Howra
Asans
Comprehensive Environmental Pollution Abatement Action Plans for the Industrial Clusters in West Bengal
West Bengal Pollution Control Board
Paribesh Bhawan 10A, Block-LA, Sector-III Bidhannagar, Kolkata – 700 098
PART - A
Background
Comprehensive Environmental Pollution Abatement Action Plans for the Industrial Clusters in West Bengal
The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), with the help of various reputed institutions, has carried out an environmental assessment of different industrial clusters/areas across the country and has finally published a Comprehensive Environmental Pollution Index (CEPI) for eighty eight (88) selected industrial clusters/areas. The CEPI is a rational number to characterize the prevailing environmental quality of these locations, which can be used as an early warning tool in categorizing the industrial clusters/areas in terms of priority of planning needs for interventions. The major parameters considered for calculation of CEPI are air, water and land (soil and ground water). The industrial clusters with CEPI score 80 or above have been identified as very critically polluted clusters/areas and those having CEPI score 70 or above are identified as critically polluted industrial clusters/areas. As per the Office Memorandum of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), Government of India dated 13th January 2010, out of these eighty eight (88) areas, ten (10) industrial clusters/areas have been identified as very critically polluted and thirty three (33) clusters/areas have been identified as critically polluted industrial clusters, with respect to one or more environmental component. Among these forty three (43) identified critically polluted areas, in West Bengal the following three (3) areas have been identified as critically polluted areas (with CEPI > 70): (A) Haldia [5 km. wide strip of industrial area on southern side of the confluence point of river Hooghly and Rupnarayan,