City: Kolkata

Several thousands of trees were uprooted as Cyclone Amphan battered Kolkata. Since then tree plantation drives have been rampant. What are tree experts saying about these?

Wedding photographers, musicians with small bands, local caterers and many others, who depend on events and social gatherings for their earnings, talk of the sufferings that COVID-19 has brought upon them.

With no jute bags available, farmers switch to plastic bags to pack and transport their harvest as Bengal’s jute mills remain shut because of the pandemic. Its labour force is left in limbo with unpaid wages and little prospect of getting back to work.

Once ubiquitous outside the Calcutta High Court, today only around 25 typists operate on the footpath outside the Court. But with increasing digitization, they too will soon fade away.

Families evicted from Tallah basti in north Kolkata to make way for bridge repairs find themselves in temporary transit sheds, far removed from the lives they were leading. Their main demand is proper rehabilitation  – a permanent place to live from where they won’t be thrown out.

The Rs 21-crore project will be implemented in 55 acres of land near Mollar Bheri, a shallow fishery located in the East Kolkata Wetlands, that has seen a 12-feet-high mountain of waste build up over the years.

Shunned by families, often deeply scarred and traumatised by experiences in prison and ostracised by society at large, women convicts can rarely expect a normal life in the city after release. These cases from Kolkata, facilitated by state and NGOs, however raise hope.

The pink taxis launched in Kolkata in February 2019 meant to provide a safe commute option for women. They also promised to open up a new world for the 10 women drivers chosen to drive the fleet. Today, not only are they not making enough money, their days are filled with challenges on the roads and off.

The NGT has long banned all festivities and rituals in Rabindra Sarovar, a national lake in south Kolkata. Yet what transpired during Chhat Puja clearly points to the futility of such orders in the absence of political will and awareness among masses.

Despite an order from the National Green Tribunal, efforts to stop Chhat Puja celebrations in Rabindra Sarovar — a 192-acre biodiverse, green sanctuary in the heart of the city — have been futile in previous years. This year the municipal corporation is closing access to the lake area for the two days of the festival, but will it help?

Young students from the neighbourhoods of the East Kolkata Wetlands, along with students from city schools, are getting ready to join hands and work towards saving this “wetland of international importance” as designated by the Ramsar Convention in 2002.

2500 plus community pujas. Lakhs of revellers. The Durga Puja celebrations in Kolkata are magical, but harsh and unforgiving on the environment. Unfortunately, thoughts and plans on greening the celebrations appear to be at a very immature stage still.