ANNUAL SURVEY

Vasundhara Annual Environmental survey of Kolkata is now five years old. We once again present Annual Environmental Survey of Kolkata to the interested readers of environment. All surveys had received a very good response and nearly all the copies got sold within a few months of its publication. We received queries from a number of research scholars, teachers, activists, administrators and others.

In our previous Report's introduction we had said why we have decided to bring out this Report. Because Kolkata is the city where Vasundhara is located and we feel it is our first responsibility to care about the environment of the place we live in. Think globally, act locally. And an Annual Survey helps to find out how has been to for the city's environment. We do not claim that we can cover all aspects but this attempt may be worth its while. We also have plan to publish Bengali version of this report.

In the passing year our work mostly focussed on the waterbodies of Kolkata. We have carried out different surveys, meetings, water quality analysis, organised community walks, deputation etc. over the waterbodies of Kolkata. We have also taken the message to the other parts of the country where saving urban waterbodies is gaining momentum. In the last decade the major citizens' environmental initiatives in Kolkata have been vocal to save the local waterbodies but unfortunately the city planners never thought anything about this major urban natural resource. To draw attention, this year's Report contains a special section on Kolkata's Waterbodies.

We have continued with all the sections covered last year and have been able to introduce a few new ones. The new sections like the one on Institute has covered Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata and the environment-related research being carried out there. The section on Tradition brings out the tribal connection of this city which needs to be strengthened. Besides, the Meteorology and Air Quality sections have been enriched with more detailed data and analysis. The Diwali air pollution scenario should also be interesting to the environmentalists.

We thank all the people who have helped us to bring out the Report. As we are a self- funded group, from this issue we have started accepting advertisements, related to environment, towards partial coverage of the cost of production. We thank our advertisers.