posed significant health risks to residents of the city and surrounding areas, which could be overlooked if the role of toxic gases was not studied.
“If the city’s action plans focus only on PM2.5 and PM10, we risk not responding sufficiently to real exposure scenarios,” said Ronak Sutaria, founder and CEO of Respirer. “AQI is designed to be a multi-pollutant, and our response needs to reflect that.”
The analysis found that industrial areas in the Dunlop, Ultadanga, Moulali, Rabindra Sarobar and Howrah Bridge corridors had much higher levels of air pollution due to toxic emissions.
Published – 19 Jan 2026 21:21 IST
