Urban India's air quality deteriorated by 13% in 2010-15; China improved by 17%, US by 15%, European Union by 20%

In one of the sharpest critiques of air pollution in the recent past, a fresh report has said that air quality levels in urban India between 2010 and 2015 deteriorated by 13% at a time when these improved by 17% in China. The pollution levels improved in the US by 15%, and 20% in European Union (EU), it reveals.

“In 2016, severe air pollution has disrupted everyday life, especially during the winter”, the report notes, insisting, “In 2015 air pollution (PM2.5) levels in India increased in a rapid manner overtaking even China.”
Calculated as PM2.5 air quality standards, the report, “Airpocalypse: Assessment of Air Pollution in Indian Cities”, and authored by top international environmental NGO Greenpeace’s Sunil Dahiya, Lauri Myllyvirta and Nandikesh Sivalingam, states, pollution levels in India’s cities have been “increasing steadily for past 10 years”, with 2015 being “the worst year on record.”
Short for "Particulate Matter, 2.5 micrometers or less" "PM2.5 particles are air pollutants with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers or less, small enough to invade even the smallest airways, and are known to produce respiratory and cardiovascular illness. Released this month, the report says, as against India, China’s PM2.5 levels have been falling since 2011.
While estimating deaths per day because of PM2.5 in 2013 was 2,700 in China, as against 1,800 in India (250 in US and 640 EU), the report, however, regrets, “PM2.5 monitoring in China, as of February 2016, is being carried out in 1,500 stations in 900 cities and towns, as against 39 stations in 23 cities in India.”

Things apparently two years later. According to the report, “The Global Burden of Disease (GBD), a comprehensive regional and global research program including 500 researchers representing over 300 institutions and 50 countries, has estimated that 3,283 Indians died per day due to outdoor air pollution in India in 2015, making the potential number of deaths due to outdoor air pollution in India in 2015 to 11.98 lakh.”

Considering coal-based electricity units the main cause of pollution, the report says, “The share of thermal power plants with basic pollution controls (desulphurization, particle controls)” is 95% in China, as against just 10% in India.
Pointing out that “deadline for meeting national air quality standards in China is 2030”, with most key cities having “an interim target for 2017”, the report says, As for India no such deadline has so far been fixed.
Giving details of air pollution levels in terms of PM10 for approximately 175 cities in order to point out if they meet National Ambient Air Quality (NAAQ) standards, the report says, “Deadly air pollution is not a problem restricted to Delhi-NCR (National Capital Region) or even to India’s metros. It is a national problem that is killing 1.2 million Indians every year and costing the economy an estimated 3% of GDP.”
Based on data gathered by Greenpeace India from state pollution control boards, often using right to information (RTI) tool, the report says, “There are virtually no places in India complying with World Health Organization (WHO) and NAAQ standards, and most cities are critically polluted”, except for “a few places in Southern India.”
Pointing out that “there has been a growing realization that the majority of Delhi’s pollution is coming from outside its borders”, the report says, “Pollution levels in other states like Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra are also increasing.”

Comments

Ahmedabad's civic chaos: Drainage woes, waterlogging, and the illusion of Olympic dreams

In response to my blog on overflowing gutter lines at several spots in Ahmedabad's Vejalpur, a heavily populated area, a close acquaintance informed me that it's not just the middle-class housing societies that are affected by the nuisance. Preeti Das, who lives in a posh locality in what is fashionably called the SoBo area, tells me, "Things are worse in our society, Applewood."

RP Gupta a scapegoat to help Govt of India manage fallout of Adani case in US court?

RP Gupta, a retired 1987-batch IAS officer from the Gujarat cadre, has found himself at the center of a growing controversy. During my tenure as the Times of India correspondent in Gandhinagar (1997–2012), I often interacted with him. He struck me as a straightforward officer, though I never quite understood why he was never appointed to what are supposed to be top-tier departments like industries, energy and petrochemicals, finance, or revenue.

PharmEasy: The only online medical store which revises prices upwards after confirming the order

For senior citizens — especially those without a family support system — ordering medicines online can be a great relief. Shruti and I have been doing this for the last couple of years, and with considerable success. We upload a prescription, receive a verification call from a doctor, and within two or three days, the medicines are delivered to our doorstep.

Powering pollution, heating homes: Why are Delhi residents opposing incineration-based waste management

While going through the 50-odd-page report Burning Waste, Warming Cities? Waste-to-Energy (WTE) Incineration and Urban Heat in Delhi , authored by Chythenyen Devika Kulasekaran of the well-known advocacy group Centre for Financial Accountability, I came across a reference to Sukhdev Vihar — a place where I lived for almost a decade before moving to Moscow in 1986 as the foreign correspondent of the daily Patriot and weekly Link .

Environmental report raises alarm: Sabarmati one of four rivers with nonylphenol contamination

A new report by Toxics Link , an Indian environmental research and advocacy organisation based in New Delhi, in collaboration with the Environmental Defense Fund , a global non-profit headquartered in New York, has raised the alarm that Sabarmati is one of five rivers across India found to contain unacceptable levels of nonylphenol (NP), a chemical linked to "exposure to carcinogenic outcomes, including prostate cancer in men and breast cancer in women."

Dalit rights and political tensions: Why is Mevani at odds with Congress leadership?

While I have known Jignesh Mevani, one of the dozen-odd Congress MLAs from Gujarat, ever since my Gandhinagar days—when he was a young activist aligned with well-known human rights lawyer Mukul Sinha’s organisation, Jan Sangharsh Manch—he became famous following the July 2016 Una Dalit atrocity, in which seven members of a family were brutally assaulted by self-proclaimed cow vigilantes while skinning a dead cow, a traditional occupation among Dalits.

Tracking a lost link: Soviet-era legacy of Gujarati translator Atul Sawani

The other day, I received a message from a well-known activist, Raju Dipti, who runs an NGO called Jeevan Teerth in Koba village, near Gujarat’s capital, Gandhinagar. He was seeking the contact information of Atul Sawani, a translator of Russian books—mainly political and economic—into Gujarati for Progress Publishers during the Soviet era. He wanted to collect and hand over scanned soft copies, or if possible, hard copies, of Soviet books translated into Gujarati to Arvind Gupta, who currently lives in Pune and is undertaking the herculean task of collecting and making public soft copies of Soviet books that are no longer available in the market, both in English and Indian languages.

Boeing 787 under scrutiny again after Ahmedabad crash: Whistleblower warnings resurface

A heart-wrenching tragedy has taken place in Ahmedabad. As widely reported, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner plane crashed shortly after taking off from the city’s airport, currently operated by India’s top tycoon, Gautam Adani. The aircraft was carrying 230 passengers and 12 crew members. As expected, the crash has led to an outpouring of grief across the country. At the same time, there have been demands for the resignation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, and Civil Aviation Minister Venkaiah Naidu. The most striking comment came from BJP MP Subramanian Swamy, who stated : "When a train derailed in the 1950s, Lal Bahadur Shastri resigned. On the same morality, I demand PM Modi, HM Amit Shah, and Civil Aviation Minister Naidu resign so that a free and fair inquiry can be held. All that Modi and his associates have been doing so far is gallivanting, which must stop." Amidst widespread mourning, some fringe elements sought to communalize the tragedy. One post ...

Revisiting Gijubhai: Pioneer of child-centric education and the caste debate

It was Krishna Kumar, the well-known educationist, who I believe first introduced me to the name — Gijubhai Badheka (1885–1939). Hailing from Bhavnagar, known as the cultural capital of the Saurashtra region of Gujarat, Gijubhai, Kumar told me during my student days, made significant contributions to the field of pedagogy — something that hasn't received much attention from India's education mandarins. At that time, Kumar was my tutorial teacher at Kirorimal College, Delhi University.

Search This Blog