ABSTRACT
Kolkata city is a metropolis with a rich cultural heritage and a long, glorious tradition of political and social struggles. Kolkata (formerly known as Calcutta) receives its name from Kali-ghat (the steps of the goddess Kali). Kali is the goddess of death and destruction. Located in West Bengal, its influence cuts across the state boundary. In a sense, the entire eastern region of the country, with a population of more than 200 million, constitutes its hinterland. Kolkata is a vast melting pot where people from different cultures, disciplines and heritages meet and work side by side. In the early part of the 20th century it was called City of Palaces, or City of Gardens. However, 50 years later it was called ‘the dirtiest city in the world’. With time, the city received all sorts of contempt and ridicule: ‘the city of garbage’, ‘the city of darkness’, ‘the city of slums’. In 1988, the German writer Günter Grass wrote: ‘Calcutta city appears to me as if blood were dropping from Kali’s tongue. A city that can swallow the whole country, the whole world’. This chapter describes the range of factors that contribute to the current environmental situation of Kolkata and discusses the contribution of transport to urban air pollution.1
