Question

According to the Calcutta and Howrah Smoke-Nuisances Act the emission of jute mills were made subject to regulation. In which year this act was passed by the Bengal Council?
1. 1853
2. 1857
3. 1863
4. 1872

Answer 1

Correct Answer - Option 3 : 1863

• The pattern of fuel consumption in Calcutta suggests air pollution in the city can be divided into roughly three historical periods, according to researcher M R Anderson.
• In the period prior to 1855, domestic burning of wood, dung and illuminating vegetable oils was the major source of smoke, even though coal-burning became more in vogue after 1820.
• The second period, spanning the middle decades of the 19th century, witnessed a large increase in coal smoke augmenting a substratum of biomass emissions.
• After 1855, the use of coal increased dramatically and in the third period, after 1880, coal smoke from boilers and domestic use fundamentally altered Calcutta's ambient air quality.
• Smoke was cited, along with heat, dust, humidity and noisome smells, as one of the health hazards for Europeans in Calcutta in the 18th century.
• Calcutta was uniquely situated to suffer from air pollution. As a centre for heavy industry, because it was located close to the Bengal coalfields, and with its peculiar topographical and meteorological characteristics, Calcutta's air pollution was intense because smoke could not be dissipated into the surrounding atmospheric sink.
• Unlike Bombay, Calcutta could not count on winds to dilute smoke, especially between November and March. The city was vulnerable to frequent temperature inversions, which prevented vertical ventilation and trapped smoke in the lower atmosphere.
• And, like London, Calcutta suffered from recurrent fogs. By the 1870s, major smoke inundations had become a routine feature of Calcutta life.
• The use of coal increased considerably with the opening in 1855 of the country's first proper railway, linking Calcutta to the Raniganj coalfields. With indigenous coal available to run steam engines, Calcutta became the hub of the Hooghly industrial corridor -- Asia's Ruhr valley -- with a corresponding increase in air pollution.
• The smoke problem was worsened by the poor quality of Indian coal, which contains from 14.8 per cent to 47 per cent ash by weight and produces more smoke than British coal.
• With the smoke problem arousing official concern and anxiety, Calcutta became in 1863 one of the first cities in the world to enact smoke nuisance legislation.
• A committee formed to investigate the problem in 1879 commissioned Frederick Grover, the Smoke Inspector for Leeds, in 1902 to make recommendations for smoke abatement.
• Grover's report gave rise to the Bengal Smoke Nuisances Act of 1905, and the subsequent establishment of the Bengal Smoke Nuisances Commission, which implemented a systematic but selective smoke abatement programme throughout the colonial period.
• The political urgency of Calcutta's smoke problem was linked closely with the city's role in the British empire. Calcutta was the seat of government until 1911 and the subcontinent's capital until the First World War.