I am a pulmonologist by profession and associated with a major private hospital in the city. At the outset, I would like to appeal to all political parties to ensure that the election process, including voting, remains a festival of democracy, and should not turn into an occasion of mourning.
It’s a fact that political parties still do not treat environment as an important agenda. It is treated like the unimportant “fifth subject” at school. This is a puzzle, as all of us are inhaling polluted air; all of us, our families, get affected. Still, no political party is seriously concerned about the environment.
Many politicians think that those who talk about the environment are against development, which is not true. Development does not mean just constructing big buildings; consideration of health is also part of today’s developmental discourse. This is called “sustainable development.”
One has to understand that pollution is nothing but a waste generated by the brick-and-mortar development. Proper development means ensuring that this waste gets properly managed and disposed of following legal procedure. None of us are against development, but we want responsible development.
Before every election, a new set of manifestos are released, but there is no audit being carried out over the earlier manifestos. There should be an audit about the promises being made earlier vis-à-vis their fulfillment.
Lastly, I would like to mention the need to take forward a very good initiative — the Kolkata Climate Action Plan (K-CAP). I am a member of the planning committee, and I understand it is almost ready. It is important for the plan to receive the formal political and administrative go-ahead and budgetary support urgently. I also request the members of the next Assembly and government, and all political parties, to ensure that the proper implementation of this plan gets priority. Although it is Kolkata-centric at this point, if it works successfully, it can be set up as a model and repeated across West Bengal.
This model includes primary, secondary and tertiary prevention strategies. I hope whichever political party comes to power — or even those in opposition — will create the momentum and push this movement forward, so that by 2030 we can achieve at least some of our planned goals. We have to keep in mind that governments will come and go; but climate change will devour us unless we immediately swing into action.
I have been in this field for nearly three decades. When we started, we were mostly known as TB (tuberculosis) doctors. Over time, we have “developed” into pulmonologists, thanks, ironically, to air pollution. This is not the kind of development we want; our families are getting affected and we ourselves are affected as well.
We demand healthy development and clean air, which I believe is a basic right for all of us.
(This first-person account is based on the speaker’s recorded speech on March 28, 2026, at Kolkata Press Club, delivered during the event Politics meets Paribesh organised by The Plurals, Bengal Environment Journalists Platform and nonprofit EnGIO.)