Heat Wave In West Bengal: Is the disaster in Bengal from the heat island? Meteorologists say heat islands have formed across south Bengal are rapidly changing climate

This time: Some say ‘heat island’, some say it’s ‘heat cocoon’ or ‘heat pocket’. It is like an invisible bowl placed upside down over the various cities and suburbs of the state. The heat of the sun enters the bowl freely. And the heat generated in the bowl has no way to escape. As a result, the residents of that ‘bowl’ are sweltering in summer. According to a section of meteorologists, there are numerous heat islands that have formed in different parts of the state, especially in South Bengal. Due to this, the weather map of the state is changing rapidly. The temperature in Kolkata was above 40 degrees Celsius for three consecutive days. After that, a couple of days of light cloud cover. Mahanagar in old form again on Wednesday (40.5).

Not only Kolkata, Salt Lake, which had dipped below 40 degrees, easily crossed the 40 degree mark at 40.8 degrees on this day. The weather office had predicted that the state’s weather would change simply because of the cloud cover. That’s what actually happened. Temperatures were above 40 degrees at no place in the state on Tuesday as well. Within 24 hours it reached 19!

At 6 o’clock in the morning, the Sun God is starting to pour fire relentlessly. But is the weather very comfortable even after the evening sun sets? The night is getting deep as the water in the tank gets cold. Before 9 o’clock in the morning, the water roared again. In a word, where is the city getting a chance to cool down?

Why is this happening? Some climatologists blame unscientific rapid urbanization and rampant deforestation as possible reasons for this. The result is ‘heat island’. Meteorologist Rabindra Goenka says, ‘If the trend of the last few years is observed, it can be seen that the temperature is increasing more than Kolkata in Barrackpore and Dumdum area. Apart from this, the prevalence of heat has increased a lot in Salt Lake and more recently in New Town area.’

The data provided by the Alipore Meteorological Department says that the maximum temperature in Barrackpore was 43.7 degrees on April 21. There is no precedent of such extreme temperature in the past. Barrackpore was hotter than rocky Purulia (43.3) that day. Referring to this incident, Rabindra said, ‘At one time, areas like Barrackpore and Dum Dum were famous for the garden houses of the rich. The area was full of very old and big trees. But in the last 20-25 years, all the trees have been cut down and multi-storeyed. Concrete jungle has been developed instead of jungle. The concrete heats up in the morning, turning large areas into heat islands.’

Punarvasu Chowdhury, a professor of environmental science at Calcutta University, explains, ‘There is a calculation of how many trees should be in a certain area. Trees regulate the amount of water vapor in the area. Especially in Kolkata, the way its adjacent areas are gradually becoming a part of the metropolis is very worrying. Climatologists who believe in the heat island theory argue that there are no precedents for record temperature increases in the past.

But lately old records are being broken very quickly and new records are being set. Meteorologist Parthasarathy Mukhopadhyay of Pune’s Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) says about the ‘heat island’, ‘There is no doubt that the weather is becoming increasingly extreme not only in India, but all over the world. However, we are not yet at a place where we can definitively blame any one thing. The heat island theory has not yet been proven.’

Data submitted by IITM Pune says that Kolkata saw the hottest April on April 25, 1954. The city’s temperature rose to 43.3 degrees that day. Weathermen’s question, ‘Then Kolkata did not turn into a concrete jungle like today. Then why did it happen?’ Kolkata’s second highest April temperature (42.2) was also recorded 64 years ago, on April 29, 1960. Urbanization in that sense had not yet begun in the city.

Climatologists disagree on the heat island theory, but no one dares to disagree on the heat wave. The temperature in Balurghat has reached 40 degrees on Wednesday, among all the polling places in the state. Siliguri (39.5) and Jalpaiguri (38.8) were very close to 40 degrees. The Alipore Meteorological Department on Wednesday extended the heat wave period in the state by one more day till April 28. Weather forecasters said that except for Darjeeling, almost all parts of the state will experience either severe heat wave, heat wave or hot and uncomfortable weather.