Air pollution in India

Dust & Construction contribute about 59% to the air pollution in India, which is followed by Waste Burning. Crafting activities are mostly in the urban areas while Waste Burning is in the rural areas (agriculture).[citation needed]

Air pollution in India is a serious environmental issue.[1] Of the 30 most polluted cities in the world, 21 were in India in 2019.[2][3] As per a study based on 2016 data, at least 140 million people in India breathe air that is 10 times or more over the WHO safe limit[4] and 13 of the world's 20 cities with the highest annual levels of air pollution are in India.[5] The main contributors to India's particulate air pollution include industrial and vehicular emissions, construction dust and debris, dependence on thermal power for electricity, waste burning, and use of wood and dung by low-income and rural households for cooking and heating.[6] 51% of India's air pollution is caused by industrial pollution, 27% by vehicles, 17% by crop burning and 5% by other sources.[7][better source needed] Air pollution contributes to the premature deaths of 2 million Indians every year. Emissions come from vehicles and industry, whereas in rural areas, much of the pollution stems from biomass burning for cooking and keeping warm. In autumn and spring months, large scale crop residue burning in agriculture fields – a cheaper alternative to mechanical tilling – is a major source of smoke, smog and particulate pollution.[8][9][10] India has a low per capita emissions of greenhouse gases but the country as a whole is the third largest greenhouse gas producer after China and the United States.[11] A 2013 study on non-smokers has found that Indians have 30% weaker lung function than Europeans.[12]

The Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act was passed in 1981 to regulate air pollution but has failed to reduce pollution because of poor enforcement of the rules.[13]

In 2015, Government of India, together with IIT Kanpur launched the National Air Quality Index.[14] In 2019, India launched 'The National Clean Air Programme' with tentative national target of 20%-30% reduction in PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations by 2024, considering 2017 as the base year for comparison. It will be rolled out in 102 cities that are considered to have air quality worse than the National Ambient Air Quality Standards.[15] There are other initiatives such as a 1,600-kilometre-long and 5-kilometre-wide The Great Green Wall of Aravalli green ecological corridor along Aravalli range from Gujarat to Delhi which will also connect to Shivalik hill range with planting of 1.35 billion (135 crore) new native trees over 10 years to combat the pollution.[7] In December 2019, IIT Bombay, in partnership with the McKelvey School of Engineering of Washington University in St. Louis, launched the Aerosol and Air Quality Research Facility to study air pollution in India.[16] According to a Lancet study, nearly 1.67 million deaths and an estimated loss of US$28.8 billion worth of output were India's prices for worsening air pollution in 2019.[17]

  1. ^ "State of global air 2019". Archived from the original on 14 May 2019. Retrieved 29 April 2019.
  2. ^ Regan, Helen (25 February 2020). "21 of the world's 30 cities with the worst air pollution are in India". CNN. Archived from the original on 2020-02-25. Retrieved 2020-02-26.
  3. ^ Lowry, LeeAnne (25 February 2020). "21 Of Top 30 Air Polluted Cities Last Year Were In India". Newsy. Archived from the original on 2020-02-26. Retrieved 2020-02-26.
  4. ^ Bernard, Steven; Kazmin, Amy (December 11, 2018). "Dirty air: how India became the most polluted country on earth". ig.ft.com. Archived from the original on 2019-09-30. Retrieved 2019-03-04.
  5. ^ "India's air pollution, health burden get NIEHS attention (Environmental Factor, September 2018)". National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. Archived from the original on 2019-03-06. Retrieved 2019-03-04.
  6. ^ Chakraborty J, Basu P (January 2021). "Air Quality and Environmental Injustice in India: Connecting Particulate Pollution to Social Disadvantages". Int J Environ Res Public Health. 18 (1): 304. doi:10.3390/ijerph18010304. PMC 7795633. PMID 33406580.  This article incorporates text from this source, which is available under the CC BY 4.0 license.
  7. ^ a b Want govt to build 1600 km green wall along Aravalli Archived 2019-12-24 at the Wayback Machine, Indian Express, 24 December 2019.
  8. ^ Badarinath, K.V.S; Kharol, Shailesh Kumar & Sharma, Anu Rani (2009). "Long-range transport of aerosols from agriculture crop residue burning in Indo-Gangetic Plains—a study using LIDAR, ground measurements and satellite data". Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics. 71 (1): 112–120. doi:10.1016/j.jastp.2008.09.035. Retrieved October 14, 2023.
  9. ^ Agricultural Fires in India Archived 2017-01-18 at the Wayback Machine NASA, United States (2012)
  10. ^ Bob Weinhold , Fields and Forests in Flames: Vegetation Smoke damages and Human Health Archived 2017-06-29 at the Wayback Machine, National Institutes of Health
  11. ^ "CO2 EMISSIONS FROM FUEL COMBUSTION HIGHLIGHTS, 2011 Edition" (PDF). International Energy Agency, France. 2011. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2012-02-02. Retrieved 2012-09-05.
  12. ^ "Indians have 30% weaker lungs than Europeans". Times of India. Sep 2, 2013. Archived from the original on July 24, 2019. Retrieved September 2, 2013.
  13. ^ "Air pollution law languishes toothless when air pollution surges". Mongabay-India. 2020-11-10. Archived from the original on 2021-02-02. Retrieved 2021-01-26.
  14. ^ Mohan, Vishwa (2015-04-07). "Choking India gets air quality index". The Economic Times. Archived from the original on 2019-03-02. Retrieved 2019-11-09.
  15. ^ "National Clean Air Programme". 2019. Archived from the original on 20 December 2019. Retrieved 18 January 2019.
  16. ^ "McKelvey Engineering, IIT Bombay partner to study air pollution | The Source | Washington University in St. Louis". The Source. 2019-12-04. Archived from the original on 2020-05-10. Retrieved 2020-02-14.
  17. ^ Aggarwal, Piyush (September 29, 2021). "Will an extended ban on firecrackers help improve the air we breathe?". India Today. Archived from the original on 2021-10-19. Retrieved 2021-10-13.