Recently, the chief minister of West Bengal, Suvendu Adhikari, had expressed concern over a looming environmental crisis in West Bengal. While addressing a programme on World Environment Day in Calcutta, Mr Adhikari pointed out that extensive deforestation and ecological degradation have taken place in several parts of the state — Purulia, Bankura, Jhargram and Hasimara in North Bengal were some of the sites that were mentioned by the chief minister. Mr Adhikari’s concern is mirrored in the report, State of India’s Environment 2026: In Figures, published by Down to Earth, which found that Bengal had ranked 24th among 28 states, followed only by Punjab, Bihar, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan, in the green performance sector during 2024-25. Bengal scored 47.07% in the evaluation — based on such parameters as climate, forest and biodiversity, waste management and water resources — which placed it among the poorest performing states when it comes to taking action on key environmental agendas. That is not all. The loss of green cover in the state, the report found, is leading to adverse weather conditions and high levels of pollution. Calcutta, incidentally, was the third most-polluted state capital in India during the winter of 2025-26 in terms of average PM2.5 concentration, according to an analysis by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.
Some of the corrective steps that are necessary are obvious. Environmental challenges and mitigatory action must be accorded policy and political priority instead of being treated in an ornamental manner as is the case now. Meaningful afforestation endeavours, keeping in mind the needs of local ecologies and accompanied by oversight and transparency, can make a difference to a state that witnessed a loss of 2,688 square kilometres of forest cover in the last 15 years. The larger challenge, of course, is to reimagine the template of development itself, a model which, like the one pursued by the colonial State, perceives natural resources through the lens of brutal extraction. But the importance of the said report also lies in it exposing illuminating linkages. One such underexamined connection is between corruption and the environment. A case in point is the large-scale theft of mangroves that took place under the watch of the previous regime, a transgression that has been confirmed by numerous local activists. These latent challenges to the environment need to be identified and acted upon.