According to the latest study by WHO, fourteen of the world’s 15 most polluted cities are in India. Amongst the 4300 polluted places Kanpur tops the list as the most polluted place in India with the least air quality index.
The Air quality index by cities falls in the following cities: Faridabad, Delhi, Lucknow, Agra, Varanasi, Gaya, Patna, Muzaffarpur, Srinagar, Gurgaon, Jaipur, Patiala and Jodhpur.
Mainly the report outlines that air in India has become injurious to health.
This World Health Organization report evaluates the concentration of PM 2.5 in the air of the cities studied, based on 2016 data.
PM is the acronym for particulate matter. It is a mixture of solid particles and liquid droplets suspended in the air. The tinier the particles, the more dangerous they are, because their miniscule size makes them more breathable. PM 2.5 particles are very tiny, so small that the body’s innate defences, such as nostril hair, cannot stop them. And they penetrate our lungs and even the blood stream, causing respiratory complications at times even cancer.
According to a study by the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado and by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, increased air pollution index in India shortens the average Indian life by around 3 and half years. The figure goes up to 6.3 years in the Indo-Gangetic plain where Delhi is located.
The only single time pollution dominated the national discourse in India was when Delhi went under its annual smog blanket around the time of Diwali. Yet, there was a reluctant reaction on banning of fireworks.
A thing to astonish over that curbing air pollution has not been a major poll promise of any political party. Delhi’s pollution came into focus because it happens to be the national capital, and has air quality monitoring units installed. Now even as Delhi takes out its mask, the rest of north India continues to suffer not knowing much about the gravity of the problem.
For prevention of air pollution the solutions tried — ban on construction, odd-even cars policy — show that even the authorities fail to understand that Delhi’s problem is linked to the Indo-Gangetic plain as a whole, and any solution to be effective has to focus beyond the NCR’s borders.
Why is the entire north india disadvantaged?
When the WHO report was released to public the social media quickly turned it into north-verses-south war. Again making the entire scenario more pitiable.
The southern India has a long coastline and the sea breeze helps with a lot of air circulation on the other hand the northern plain is just landlocked and surrounded by mountains.
During the winters, “winds from the northeast and the west plane come resulting in temperature drop, causing the air over the Indo-Gangetic plains to become very cold and calm”.
Even the terrible smog in Delhi in November recently was contributed by a “multi-day dust storm” in Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia as mentioned in a study by SAFAR and India Meteorological Department (IMD).
Also, north India is prone to a phenomenon called “temperate inversion.” In temperate inversion the air closest to earth becomes colder than the layer above it, preventing pollutants from dissipating upwards. This is a natural cause for trouble in north India.
To these natural causes then are added man-made problems. Man made problems like factories, coal, power plants to produce electricity, biomass burning, use of unhealthy sources of fuel for cooking and other household activities.
Burning coal is also a major cause of air pollution, and as India plans to increase electricity generation, the environment pays a heavy price. According to an IndiaSpend report, India’s SO2 emissions due to burning of coal has been increased by 50 per cent from 2007 and 2017.
Thus all these man-made and natural reasons is causing the pollution in India. The geographical reasons and ignorance has caused severe pollution problems in the north. Even when the pollution’s side effects are not the evident in rest of the world, they are just as severe.
