Panel Discussion on "The Future of Bengal: Impact of Heat and Extreme Weather" at the Press Club

News Desk, News Nation 360: At a crucial environmental summit called "The Future of Bengal: Impact of Heat and Extreme Weather," which was jointly organised by Asar Social Impact and the Environment Education Media Project, Dr Pratim Sengupta, a well-known nephrologist from Kolkata and the founder and managing director of Nephrocare, participated as a panellist. Dr Sengupta addressed the strong, gradual physiological effects of climate change, pointing out that although the effects of natural disasters like cyclones are immediately apparent on television news, the internal organ damage caused by extreme heatwaves to people who work outside without protective gear is invisible but often fatal, necessitating that society pay closer attention to nature's limits to survive. The panel highlighted intricate regional disaster-management bottlenecks, noting that although current science can predict cyclones days in advance, enabling large-scale government evacuations, localised early warnings for lightning strikes can only be issued an hour in advance, leaving outdoor workers extremely vulnerable. Dr H.R. Biswas, a senior scientist at the India Meteorological Department (IMD), explained before this medical analysis that the IMD benchmarks extreme regional atmospheric threshold temperatures at 30°C for hilly terrain, 37°C for coastal zones, and 40°C for plains to trigger colour-coded yellow, orange, or red public health alerts because the average human body temperature is 37°C. The climate conference wrapped up with an interdisciplinary media and scientific panel featuring Professor Abhijit Chatterjee of the Bose Institute, Press Club Kolkata President Snehasis Sur, and journalists Swati Bhattacharya, Jayanta Bose, and Ritwik Mukherjee, who collectively urged for the integration of real-time meteorological alerts with grassroots public medical interventions to shield West Bengal's rural and urban outdoor workforce from escalating extreme weather crises.

Pic: Krishnendu Kundu