For the unversed, Dhapa is a locality in Eastern Kolkata where 4 of the large dumping grounds where the city of Kolkata’s and it’s inhabitants’ daily discarded garbage ultimately ends up for disposing. The sheer amount of garbage dumped daily amounts to almost 4000 tonnes, if not more.

Now with such large amounts of waste being dumped daily, disposing is inevitable and in fact an unavoidable necessity. That’s exactly where things take a severe turn. More better understood with the example of agriculture oriented states of Punjab and Haryana where year end stubble burning across the states during the winter ends up affecting the air quality of entire Northern India, the most extreme result of it being witnessed in states like Delhi where the inhabitants suffer from numerous diseases.

A similar but less talked about case is witnessed each year during the winters in Kolkata. A key point to note however is unlike the heavily organic garbage being disposed off in Punjab and Haryana, the discarded waste in Dhapa also contains large quantities of non organic matter, which when burned release particles and pathogens that end up infecting the lower levels of the atmosphere.

Inhalation of air containing such harmful chemicals can trigger chain reactions in the body. Apart from breathing distress, it could cause a wide variety of complaints: from sexual disorientation, psychological ailments to even cancer, according to Amitabha Bandyopadhyay, a professor of chemical engineering at Calcutta University, an expert.

Furthermore, according to KMC officials the fire at Dhapa is ‘self-sustainable’ as there’s a significant amount of methane naturally present in the area’s air that maintains the fire once ignited making it burn almost permanently.

The resulting effects are most severely felt by the thousands of inhabitants living in the proximity of the largest dumping ground in Kolkata- Dhapa. With every other person suffering from diseases such as tuberculosis among others most don’t make it past 50 and with each passing day the harmful air increases it’s influence affecting more and more people.