On September 1, 2021, a report published by the United States-based research group -Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC), found that all of India's 1.3 billion residents face annual average air pollution levels that exceed guidelines as set by the World Health Organization. More than that, this air pollution could be reducing the life expectancy of hundreds of millions of people by as much as nine years.
According to the study, the most polluted areas in the country are the Northern Plains (Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, and West Bengal). The region is home to 40 percent of the country’s population (480 million people). According to the Air Quality Life Index (AQLI), in 2019, the average particulate matter (PM) 2.5 concentration in the region was 70.3 micrograms, the highest in the world and seven times the WHO’s guideline. The World Health Organization’s guidelines are that it should be 10 micrograms per cubic meter. The amount of PM2.5 was 7 times higher.
It is an unavoidable truth that air pollution is injurious to human health. the higher the level of air pollution causes higher risks of severe diseases, it can even affect our life expectancy. According to the IMPRI(Impact and policy research institute) report, the average age of an Indian is declining by 5.9 years. Due to high levels of air pollution in Delhi, the average life expectancy is declining by 9.7 years, while in Uttar Pradesh it is 9.5, in Bihar 8.8, in Haryana 8.4, in Jharkhand 7.3 and in West Bengal 6.8 years.
According to the study, "India's
capital Delhi is highly polluted.
Residents of Delhi can add up to 10 years to their lives if pollution is
reduced to meet WHO guidelines, up to 7 years if pollution is India's national standard."
This air pollution likely shortens the life expectancy of 40% of Indians – that is about 520 million people.(CNN report)
On the other hand, according to a study published in ‘The Lancet Planetary Health Journal’, in 2020, “In India, 4.6 lakh Indian people died of Covid-19 in the past 16 months, but 1.2 million people die annually from air pollution. Unlike Covid, air pollution is not treated as a health emergency to rectify a preventable cause of death,”
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| Satellite based pollution exposure for average citizen |
Now air pollution is not only confined to the northern states of India, central and southern states also badly face the geographically extended air pollution today. In the year 2019, a National Clean Air Campaign was announced by the Central Government of India, which aims to reduce particulate pollution by 30% by 2024. But the fact is, over the years the pollution level has been going from bad to worse, especially in the western state of Maharashtra and the central states of Madhya Pradesh. It would not be wrong to say that in autumn and winter, cities across India are blanketed by a toxic haze.In 2019, 22 of the world's 30 cities with the worst air pollution were in India, according to IQAir AirVisual's annual global ranking.
While Indian government is taking vigorous
steps to control dangerous air pollution for a long time, but till date no
proper and permanent solution has been found for high amounts of vehicular
pollution(on-road
transportation contributed over 97% of the estimated emissions), small and medium scale industrial waste and air pollution caused by stubble
burning in rural areas. Gradually, stubble burning has become a known practice of rural agrarian India.
-Recent studies of NEERI in March 2021
and SAFAR (of the Ministry of Earth Sciences) in June 2021 point to road dust
and vehicular traffic as the highest emitters respectively, with power plants,
industries, open garbage burning, crematoria etc contributing significantly.
While it isn’t clear which one is worst, it is certainly clear that all of these
emissions require serious and sustained effort and that action is urgent.
Is air pollution affecting our national economy too?
Yes, air pollution not only degrades human health and climate, but the economy as well, millions of people die every year because of this pollution in different cities of the country which adversely affects our financial system. A report published by Greenpeace Southeast Asia’s Air Quality, in 2020 revealed, 120,000 people in India died of air pollution-related diseases and the country suffered a financial loss of Rs 2 lakh crore. In Delhi, 54,000 people have died due to air pollution, and Rs. 58,895 crore have been lost.
By 2030, it is estimated that a population of more
than 10 million will live in seven Indian mega cities like Mumbai, Delhi and
Gurugram where air pollution is highest. In such circumstances, GDP loss from
air pollution has been quantified by the Indian Medical Council at a stunning
figure of Rs7,182 crore in Maharashtra and Rs58,560 crore in India.
The National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) was launched
in September 2020 as a “Long-Term, Time-Bound, National Level Strategy”. It is
supported by budgetary allocations of Rs4,400 crore in 2020 and Rs2,217 crore in
2021 when Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget speech acknowledged
the need to “tackle the burgeoning problem of air pollution”.(Forbes India)
Indian government plans to combat hazardous air Pollution
- By 2020, a plan
announced by Indian government for nationwide implementation of BS-VI, In this
regard, EGR (exhaust gas recirculation) and SCR (selective catalytic reduction)
are the technologies available to meet BS-IV emission norms. SCR is an emission control technology to clean NOx
from the exhaust gases. This selective catalytic reduction (SCR) system further
brought into use a product called AdBlue®(a synthetically produced solution, to
reduce NOx to water vapour and atmospheric nitrogen) It is more fuel-efficient
than EGR technology to the tune of 3-5%.
- In october 2020, a committee was formed by President Ram
Nath Kovind to manage the pollution crisis in Delhi-NCR and
its adjoining areas for better coordination, research, identification and
resolution of problems related to the air quality management in Delhi.
Committee will have all powers to lower
the pollution crisis, stop power supply to or take action against any entity or
industry, and take up matter suo moto on the basis of complaints. Violation of
committee's orders could be punishable with imprisonment up to 5 years or fines
which may exceed up to Rs 1 crore or more.
- A
new IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report clarifies the
requirement of “limiting cumulative CO2 emissions”, for which, measures such as ‘smog towers’ are a
palliative effort and measurement of air quality is a very initial part of the
long road ahead to better air quality, one which requires hard decisions.
- In
order to control and measure air pollution the
Maharashtra Pollution Control Board has tendered for 15 mobile air pollution
vans which will identify problems and measure air pollution on the spot. Whereas,
in Delhi, giant smog towers are being installed in an attempt to reduce the
immediate effects of highly polluted air. late last year, as air pollution
started creeping up to hazardous levels, the government also shut the last coal
plant near New Delhi and banned some particularly dirty fuel sources.
2015, China's air while still very polluted isn’t quite as toxic as it was at the
height of the ‘airpocalypse’ but the pollution in India’s densely populated
north is out of control.(Source:unearthed.greenpeace.org)
It is
not the sole responsibility of the government. Instead, it is the
responsibility of every Indian to combat the air pollution issue. If
every citizen will follow the laws made by the Government of India and work as
a team to overcome the challenges, then surely the air pollution level can be
controlled in future.
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| 2015, China's air while still very polluted isn’t quite as toxic as it was at the
height of the ‘airpocalypse’ but the pollution in India’s densely populated
north is out of control.(Source:unearthed.greenpeace.org) |
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