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By:

Bhalchandra Chorghade

11 August 2025 at 1:54:18 pm

Healing Beyond the Clinic

Dr Kirti Samudra “If you want to change the world, go home and love your family.” This thought by Mother Teresa finds reflection in the life of Panvel-based diabetologist Dr Kirti Samudra, who has spent decades caring not only for her family but also thousands of patients who see her as their guide. As we mark International Women’s Day, stories like hers remind us that women of substance often shape society quietly through compassion, resilience and dedication. Doctor, mother, homemaker,...

Healing Beyond the Clinic

Dr Kirti Samudra “If you want to change the world, go home and love your family.” This thought by Mother Teresa finds reflection in the life of Panvel-based diabetologist Dr Kirti Samudra, who has spent decades caring not only for her family but also thousands of patients who see her as their guide. As we mark International Women’s Day, stories like hers remind us that women of substance often shape society quietly through compassion, resilience and dedication. Doctor, mother, homemaker, mentor and philanthropist — Dr Samudra has balanced many roles with commitment. While she manages a busy medical practice, her deeper calling has always been service. For her, medicine is not merely a profession but a responsibility towards the people who depend on her guidance. Nagpur to Panvel Born and raised in Nagpur, Dr Samudra completed her medical education there before moving to Mumbai in search of better opportunities. The early years were challenging. With determination, she and her husband Girish Samudra, an entrepreneur involved in underwater pipeline projects, chose to build their life in Panvel. At a time when the town was still developing and healthcare awareness was limited, she decided to make it both her workplace and home. What began with modest resources gradually grew into a trusted medical practice built on long-standing relationships with patients. Fighting Diabetes Recognising the growing threat of diabetes, Dr Samudra dedicated her career to treating and educating patients about the disease. Over the years, she has registered nearly 30,000 patients from Panvel and nearby areas. Yet she believes treatment alone is not enough. “Diabetes is a lifelong disease. Medicines are important, but patient education is equally critical. If people understand the condition, they can manage it better and prevent complications,” she says. For more than 27 years, she has organised an Annual Patients’ Education Programme, offering diagnostic tests at concessional rates and sessions on lifestyle management. Family, Practice With her husband frequently travelling for business, much of the responsibility of raising their two children fell on Dr Samudra. Instead of expanding her practice aggressively, she kept it close to home and adjusted her OPD timings around her children’s schedules. “It was not easy,” she recalls, “but I wanted to fulfil my responsibilities as a mother while continuing to serve my patients.” Beyond Medicine Today, Dr Samudra also devotes time to social initiatives through the Bharat Vikas Parishad, where she serves as Regional Head. Her projects include  Plastic Mukta Vasundhara , which promotes reduced use of single-use plastic, and  Sainik Ho Tumchyasathi , an initiative that sends Diwali  faral  (snack hamper) to Indian soldiers posted at the borders. Last year alone, 15,000 boxes were sent to troops. Despite decades of service, she measures success not in wealth but in goodwill. “I may not have earned huge money,” she says, “but I have earned immense love and respect from my patients. That is something I will always be grateful for.”

Choked Capital

Delhi’s winter smog is the symptom of a chronic governance failure.

Delhi
Delhi

Even with farm fires at a multi-year low, Delhi-NCR’s winter air remains suffocating. For most of October and November, pollution levels oscillated between “very poor” and “severe,” fuelled not by distant fields but by a rising cocktail of PM2.5, nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide from vehicles, industry, waste burning and domestic fuel. According to the Centre for Science and Environment, 22 monitoring stations recorded carbon monoxide above permissible limits on more than half of the 59 days assessed. Dwarka Sector 8 logged breaches on 55 days, followed closely by Jahangirpuri and Delhi University’s North Campus at 50. Smaller towns in the National Capital Region fared no better, with Faridabad, Ghaziabad, and Sonipat reported smog episodes of unprecedented duration.


The picture is no longer confined to isolated hotspots. Jahangirpuri, Bawana, Wazirpur, Anand Vihar and Mundka routinely breach PM2.5 averages of over 100 µg/m³ which is five times the World Health Organization’s guideline. New hotspots from Vivek Vihar to Patparganj underscore a worrying trend of the capital turning into a patchwork of pollution nodes. The message from the data is stark: stubble burning, while widely blamed, contributed less than 5 percent of Delhi’s pollution for much of early winter. Local sources, especially vehicular emissions, are driving the city’s chronic smog.


PM2.5 spikes track nitrogen dioxide during peak traffic hours, with carbon monoxide similarly breaching limits. The synchronised peaks of these pollutants are no accident. Shallow winter boundary layers trap emissions, turning the city into a gas chamber. Yet policy remains fixated on dust suppression, sprinklers and sporadic measures against farm fires while the engines of pollution hum unchecked. Delhi’s local emissions are effectively ignored even as residents cough through the morning commute.


Late last month, a small protest at India Gate against hazardous air quality met a heavy police presence. Deploying the Rapid Action Force to contain peaceful demonstrators sends a message that Delhi’s authorities are incapable of addressing the root causes of smog. Public frustration is rising, as middle-class recourse to purifiers and private vacations no longer suffices.


This is hardly Delhi’s first brush with national embarrassment. In November 2016, after PM2.5 crossed 900 µg/m³ in parts of the city, schools were shut, flights were diverted and the Supreme Court memorably described the Capital as a “gas chamber.” In 2019, the city plunged into another health emergency after post-Diwali pollution sent AQI readings beyond 500, forcing the odd-even scheme back onto the streets.


Air pollution in North India is not merely a Delhi problem. Monitoring stations trace a continuous zone of foul air stretching from Islamabad to Bihar, where industry, power generation, transport and agriculture circulate in a shared airshed. Yet authority is fragmented among central ministries, state departments, municipal bodies and semi-autonomous regulators, each with partial jurisdiction and mixed incentives. The Commission for Air Quality Management was meant to coordinate this tangle, but its interventions have failed to match the scale or persistence of the threat. Treating winter smog as a seasonal emergency rather than a permanent condition has encouraged episodic action without structural reform.


What is required is nothing short of an overhaul with time-bound electrification targets, scrapping of old vehicles, expansion of public transport, congestion taxes, industrial fuel reforms, elimination of waste burning and remediation of legacy dumps. Quick fixes consume public funds and administrative bandwidth without denting emissions. Only persistent, enforceable measures backed by political courage will clear the air.


Meanwhile, pollution refuses to wait. The AQI this week has already risen to 331, with Bawana at 387, Anand Vihar 381 and RK Puram 356. Residents report burning eyes, constant coughing and disrupted routines. With temperatures dropping further and winter settling in, the smog will thicken. Delhi’s air is now an emblem of systemic failure, of a capital choking not just on exhaust fumes, but on bureaucratic inertia and political timidity. It is the mirror of India’s fragmented, reactive approach to environmental governance.


Until policymakers confront the underlying emissions, and until enforcement is scaled to the severity of the crisis, Delhi will remain a city in visible distress and a capital perpetually choked.

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