Foreword
Identification of polluting sources and the control of pollution at source were the immediate task of the Central and State Pollution Control Boards in framing the short-term pollution control programme. While this short-term case-by-case control at source would continue as significant part of pollution control programme, the State Boards along with the Central Board required to be involved in river basin- wide assessment of pollution potential caused by varieties of human activities, such as, agriculture-irrigation, live. tock, human settlements, and, industries both within cities and towns, as also, away from major settlements. Such evaluation of pollution potential, although takes time, skill and money- but once completed-leads to a reasonably accurate planning in pollution control recognizing inter se priorities and makes the programme cost-effective.

The Central Board gained the requisite experience in preparing basin-wide

pollution control programme by using the Yamuna basin, co-ordinating the services of the State Boards of Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, and Ut tar Pradesh. The report on the Yamuna Sub-basin entitled "Basin Sub-basin Inventory of Water Pollution: The Ganga Basin, Part I-The Yamuna Sub-basin (ApriI1977- December 1978) "is available with the Central Board. Gaining confidence, the activities of the State Boards of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh along with Bihar and West Bengal were co-ordinated by the Central Board in evaluating the pollution potential of the entire Ganga basin.

Recognizing the fact that such work required skill and expertise which normally would not be available in the State Boards, the West Bengal Prevention and Control of Water Pollution Board handed over the task to the Center For Study of Man & Environment located in Calcutta run bya group of high-Ievel professionals. The present report is the West Bengal State compo- nent of the Ganga Basin. This is specially printed to serve as a model report for any State component of anyone of the 14 major inter-State river basins in India. In the activity, identi- fied as "Basin Sub-basin Inventory of Water Pollution", the Central Board proposes to undertake similar basin-wide pollution potential evaluation for all the 14 major inter-State rivers in India.

The co-operation of the West Bengal State Board is gratefully acknowledged. The Center for Study of Man and Environment conducted the collection, compilation and preparation of this report in highly professional manner strictly maintaining the time schedule. Prof. K. N. Mukherjee, who co-ordinated this project as Chief Investigator on behalf of the Center, deserves special mention for his meticulous attention to minutest details to make the report precise and authentic. On several occasions because of changed decisions some tables and maps were redrawn. Prof, Mukherjee and his team complied with such additional tasks without any hesitation

On behalf of the Central Board, Shri R, N. Bhattacharyya, Environmental Engineer and Miss Usha Madan, Assistant Statistical Officer co-ordinated the working providing necessary information.