KOLKATA: A playground in Rabindra Sarobar that is bereft of grass has become a vicious dustbowl that is smothering aspiring cricketers and causing irrepairable damage to the young lungs. The dusk kicked up by the shuffling of feet as players dribbled with a ball or sprinted down a stretch hit astronomical levels when measured at 5pm on Thursday: PM10 was at 1,303 and PM2.5 282.Green crucader Subhas Datta, who had forced the Kolkata Book Fair to shift out of the Maidan due to the dust that visitors kicked up during the 10 days in winter discovered the frightening level of pollution at the White Border Ground when he measured the air with a poratable air quality monitoring machine on Thursday evening.“I felt guilty to see these boys playing football or sprinting amidst a thick blanket of dust. They are falling sick while playing in one of the greenest pockets in the city. The picture haunted me so much that I kept measuring the air quality for successive days and found PM2.5 often shooting past 600,” recounted Datta.The impact of dust is not only confined to the ground. It is also blowing across Southern Avenue and right into the homes that line the boulevard.The children earlier played in the adjoining Subhas Sarobar Stadium that had a thick layer of grass. But since the past four years, the stadium has been out of bounds for kids, forcing them to use the dustbowl. “This ground gets no respite. Hence, the grass never grows,” said athletics coach Arindam Ghosh, whose wards also run on this ground.While taking the reading of the air quality at this ground, Datta also made a quick survey of some other parks in the city. His fears proved true as majority of the grounds turned out to be as bad, if not worse. “This is why WBPCB must monitor the air quality at playgrounds where parents send their wards and expose them to high health risk,” said Datta.Curators said a ground needed an entire season’s respite from being trampled upon to acquire a green cover that grows sturdy. Following the advisory, Datta has written a letter to mayor Firhad Hakim, who is also the minister in charge of urban development department under whose jurisdiction lies Rabindra Sarovar, to allow athletes and footballers into the stadium so that the White Border Ground can regrow grass. “I have also urged him to hold a health check-up camp for the players,” Datta added.

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