Heaps of garbage are being set on fire across the city almost every day, polluting the winter air with toxic fumes and violating the ban on open burning of waste.
Metro authorities spotted trash being set on fire at Esplanade, right next to the under-construction Metro project at Manohar Das Tarag, as well as inside Vivekananda Park on Southern Avenue and at Curzon Park over the past week.
A senior official of the state Pollution Control Board (PCB) said that burning waste releases toxic elements into the air, which can have long-term health impacts.
“The open burning of waste releases an enormous volume of particulate matter into the air, causing a sudden increase in its concentration,” said the PCB scientist.
Particulate matters are tiny particles that are less than 10 microns or less than 2.5 microns in size. They can enter human lungs and other organs.
The PCB scientist added that the toxic elements released from waste burning are even more dangerous.
“Most heaps of waste today contain many plastic products. When these items are burned at low temperatures, as happens in open waste burning, toxic chemicals like furan and dioxin are released. Both are carcinogenic,” the scientist said.
An official of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) said the civic body had issued an order against the open burning of waste.
“Anyone caught burning the waste can be prosecuted,” he said.
On Thursday, a heap of garbage was set on fire next to Manohar Das Tarag around 9:45am. Smoke from the fire enveloped the surroundings, forcing cars and buses along the Esplanade-bound flank of JL Nehru Road to slow down and move away from the billowing smoke.
A security guard at the Metro railway construction site said that garbage accumulation and open burning on a portion of the Maidan, next to the construction site, were frequent and carried out by unknown individuals.
“Whenever we spot the fire, we douse it using the pipes and water available at the construction site,” said the guard..
A 74-year-old woman who went to Vivekananda Park on Thursday afternoon said a heap of garbage had been set on fire along the edge of the ground on the northern-western corner of the park.
“I cannot walk for long. I tried to sit down on a bench but the smoke from the fire had covered the area. I had to walk to the other corner of the park to find a bench,” she said.
Earlier on December 21, this newspaper saw two men setting a heap of garbage on fire inside Curzon Park, opposite the east gate of the Raj Bhavan.