According to a report in the Lancet, more than 1.6 million deaths occurred in 2021 due to air pollution, with fossil fuels like coal and natural gas responsible for 38% of them.[1] While the exact figures may vary depending on which study one relies on, one undeniable fact remains—air pollution is a critical environmental crisis.

Despite its severity, air pollution and pollution in general have not been given the prominence they deserve in public discourse. The urgency of the issue is not adequately reflected in government messaging or public awareness campaigns.

Government initiatives and implementation challenges

In January 2019, the Central Government launched the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) to improve air quality across Indian cities. The initiative aims to engage all stakeholders and reduce particulate matter concentrations. However, the effectiveness of such programs depends not just on their design but also on their implementation.

The NCAP aims to reduce air pollution across Indian cities by targeting a 40% reduction in PM10 levels by 2025-26. While some cities have shown improvements, the effectiveness of NCAP varies significantly. In Uttar Pradesh, cities like Bareilly, Rae Bareli, and Ghaziabad are projected to meet their targets, with Bareilly expected to see a 70% reduction in PM10 levels.[2] However, Gorakhpur and Prayagraj may see PM10 levels rise by 50% and 32%, respectively. A national study found no significant reduction in PM2.5 levels due to NCAP, suggesting that whatever observed improvements were likely influenced by COVID-19 lockdowns rather than policy effectiveness.[3]

Several factors impact air quality, including meteorological conditions, industrial emissions, vehicle pollution, and open biomass burning. While city-specific action plans exist, challenges such as data limitations, inconsistent implementation, and environmental complexities hinder progress. Machine learning models predict continued variations in air quality, highlighting the need for stricter regulations, enhanced emission controls, increased public awareness, and improved monitoring systems. Additionally, research suggests air quality improvements have been greater in wealthier areas, underscoring the need for policies that ensure equitable environmental benefits for all communities.[4]

More recently, many news houses reported on the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) Report on pollution control measures in Delhi. The report highlighted several shortcomings revealing issues with air quality monitoring stations, including improper placement—many were located near trees on multiple sides, affecting data accuracy. Additionally, concerns were raised over flawed pollution control certificate issuance.

Why is there no political will?

The core issue regarding pollution is not merely the weak implementation of pollution control measures but the lack of political will to do anything tangible about pollution. However, deeper inquiry would lead to another problem — the electorate does not make pollution the central issue.

Air pollution remains absent from the list of priority concerns for many citizens, despite its devastating health impacts. If people do not perceive it as a pressing issue, they will not demand stronger policies or hold policymakers accountable.

Why does air pollution fail to gain the public’s attention despite its deadly consequences? The answer lies in inadequate communication. The seriousness of air pollution is not being effectively conveyed to the masses, preventing it from becoming a major electoral issue.

Why is communication important?

When breast cancer survivor Fanny Rosenow attempted to place an advertisement in The New York Times for a support group, she was informed that the newspaper could not publish the words “breast” or “cancer”. Instead, the editor suggested using the phrase “diseases of the chest wall” prompting Rosenow to drop the idea. This was the early 1950s. From this to the call for the War on Cancer in the 1970s by the Nixon Administration in the US, there was a radical change in how cancer was perceived and understood by both the political class and the masses. A significant amount of this change was driven by the messaging campaigns spearheaded by philanthropist-activist Mary Lasker.[5]

Pulitzer-winning author Siddhartha Mukherjee writes in his book
The Emperor of All Maladies:

“The empire of cancer was still indubitably vast—more than half a million American men and women died of cancer in 2005—but it was losing power, fraying at its borders. What precipitated this steady decline? There was no single answer but rather a multitude. For lung cancer, the driver of decline was primarily prevention—a slow attrition in smoking sparked off by the Doll-Hill and Wynder-Graham studies, fuelled by the surgeon general’s report, and brought to its full boil by a combination of political activism (the FTC action on warning labels), inventive litigation (the Banzhaf and Cipollone cases), medical advocacy, and counter marketing (the ant tobacco advertisements).”

The takeaway from this is that messaging and creating a narrative over a problem that needs to be solved is an important if not the most necessary element in fighting the problem. India’s fight against pollution lacks this very element thus making it a difficult fight.

What do Indians think of pollution?

The discourse surrounding pollution in India has long been dominated by macro-level concerns—climate change, biodiversity loss, and long-term ecological degradation. While these issues are undeniably critical, their abstract nature often fails to resonate with the average citizen, who perceives them as distant or intangible.

For example, a 2022 study found that Indian farmers, while being aware of meteorological changes, were not informed enough to tie those changes to climate change and thus take action accordingly. [6]

The immediate health impacts of pollution—such as acute respiratory distress, cardiovascular crises, and developmental delays in children—are far more proximate and personally relevant. Reframing pollution narratives to foreground these immediate health risks can bridge the gap between scientific urgency and public mobilisation, transforming passive awareness into actionable engagement.

Limitations of current narratives 

The prevailing discourse on pollution in India often employs broad, depersonalised terminology— “respiratory diseases,” “air quality indices,” or “greenhouse gas emissions”—that obscures the lived experiences of affected individuals. For instance, while the term “respiratory diseases” is technically accurate, it lacks the specificity needed to convey the urgency of conditions such as asthma exacerbations, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), or paediatric pneumonia.

Similarly, discussions of climate change tend to focus on global temperature projections or sea-level rise, which appear remote to urban residents grappling with daily air quality advisories. This abstraction creates a psychological disconnect, as individuals prioritize immediate threats over distant risks—a phenomenon well-documented in behavioural psychology.[7]

Moreover, the current narrative often frames pollution as an intractable, systemic problem, fostering a sense of fatalism rather than agency. Terms like “air pollution crisis” or “environmental degradation” evoke collective responsibility—with actionable messaging neither for the individual nor for any organized group. This passivity is exacerbated by the lack of localized, granular data on health impacts, which prevents communities from understanding their specific risks. For example, while Delhi’s annual PM2.5 levels are widely reported, few citizens are aware that exposure to these particulates increases the risk of heart attacks or that children in polluted regions face a higher risk of neurodevelopmental delays.[8] [9]

Additionally, both the narrative and the solutions to air pollution are city-centric. This approach has relegated Delhi’s Air Pollution issue, for example, to be an issue of the people of Delhi, and its government whereas in reality, it is the issue of the whole of northern India. Experts have recommended mitigation of pollution at an air shed level instead of political boundaries, but that recommendation has not been paid attention to by the governments.[10]

The imperative of immediate health impact narratives 

To overcome these limitations, pollution narratives must pivot to emphasize immediate, localized health risks. Such a shift aligns with the principles of risk communication, which prioritizes clarity, specificity, and personal relevance. By highlighting the direct consequences of pollution—e.g., “exposure to PM2.5 increases your risk of a heart attack this month” or “children in this neighbourhood face a higher risk of asthma attacks”—communicators can evoke responses that will call for accountability from the administration.

For example, in a study that examined the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) of the USA, it was found that people who believed that their chance of getting cancer is high due to pollution were more likely to worry about the harms of Indoor and Outdoor pollution.[11]

Cases in Delhi and Mumbai demonstrate that spikes in PM2.5 levels correlate with an increase in hospital admissions for respiratory distress.[12] Framing pollution as a trigger for acute health crises—rather than a chronic risk—can shift the perception of people.

Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) has been linked to endothelial dysfunction and thrombosis, increasing the likelihood of myocardial infarction.[13] Communicating this risk in terms of “increased heart attack risk” can resonate with middle-aged populations, who may perceive cardiovascular health as a personal priority.

Prenatal exposure to PM2.5 is associated with low birth weight and cognitive delays, with affected children scoring lower on developmental milestones by age two and three.[14] Framing pollution as a threat to children’s futures can mobilize parental action.

Older adults with diabetes or hypertension face amplified risks from pollution, including accelerated cognitive decline and cardiovascular complications.[15] Targeted messaging to caregivers and healthcare providers can amplify awareness of these vulnerabilities.

Flip the narrative, draw in attention

Narrative and design, both are crucial to effectively reframe pollution narratives. Here’s how:

1. Localisation and personalisation: Make it about the person, local communities. Tailor messages to specific demographics and geographies. For example, in agricultural regions, emphasise the link between crop burning and paediatric asthma; in urban centres, highlight the cardiovascular risks of vehicular emissions. Use localised data—e.g., “In your district, pollution causes 500 hospitalisations annually”—to enhance relevance.

2. Behavioural Triggers: Pair health risks with actionable solutions.

For instance,

“Wearing an N95 mask reduces your PM2.5 exposure by 95%”

Or

“Switching to public transport can lower your heart attack risk by 10%.”

Such messages empower individuals with tangible steps, reducing perceived helplessness.  This would also enable the public to call for better transport systems.

3. Emotional Engagement: Leverage storytelling to humanize the issue. Profiles of affected families can evoke empathy and urgency. Media partnerships and social campaigns can amplify these narratives, fostering collective identity around pollution mitigation.

The challenge

India’s pollution crisis demands urgent public engagement, yet the entities best positioned to initiate messaging face significant barriers. The government, ostensibly responsible for leading communication, has failed to translate initiatives like the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) into actionable, localized health advisories. NCAP’s focus on technical targets (e.g., PM10 reductions) lacks clarity on immediate health risks like heart attacks or asthma exacerbations, while political fragmentation and opaque data (e.g., poorly placed air quality monitors) erode public trust.

Organisations of citizens and civil society (CSOs), which could bridge this gap, are increasingly stifled. Government crackdowns—such as revoking Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) licenses and labelling activists as “anti-national”—have crippled their ability to operate with better efficiency.

Mainstream media, another potential messenger, is compromised by ownership ties to polluting industries. Corporations that profit from fossil fuels, construction etc. often control news outlets, leading to biased or minimal coverage of pollution’s health impacts. Sensationalist reporting during Delhi’s smog crises, for instance, prioritizes political blame over data-driven narratives on cardiovascular risks.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives, meanwhile, are undermined by conflicts of interest. The largest CSR spenders in environmental campaigns—such as energy conglomerates or construction firms—are often the biggest polluters. Their messaging, even when well-intentioned, risks green-washing, as seen in superficial “sustainability” ads that avoid addressing root causes like coal dependency or vehicular emissions.

In this landscape, very few credible, independent entities can consistently convey pollution’s health risks to the public. This usually leads to a communication void, leaving most citizens unaware of actionable steps to protect their health or demand policy accountability.

How do we overcome?

To address the lack of effective public messaging on pollution, it is crucial to empower grassroots leaders and enable community-driven initiatives that can advocate for change with political influence. Rather than relying solely on government agencies, civil society organizations, or corporate-backed campaigns—many of which face restrictions or conflicts of interest—mobilising of affected communities can create bottom-up pressure for policy action.

One approach is to engage farmers’ organisations by highlighting how climate change contributes to lower crop yields and how sustainable practices can help mitigate pollution. Similarly, student-led movements in schools and colleges can foster long-term engagement by equipping young citizens to push for policy reforms. Self-help groups led by women can serve as powerful advocacy networks, spreading awareness at the grassroots level. Auto-rickshaw drivers and urban workers, who are disproportionately exposed to poor air quality, can be mobilized to demand cleaner transportation policies. Low-income city dwellers, who lack access to air purifiers or private healthcare, can be organized to push for better pollution control measures. By harnessing these diverse networks, a broad and powerful coalition can be built to demand transparent air quality data, stricter enforcement of pollution controls, and citizen-focused policies that put public health first.

The driving force behind this movement should be community leaders, supported by civil society organisations and even political stakeholders. This is an opportunity for genuine grassroots leadership to emerge—one that rises to confront a pressing and tangible crisis.

What we need is an immediate coalition for change

To amplify grassroots efforts, technology and data must be democratised. Mobile apps and community-led air quality monitoring initiatives can provide hyper-localised data, enabling citizens to track pollution levels in real-time and understand immediate health risks. For instance, low-cost sensors deployed in schools and hospitals can generate actionable insights, such as linking spikes in PM2.5 to asthma exacerbations in children, empowering parents and educators to demand accountability.

Education is another critical lever. Integrating pollution’s health impacts into school curricula can cultivate a generation of informed advocates. Student-led projects, such as mapping pollution sources in their neighbourhoods or organizing drives to call for action, can foster agency and long-term engagement. Similarly, vocational training programs for urban workers—auto-rickshaw drivers, street vendors—can include modules on air quality awareness, equipping them to advocate for cleaner transportation policies.

Policy reforms must align with grassroots momentum. Governments could incentivize community-based initiatives through grants or tax breaks. Moreover, cross-sector collaboration is vital. Universities can partner with NGOs to conduct localized health studies.

Our narrative, the power of the narrative

Reframing India’s pollution crisis as a public health emergency, rather than an abstract environmental issue, is the linchpin to meaningful action. By prioritizing immediate, localized health risks—such as heart attacks, asthma attacks, and developmental delays—communicators can bridge the gap between scientific data and public mobilization. Grassroots movements, armed with technology, education, and policy support, can transform passive awareness into collective action, compelling policymakers to prioritize health over political or economic interests.

The fight against pollution is not merely about cleaner air; it is about reclaiming agency. When citizens perceive pollution as a direct threat to their families and communities, they become powerful advocates for change. India’s battle against this silent killer will be won not through top-down mandates alone, but through a bottom-up revolution—one narrative, one neighbourhood, and one life at a time.

(The author is a legal researcher with the organisation)

[1] Team, E. (2024). Human-caused air pollution led to 1.6 million deaths in 2021 in India:  Lancet report. [online] Carbon Copy. Available at: https://carboncopy.info/human-caused-air-pollution-led-to-1-6-million-deaths-in-2021-in-india-lancet-report/#:~:text=Policy%20and%20Finance-,Human%2Dcaused%20air%20pollution%20led%20to%201.6%20million%20deaths,2021%20in%20India%3A%20Lancet%20report&text=According%20to%20the%202024%20Report,%E2%82%85)%20in%202021. [Accessed 27 Feb. 2025].‌

[2] Bera, O.P., Venkatesh, U., Pal, G.K., Shastri, S., Chakraborty, S., Grover, A. and Joshi, H.S. (2024). Assessing the impact of the National Clean Air Programme in Uttar Pradesh’s non-attainment cities: a prophet model time series analysis. The Lancet Regional Health – Southeast Asia, [online] 30, pp.100486–100486. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lansea.2024.100486.

[3] Kawano, A., Kelp, M., Qiu, M., Singh, K., Chaturvedi, E., Dahiya, S., Azevedo, I. and Burke, M. (2025). Improved daily PM _2.5 estimates in India reveal inequalities in recent enhancement of air quality. Science Advances, [online] 11(4). doi:https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adq1071.

[4] Anjum Hajat, Hsia, C. and O’Neill, M.S. (2015). Socioeconomic Disparities and Air Pollution Exposure: a Global Review. Current Environmental Health Reports, [online] 2(4), pp.440–450. doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s40572-015-0069-5.

[5] Mukherjee, S., 2010. The emperor of all maladies: a biography of cancer. Simon and Schuster.

[6] Datta, P., Bhagirath Behera and Dil Bahadur Rahut (2022). Climate change and Indian agriculture: A systematic review of farmers’ perception, adaptation, and transformation. Environmental Challenges, [online] 8, pp.100543–100543. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envc.2022.100543.

[7] Mariconti, C. (2011). Understanding the Disconnect on Global Warming. APS Observer, [online] 22. Available at: https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/understanding-the-disconnect-on-global-warming [Accessed 27 Feb. 2025].‌

[8] Krittanawong, C., Qadeer, Y.K., Hayes, R.B., Wang, Z., Thurston, G.D., Virani, S. and Lavie, C.J. (2023). PM2.5 and cardiovascular diseases: State-of-the-Art review. International Journal of Cardiology Cardiovascular Risk and Prevention, [online] 19, p.200217. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcrp.2023.200217.

[9] UNICEF(2017), Danger in the Air: How air pollution can affect brain development in young children, Division of Data, Research and Policy, Available at: https://www.unicef.org/sites/default/files/press-releases/glo-media-Danger_in_the_Air.pdf

[10] Sirur, S. (2023). Exploring airshed management as a solution to India’s pollution woes. [online] Mongabay-India. Available at: https://india.mongabay.com/2023/09/exploring-airshed-management-as-a-solution-to-indias-pollution-woes/ [Accessed 27 Feb. 2025].

[11] Ammons, S., Aja, H., Ghazarian, A.A., Lai, G.Y. and Ellison, G.L. (2022). Perception of worry of harm from air pollution: results from the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS). BMC Public Health, [online] 22(1). doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-13450-z.

[12] Chakraborty, R. (2024). Mumbai’s poor AQI and erratic temperatures fuel respiratory ailments. [online] The Indian Express. Available at: https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/poor-aqi-temperatures-respiratory-ailments-9747736/ [Accessed 27 Feb. 2025].

[13] Basith, S., Manavalan, B., Shin, T.H., Park, C.B., Lee, W.-S., Kim, J. and Lee, G. (2022). The Impact of Fine Particulate Matter 2.5 on the Cardiovascular System: A Review of the Invisible Killer. Nanomaterials, [online] 12(15), p.2656. doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/nano12152656.‌

[14] Hurtado-Díaz, M., Riojas-Rodríguez, H., Rothenberg, S.J., Schnaas-Arrieta, L., Itai Kloog, Just, A., Hernández-Bonilla, D., Wright, R.O. and Téllez-Rojo, M.M. (2021). Prenatal PM2.5 exposure and neurodevelopment at 2 years of age in a birth cohort from Mexico city. International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health, [online] 233, pp.113695–113695. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheh.2021.113695.

[15] Li, N., Chen, G., Liu, F., Mao, S., Liu, Y., Liu, S., Mao, Z., Lu, Y., Wang, C., Guo, Y., Xiang, H. and Li, S. (2020). Associations between long-term exposure to air pollution and blood pressure and effect modifications by behavioral factors. Environmental Research, [online] 182, p.109109. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2019.109109.

‌

Related:

Noise Pollution Ban: Unequal standards for diverse practices?

Indian Coal Giants Pushed for Lax Pollution Rules While Ramping Up Operations

Pollution Control Norms for Coal-Fired Power Plants Relaxed Despite Modi’s Commitment to Environment

The post Catch people’s attention on pollution narrative: “Switching to public transport can lower your heart attack risk by 10%.” appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The Indian government weakened rules to curb pollution caused by its expanding coal industry after lobbying by top producers, even as it agreed internationally to phase down the use of coal, Climate Home has found.

India’s coal giants pushed back hard against environmental regulation meant to tighten up the disposal of fly ash – a byproduct of coal-fired power plants known to harm both humans and the environment if not managed properly.

Letters sent by coal companies to the Indian government, and accessed by Climate Home News through freedom of information requests to government agencies, reveal lobbying efforts to weaken federal rules between 2019 and 2023 by Coal India Limited (CIL), the world’s third-biggest coal mining company, and National Thermal Power Corporation(NTPC), one of the world’s top 10 coal-fired power companies. Top management at the state–run giants claimed that their organisations would not be able to fully comply with the regulations, which aimed to control fly ash disposal after decades of public health impacts for local communities. Even after the rules were approved, the companies continued efforts to weaken them, in some cases successfully.

The coal companies argued that financial constraints would keep them from meeting the new requirements to clean up waste accumulated over decades and prevent further ash pollution, according to the accessed documents.

In some cases, lobbying got results and regulations were eased, with the environment and power ministries drawing on arguments from both companies in official correspondence between government agencies.

In 2021, while the proposed fly ash mandates were under discussion within India, the country was negotiating the COP26 climate pact in Glasgow, which calls on governments to take action “towards the phase-down of unabated coal power”.

At those UN talks, India was widely reported to have rejected stronger language on a global shift away from coal, but it agreed to scale back unabated coal power, produced without technology to reduce its climate-heating emissions.

Despite this deal, coal infrastructure around the world has since grown, mostly driven by added coal mining and power capacity in India, China and Indonesia.

The Indian documents obtained by Climate Home reveal that the South Asian nation’s coal companies lobbied against regulations on fly ash pollution while expanding coal production at record speed.

In their correspondence with ministries, they said high fines for non-compliance with waste disposal rules were a risk to their financial sustainability and raised the prospect of coal-fired power plants being shut down, triggering a power crisis in the country.

Fly Ash Pollution

When thermal power plants burn coal for energy, the fly ash they generate as a byproduct is dumped in water-filled dam-like structures called dykes.

Old “legacy” dykes store ash from previous decades and are a major source of pollution for nearby communities, explained independent air pollution analyst Sunil Dahiya. Wet ash can leach into groundwater, while dry ash can blow away, causing air pollution and damaging crops.

Functioning disposal sites are also vulnerable to heavy rains, as they can overflow and pollute nearby settlements. This happened on at least three occasions between 2019 and 2021, according to a 2021 report by the NGO Fly Ash Watch Group.

To minimise the impacts of fly ash, companies can recycle it into products like bricks, cement sheets, panels and other construction materials – a process known as “utilisation”.

Sehr Raheja, climate change officer at the Indian think-tank Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), highlighted the need to utilise “legacy” ash given “the enormous quantity”, adding there are risks involved with it staying underground, such as water and soil pollution. As of 2019, the amount of accumulated unused ash in the country was about 1.65 bntonnes, according to a CSE report, with newer estimates suggesting even more, she said.

Controlling Pollution

Fly ash regulation – known officially as the Fly Ash Notification – has existed in India since 1999, but it was not until a 2021 update to the rules that fines were introduced for failing to comply with proper waste disposal, following the ‘polluter pays’ principle.

The regulation also imposed a mandate on thermal power plants to ensure 100% utilisation of accumulated old fly ash, as well as fresh ash produced by ongoing operations.

Documents accessed by Climate Home show that NTPC exchanged letters with government agencies asking for elimination of the mandate to clean up accumulated ash.

“It is proposed that the provisions for utilization of old legacy ash may be dropped,” reads a 2021 letter from NTPC to the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change.

The 2021 rules were nonetheless passed, and they did introduce strict fines for coal companies. However, they also included what experts called a “loophole”.

The fly ash regulation exempted power plants from having to find a use for their old legacy ash as long as the ponds where it was stored were considered “stabilised”, meaning they had been secured against leakage. But the technical specifications of how that should be done were not defined, leading to concerns that arbitrary exemptions could be granted.

Yet even after these revamped regulations came into force in late 2021, lobbying intensified.

Persistent Lobbying

In 2022, NTPC was still concerned by a deadline of 10 years to utilise all legacy ash accumulated over decades, according to a letter addressed to the environment ministry. This would force them to transfer large quantities of fly ash to end users like brick-making kilns or ceramic product makers — or pay fines.

NTPC met with regulators at the Ministry of Power and agreed an extension to the period for stabilising old ash dykes from one to three years.

In the case of “operational” ponds, officials were persuaded not to label them as legacy ash, exempting them for the requirement for full utilisation. These changes were included in a 2022 amendment to the rules.

Shripad Dharmadhikary, who leads a civil society research group Manthan Adhyayan Kendra and has worked on fly ash management, said the unclear definition of stabilisation and longer timeframe for doing it provide “a loophole for power plants to evade use or proper disposal of legacy ash”.

The lack of technical parameters meant government authorities could struggle to guarantee that no more leaks would occur even if they certified the ponds, he added.

“Threat” to coal finances

The powerful companies also managed to limit the level of fines for non-compliance in a prolonged effort that began in 2020, when the first draft proposal on the new fly ash rules was circulated among coal companies.

That included a fine of Rs 1500 per ton, which was cut to Rs 1000 in the final 2021 rules after NTPC and other coal companies opposed it and asked for it to be removed entirely.

Even after this, executives from both Coal India and NTPC expressed alarm about the financial implications of the fines.

In a February 2022 letter to the Ministry of Environment, for instance, NTPC’s then director of operations Ramesh Babu V. wrote that the company could end up paying Rs 76,000 crores ($9 billion) over a decade – an amount “significant enough to threaten financial viability of NTPC and country’s thermal sector alike”. He warned the penalties could make large power stations at mining pit heads commercially unviable, leading to a “power crisis”.

Similarly, in a 2023 letter, CIL chairman and managing director Pramod Agrawal estimated that the “financial penalty” on only one of its subsidiaries (NCL) for failure to comply with the regulations could cost the latter Rs 38,145 crores (at least $4 billion) for just the 2022- 2023 financial year.

Coal expansion

However, the threats the executives outlined to the companies’ bottom lines do not seem to have translated into lower capacity to mine coal and produce thermal power, with both ramped up drastically during and after discussions on the Fly Ash Notification.

Expansion efforts were redoubled especially after an unprecedented power crisis in late 2021, which was attributed to logistical issues causing a shortage of coal supply.

In a January 2024 conference call with investors, NTPC’s management said it was considering awarding thermal power capacity of 15.2 GW in the near future, on top of the 9.6 GW thermal capacity already under construction for the group.

CIL, in its latest annual report, announced plans to increase coal mining capacity to 1 billion tonnes by the financial year 2025-26.

A previous investigation by Climate Home News showed that European asset managers had invested substantially in both NTPC and CIL, helping India’s coal industry to expand rather than phase down in line with international commitments.

Air pollution expert Dahiya said that, while India has lower historical emissions than countries in the Global North and requires flexibility to meet its energy needs, as well as international support to move away from fossil fuels, that did not mean coal companies should be “free to pollute”.

Raheja, of the CSE, said better controls on pollution are also a matter of justice for those living near coal-fired power plants.

“The environmental regulations are critically important for maintaining the health of the environment and of communities residing near coal facilities – even of people far away – as pollution, both through air and water, can be carried to a distance,” Raheja told Climate Home News.

This article was first published on The AIDEM

The post Indian Coal Giants Pushed for Lax Pollution Rules While Ramping Up Operations appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Delhi skies are fifty shades of grey. A pun as intended as possible, because the lungs of those who breathe in the national capital region are processing the worst pollution this season. All those ‘nature is healing’ captions of photos depicting blue skies, green flora and happy fauna even in urban zones during the Covid-19 lockdown have gone up in smoke.

On Monday, Delhi recorded its worst air day till date this year with the Air Quality Index (AQI) touching 477 in the “severe” category, reported the Times of India. Delhi residents just had to look out of their windows to see and breath in the thick grey-brown haze that has engulfed the Capital. Some have begun reporting breathing problems, with a sensation in the back of the throat, and / or itching or burning sensation in the eyes as well. Some areas continue to record maximum AQI on Tuesday as well.

The national capital’s air quality remained “severe” for the fifth consecutive day on Monday, reported NDTV, as the low wind speed exacerbated the effect of stubble burning. The news report quoted V K Soni, the head of the India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) environment research centre, who confirmed that the air quality situation is likely to remain the same Delhi-NCR in the coming days. “The air quality is likely to be recorded in the upper end of the ”very poor” category on Diwali if we discount firecrackers emissions. If people burst crackers, pollution levels can increase to ”severe” to ”severe plus” category (emergency),” he said.

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Monday imposed a “total ban on the sale or use of all kinds of firecrackers in the National Capital Region (NCR) from November 9 midnight to November 30 midnight.” The NGT said, “Celebration by crackers is for happiness and not to celebrate deaths and diseases”.  Delhi’s neighbouring cities of Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Noida, Greater Noida, and Gurugram also recorded “severe” air quality.

An AQI between zero and 50 is considered “good”, 51 and 100 “satisfactory”, 101 and 200 “moderate”, 201 and 300 “poor”, 301 and 400 “very poor”, and 401 and 500 “severe”, explained the news report.

The next measurement is of particulate matter or PM levels. PM10 is particulate matter with a diameter of 10 micrometers and is inhalable into the lungs. These particles include dust, pollen and mold spores, explained the news report, levels of PM2.5 – finer particles that can even enter the bloodstream – were 381 µg/m3 at 11 am. PM2.5 levels up to 60 µg/m3 are considered safe. The PM10 levels in Delhi-NCR stood at 591 microgram per cubic meter (µg/m3) at 10 am, the highest since November 15 last year, when it was 637 µg/m3, according to CPCB data. PM10 levels below 100 µg/m3 are considered safe in India. PM10 levels are considered “severe plus” if they are 500 microgram per cubic meter, according to the Graded Response Action Plan for Delhi-NCR notified by the Ministry of Environment and Forests in 2017, added NDTV.

According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the wind speed was 3 to 4 kilometres per hour in the morning and the minimum temperature of 10 degrees Celsius. Calm winds and low temperatures trap pollutants close to the ground, adding to that moderate fog in the morning, which combines with the pollution to create smog, further reducing visibility and making the air thick and rancid. News reports stated that visibility in Delhi was as low as 600 meters at the Safdarjung Observatory, Kuldeep Srivastava, the head of the IMD”s regional forecasting centre, confirmed it, adding, the situation is likely to continue till November 15 as the wind speed is not expected to pick up.

The central government’s Air Quality Early Warning System for Delhi also said a “significant improvement in air quality is not likely” owing to slow wind speed, particularly during night time, and contribution from farm fires. “The farm fire count over Punjab remains very high which is likely to impact the air quality of Delhi-NCR and other parts of northwest India,” the reports added.

Meanwhile the National Green Tribunal bans firecrackers in all districts under the National Capital Region, as well as all cities across the country with “poor” or worse air has come into effect from November 9 to November 30. “Green crackers” are, however, permitted for two hours in places with “moderate” air quality.   The NGT ban also prohibits the sale of firecrackers in Delhi and adjoining areas till November 30. Any violation can result in a jail term, stated Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai. 

The ban will be applicable to more than 2 dozen districts across four states that are a part of the National Capital Region (NCR) and nationwide in all “cities and towns where the average ambient air quality in November last year was “poor” or worse”. According to the NDTV news report the  timing will be “8-10 pm on Diwali and Gurupurb, 6am-8 am on Chhatt and 11.55pm-12.30am during Christmas and New Year’s eve.”

Meanwhile Livemint reported that the ‘sudden ban’ had hit those involved in the production of firecrackers in Virudhunagar district’s Sivakasi. This town is the “firecracker manufacturing hub” of  the country. According to the report, “manufacturers have been blindsided by the abrupt ban, announced days before Diwali, a season when the town in Tamil Nadu sells over 80% of its crackers.”

Manickam Tagore, the Lok Sabha MP representing Virudhunagar, which includes Sivakasi, said the ban was a “knee jerk recreation” and will impact those who depend on work in fireworks factories in his constituency to make a living.

Words has to match with action. Sivakasi Fireworks industry suffered in #DeMonetisation then came #GST then SC for Green Fireworks then came unplanned #lockdown after all they manufactured Green Fireworks #Local4Diwali but now #NGT ban sale , what you’re doing Watching ????? https://t.co/rST1FRS9Rd

— Manickam Tagore MP??மாணிக்கம் தாகூர் (@manickamtagore) November 9, 2020

https://t.co/S5VeR6D2dH those friends who blindly wants to Ban Fireworks in Diwali must see the truth from IIT Kanpur on the #DelhiPollution :But Fireworks only punished lives destroyed in Sivakasi .Hope CMs addresses the root causes for #AirPollution not knee jerk reaction .

— Manickam Tagore MP??மாணிக்கம் தாகூர் (@manickamtagore) November 6, 2020

Tagore wants Union environment minister Prakash Javadekar to intervene, “There have always been challenges and calls for bans every year. But this time, after covid and lockdown, the industry will be affected in a very big way.” News reports added that Rajasthan, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Odisha and Karnataka had already banned firecrackers last week.

Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister is encouraging bursting fire crackers as long as they are made in India, “There is no restriction on firecrackers in the state. Yes, but there is a ban on Chinese firecrackers.”

मध्यप्रदेश ख़ुशियों का प्रदेश है। यहाँ पर हम ख़ुशियों पर कभी भी किसी तरह का प्रतिबंध नहीं लगाते। ?

प्रदेश में पटाखों पर कोई प्रतिबंध नहीं है। हाँ, लेकिन चीनी पटाखों पर प्रतिबंध ज़रूर है।

आप भगवान राम के अयोध्या लौटने की ख़ुशी मनाये, पटाखे जलाये एवं धूम-धाम से दिवाली मनाये! ?? https://t.co/VjVt9QClG5

— Shivraj Singh Chouhan (@ChouhanShivraj) November 9, 2020

The right wing  have begun calling this NGT ban anti-Hindu, anti-Hindu festivals 

They don’t care about factories polluting air 365 days,

They don’t care about vehicles polluting air 365 days,

They don’t care about smokers polluting air 365 days,

They care about air pollution only in Diwali and other Hindu Festivals.?#FirecrackersBan .

— Akshay Akki ಅಕ್ಷಯ್ (@FollowAkshay1) November 6, 2020

Can the Indian State Governments, #NGT, and Libtards blame this on #Diwali too?

Air quality is this worst because no Government wants to go against their Farmer vote bank who are burning Stubble none-stop

This is getting votes at the cost of people’s lives#FirecrackersBan https://t.co/X4xwu0XUfG

— Arun Pudur (@arunpudur) November 10, 2020

I have said this on record multiple times, public ally that if the govt s want, Parali cam be sorted in less than a week, permanently. But nobody is interested as it doesn’t serve their political purpose. But when they ban #firecrackers they get to news !
Simple ! https://t.co/y9z8JuKYjD

— VAIBHAV Aggarwal : वैभव अग्रवाल (@thevaibhavag) November 10, 2020

Related:

Hindutva goons continue threatening Muslim fire-cracker shop owners in MP!
You will have to pay for anti CAA-NRC protests: Open threat by right-wing 

The post Will the firecracker ban go up in smoke, come Diwali? appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Arvind Kejriwal blamed the Punjab farmers, while BJP and Congress blamed Arvind Kejriwal, for all that was happening in Delhi, where the air quality is ‘good enough’ to send you to some ‘asthma cure’ centers.

Netas are ‘protesting’ in the streets. Some students’ organisations and other groups, too, are ‘protesting’ that ‘Delhi must be given ‘clean air’ (as if you can buy it from Reliance’s Big Bazar).

Watching the protesting people, I realised how hypocriticalour politicians as well as the publicare. The question we must ask today is whether Delhi’s environmental crisis is because of the farmers burning stubble? Or are farmers being used as a soft target, ignoring the vast construction activities, vehicular pollution and above all, despite all pretensions, our ‘festivals’, which we glamorise so much. Modern day, commercialised Diwali and other festivals have become the biggest threat to our environment, and, actually, a disaster for our future, if we donot change the mode to celebrate them. There was a time when crackers were burst only on the Diwali day but now the trend has been extended to the Dusshera,Chhuth and other sundry festivals as well as marriage parties, India- Pakistan matches etc.

I am here, in the Eastern Uttar Pradesh, and every year I come to this place, particularly during the festivities of Diwali, to protect myself from the torture that we face in Delhi but here too crackers were burst. Noise pollution was already there, thanks to the temples but on Chhutth day, we saw crackers being burst. Next morning, we saw smog all over but we don’t care. We are hell bent on pleasing our gods, who cannot do anything, but will only help the brahmanical interests.

While flying from Chennai to Gorakhpur, I came via Delhi. I can say that the smog was not limited to the Delhi sky. It had actually spread across the other parts of Northern India, and various satellite images now confirm that. It is painful to see how India’s smaller towns, too, are now being choked.

And it will continue as long as our political class, and people at large,do not act. We will destroy our environment, and no God will be able to help India if the people do not act. That is why, I remember Periyar, who was the man who had the courage to speak up against the evils of religion. There were many other reformers, who spoke against these evils, which are among the main reasons for the continuous destruction of our environment. Can we not imagine how much North India was engulfed in darkness on the Diwali day! But once you raise this question, the deliberate thing will be – what about Christmas and Eid? I tell them all that no other festival matches Diwali, in its current form, in the destruction of nature because bursting of crackers is considered to be an essential ‘religious’ activity. No political leader of today can appeal to the people not to burst crackers, but just greet each other and light diyas. Why cannot the government act against the crackers factories? But it will not, because it will allow things to come from the source and penalise the poor workers.

Our festivals are related to crop harvesting, and I have mentioned it many times, but given the state of nature today, we need to have a serious look at the way we celebrate them. On Holi, we burn so much of wood all over the country. Can anyone imagine burning of wood at a time when it will not be available, even for burning dead bodies. That apart, we destroy our environment.

Chhath has just finished. This festival is called the festival of ‘nature’, but the fact is, these are celebrations of male supremacy. Right from Karwa Chauth to Bhai Dooj and now Chhath, they all are part of our male dominated brahmanical system, but none of the politicians will ever speak against them. None of our ‘revolutionaries’ will speak. Now, Chhath has been cleverly ‘nationalised’ through TV channels, and rivers and banks are all filled with hordes of people. The next day, you find only garbage on these banks. Photographs appear, of women worshiping the sun in the highly polluted Yamuna river. I am amazed to see the ‘faith’ that makes these women, including young girls, to give ‘ardhya’ to the sun, standing in the hugely toxic water of Yamuna. I am not impressedby their ‘faith’, but can only pity their ignorance. I am shocked that political leaders and government did not advise people not to go to these dangerously polluted areas in the name of faith. It should have stopped them, but then, it will not because our politicians remain highly hypocritical.

India is destroying its natural resources in the name of faith. Watch our festivals of Durga Puja, Ganesh Puja, and the amount of garbage that is left over after the ceremony. After the festivities are over, we immerse all the idols in rivers and seas. Has anybody asked why this cannot stop? How will we keep our water bodies clean and safe, with such massive levels of rubbish being thrown into them?

It is not the issue of north or south. It is the issue of our cultural corruption. The struggle to protect our environment is not just a government job. In fact, politicians and governments do not have the courage to speak bluntly, as they are in the habit of using these ‘religious’ events to further their political agenda. Once the politicians have discovered the benefits of our ignorance, they will not make a move to remove it, but our constitutional bodies must work. Our Environment Ministry must act, we must have a river protection department, which must stop people from further polluting them. Faith cannot be an excuse to destroy our environment. Do not blame the farmers of Punjab for the ills of Delhi, have the courage to completely ban crackers and immersion of idols in various water bodies of the country. Reduce vehicular traffic and stop all those ‘developmental’ activities which are being undertaken at the cost of Nature. No developmental work should be allowed, unless an impartial environmental assessment study is done which approves it. Of course, we know how this is done these days. Modiji is developing a new plan to ‘develop’ Delhi. The historical buildings might become ‘history’. So, further digging and polluting of the city will continue. A green Delhi has been converted into a cemented zone, which will choke it further.

It is time we all understand the dangers of our ignorance and superstitions, which are now threatening our environment. Our ‘developmental’ module is also helping the corrupt and the cronies and does not deal with the issue of protecting the earth. Can they protect our nature, who want to ‘exploit’ it? We need to set our priorities right, only then we will be able to protect our right to breathe fresh air. Otherwise, the situation is only going to worsen in future.

Related Articles:

Diwali has been celebrated by Muslims for centuries

Piety and Noise Pollution, The Face Off – India 2005

Toxic Air To Blame For Lung Cancer; No Longer Just A Smoker’s Disease

On The Gangetic Plain, 600 Million Indians Feel Effects Of Air Pollution And Changing Climate

As Nearby States Report 350 Stubble Fires In 7 Days, Delhi Prepares To Deal With Bad Air

The post Who is Responsible for the Current Climate Crisis in Delhi? appeared first on SabrangIndia.

But the promise of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to turn the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) into a “mission” and reducing air pollution levels by 35%–from the current target of 30%–by 2024, and the Congress’s promise of strengthening the NCAP and declaring a “national health emergency” are not enough, said experts.

In its current form, the NCAP is flawed because it lacks a legal mandate, does not have clear timelines and does not fix accountability for failure, IndiaSpend reported on February 6, 2019.

The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) promised to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases through regulation and energy efficiency in all sectors but does not mention air pollution.

“It is a step towards creating a democratic demand for clean air,” Hem Dholakia, senior research associate, Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), a Delhi-based think-tank, told IndiaSpend. “However, not all election promises get fulfilled.”

That air pollution featured in the manifestos of political parties indicates improved awareness and some intent to resolve the issue, said Sumit Sharma, director, earth science and climate change division of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), a Delhi think-tank.

“Other than general elections, the coverage of the issue could be more significant at the state and city level elections, especially for the states and cities where the levels are extremely high,” said Sharma.

In India, air pollution fails to alarm public representatives.

Members of parliament from 14 Indian cities–including Kanpur, Varanasi, Delhi, Jaipur, Srinagar, Patna and Lucknow–all among the world’s top 20 most-polluted cities, ranked by the World Health Organization, largely remained “inactive” and “silent” on the issue, according to an April 2019 report titled “Political Leaders Position and Action on Air Quality in India” by Climate Trends, a Delhi-based advocacy.

Source: Manifestos of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Indian National Congress
 

The manifestos and toxic air

The BJP’s promise of turning NCAP into a “mission”, which means institutionalising it better and increasing accountability at the Centre, is not enough because the NCAP has several limitations: it does not address ineffective regulatory capacity, takes a city-by-city approach, ignoring rural areas and industrial regions and fails to outline a “forward-looking strategy” that tackles the major sources of pollution, said Santosh Harish, fellow at the Center for Policy Research (CPR), a Delhi-based think-tank.

“Given these limitations in the current NCAP, I am not sure how much difference it would make as a mission, and, therefore, I felt that the BJP manifesto could have been more ambitious,” said Harish. The Congress manifesto does “a good job of signaling intent and urgency”, he added. By recognising air pollution as a national public-health emergency, it is the first such recognition of the true scale of the problem, something absent even from the NCAP.

The Congress manifesto also promises to set up an independent and overarching Environment Protection Authority (EPA), replacing other existing institutions.

“I am not sure whether a new authority will be any more effective than the current agencies,” said Harish. “But it’s promising that they recognise that substantial structural changes may be needed to reform the institutions and make them in their words, ‘independent, empowered and transparent’.”

Dholakia of CEEW, however, believed that both strategies could be more ambitious if India has to achieve its national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) by 2030.

Most states will achieve significant improvements in air quality only through reductions in surrounding areas, said Dholakia, quoting an independent March 2019 CEEW study in collaboration with the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis. “Therefore,” he added, “We will require regionally coordinated approaches.”

Measures that prioritise development can also lead to air-quality improvements in India, even if they are not primarily targeted at air pollution, said experts. These measures often fall under the jurisdiction of departments where air-quality managers are not represented and do not have policy frameworks that prioritise air quality. These include economic and social development, energy or agricultural policies or urban management, said Dholakia.

If combined with advanced technical emission controls, such development measures could provide NAAQS-compliant air quality to about 85% of the Indian population, said Dholakia. To meet even some of these promises, the new government will need to be “truly committed” to a “low-carbon pathway”, greater political will, better implementation and enforcement and more investment in monitoring, he added.

Clean air not a popular demand

Air pollution does not appear to be a public priority in India.

An analysis of the news and social media posts over a three-year period show poor public understanding of the major causes and the solutions for air pollution, according to a March 2019 study titled Hazy Perceptions, by Vital Strategies, a global health advocacy.  

The Vital Strategies study examined 500,000 news and social media posts in 11 countries from South and Southeast Asia to gauge public understanding about the causes of and solutions to air pollution over three years to 2018. Their main findings:
 

• Public understanding of the long-term health consequences of poor air quality is low. News and social media posts largely mention short-term health impacts such as coughing or itchy eyes, far more than health threats caused by chronic exposure, such as cancer.
• Public discourse does not centre on the most important drivers of air pollution. The most important sources of pollutants, such as household fuels, power plants and waste burning, receive less public concern than sources such as vehicular emissions.
• Public discussions tend to focus on short-term remedies. Conversations about short-term personal protection such as wearing face masks are much more common than ones on long-term solutions such as bans on trash burning.
• The conversation is driven by seasonal variations in air quality. Air pollution is most frequently discussed from September through December, when air quality is worsened by the winter season and crop burning practices adopted by farmers. This poses a challenge for engaging the public to support effective air pollution control, which requires year-round, sustained measures.

Why does the perception of the larger masses matter? “Political manifestos generally respond to the demands from the society, and good air quality is not something which is yet demanded at a priority by masses in the country,” said Sharma of TERI adding that this is mainly due to limited awareness on status and impacts of air pollution and the presence of other immediate important issues.

In the coming months, IndiaSpend will report on India’s air-pollution crisis, how it impacts public health, why it should be given high political priority and–using global examples–explain the public policies that can address the crisis.

(Tripathi is a principal correspondent with IndiaSpend.)

Courtesy: India Spend

The post Why Election Promises To Cut India’s Air Pollution Are Not Enough appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The post Annual Crop-Burning Health Bill = 3 Times India’s Health Budget appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Lok Sabha constituency Varanasi (above) is one of the world’s most polluted cities when measured for PM 2.5. Many gases and particulate matter that cause air pollution also have greenhouse properties, exacerbating climate change.

Soon, your skin feels the coarse particles that make up this dust. There is enough of it here, according to 2018 World Health Organization (WHO) data, to classify Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s parliamentary constituency as one of the cities with the most polluted air on the planet.

Home to 1.2 million people, Varanasi, sprawled along the banks of India’s holiest river, the Ganga, has since 2016 frequently overtaken India’s national capital New Delhi in terms of air pollution, according to WHO data.

Varanasi is not alone. Home to over 600 million, the Gangetic plain hosts four other cities–Kanpur, Faridabad, Gaya and Patna–that occupy the top five slots in the 2018 WHO list of the world’s most polluted cities, measured for particles that are 2.5 micron in diameter (PM 2.5) or less.

These particles are 1/25th the diameter of a human hair. They are known to cause cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, even cancers. India’s cities also occupy 11 of 15 of the slots in WHO’s list of most polluted cities in the world when a larger pollutant–PM 10–is considered.

The impact of this air pollution doesn’t just stop at human health. Several of the gases that cause air pollution also have greenhouse properties–they trap the sun’s heat and push up the earth’s temperature, and the latest research implicates these pollutants as changing local and global climate by means still being studied. It does seem, experts said, that temperatures are rising on the Gangetic plain, and the monsoon is becoming more uncertain.

“Air pollutants, a lot of them, also have an effect on the climate,” said Erika von Schneidemesser who studies the links between air pollution and climate change at Institute of Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) Potsdam, a German research institute. “If the particulate matter released in the air has a high amount of black carbon (or soot), then it will absorb more sunlight and contribute to warming and thereby climate change.”

While several gases–such as carbon dioxide (CO2), methane and nitrous oxide–were known to cause warming, it was earlier believed that particulate matter in the air reflects sunlight, causing a cooling effect.

Emerging research now indicates otherwise. While some particulates have a cooling effect, others cause an increase in temperature, studies suggest.

The year 2018 was the warmest on record for the planet since record keeping began in 1880, according to an assessment by US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the largest repository of climate data in the world.

As temperature fluctuations become the new normal, people are paying less attention to weather, said a 2019 February study based on twitter interactions. People tend to remember weather events only for as long as two to eight years, and if unusual weather continues for longer, they will no longer find it unusual or be able to tell the difference, the study said.

This is the fifth story in our series on India’s climate-change hotspots (you can read the first story here, the second here, the third here and the fourth here). The series combines ground reporting with the latest scientific research and explores how people are adapting–or trying–to the changing climate.

The human cost of air pollution

Boatman Ravi Sahani, 24, scans the Assi ghat, or steps–one of the most popular in Varanasi along the Ganga–for tourists, whom he will offer a 30-minute ride. It is 2 pm. He has been here since 4 am and will remain here till 8 pm, pleading with tourists to take a ride in the boat.

But few are interested.

The river water is dark and the air smoggy. Tourists complain that the polluted air makes them cough and causes their skin to itch. For Sahani this means reduced income.

“We have done this work for generations. The money I make is barely enough to survive,” he said. “If I had money to start something else, I would, but I don’t have it.”

Ravi Sahani, a boatman in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, said fewer people are interested in a boat ride on the Ganga, affecting his only source of income. The river water is dark and the air smoggy. Tourists complain the air makes them cough and causes their skin to itch.

Varanasi had no good air day in all of 2015, according to a 2016 report called Varanasi Chokes by the Centre for Environment and Energy Development (CEED), IndiaSpend and Care4Air. “One of the reasons why we chose to study Varanasi was to make a point that the problem of air pollution is not limited to Delhi alone. The need was to take it beyond the national capital,” said Aishwarya Madineni, Bengaluru-based researcher and report’s author.

While air quality in high-income countries is improving, nearly 97% of those living in cities–with a population of more than 100,000–in low and middle-income countries are now breathing polluted air.

In 2016, the WHO attributed 7 million deaths–comparable to the population of Hyderabad–to indoor and outdoor pollution. Of these, the highest number of deaths, 2.4 million, were in south-east Asia alone. As air quality declines, more people will be at risk of stroke, heart disease, lung cancer as well as chronic and acute respiratory disease, according to the WHO.

Cities in Asia, including India, have some of the world’s most polluted air. The darker shades represent higher levels of PM 2.5 (particulate matter less than 2.5 µm diameter) in the map above, updated regularly by the WHO.
Source: World Health Organization

These cities will also be drivers of climate change, experts said.

Air pollution is affecting temperature, rainfall

Air pollution can cause a net rise or fall in temperatures and change rainfall patterns, experts said.

When something burns, the chemical process of combustion leads to the release of either a gas or particulate matter like soot. In most instances, gases and particulate matter are released together. Scientists said they have a “fair understanding” of the nature of both most gases and particulate matter.

“But there are blind spots in our knowledge,” said Schneidemesser of IASS-Potsdam, and it is difficult to say how these chemicals will interact with each other.

If the particles and gases causing warming dominate the mix, the net result would be a rise in temperature. Particles such as those of dust, sea salt and ash suspended in the air are known as an aerosol. Some aerosols absorb more heat from the sun, others have reflective properties, causing temperatures to drop.

“Aerosols can make significant changes to cloud properties,” said Sachchida Nand Tripathi, professor and head, department of civil engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur. He has, for years, studied how air pollution caused changes in local and regional environment.

In the clouds, water condenses around particulate matter to form droplets, which then come down as rainfall. Aerosols can weaken rainfall. Here’s how it works: while the water available in the clouds is the same, it is now redistributed among the large number of particles available.

As a result, two patterns are emerging. “One, it shows the increasing aerosols in the atmosphere are slightly weakening the Indian monsoon,” said Tripathi. “And two, over a short time scale, it can redistribute the rainfall.”

But the impact of aerosol pollution on rainfall is a complex mechanism, which depends on moisture availability, amount of pollution and altitude, among other factors.

At the local level, this could mean that rainfall might vary greatly within a city. For instance, a highly polluted city centre might receive a sudden, short burst of rainfall that can even lead to flash floods, as Nagpur reported in August 2016. Aerosol pollution can interfere with cloud formation and cause hailstorms, similar to the one reported from Delhi in February 2019.

Of the world’s 15 most polluted cities–measured for PM 2.5–13 are Indian. All 13 are in the Indo-Gangetic plain, which stretches from Pakistan in the west to Bangladesh in the east.

In 2017, nearly 7% of global carbon emissions came from India, up from 6% in 2016 according to a December 2018 report from the Global Carbon Project, a collaborative effort between several research institutes to quantify global greenhouse-gas emissions.

Currently, India is the world’s fourth largest emitter of CO2, behind China, US and the European Union (EU). While US and EU emissions are falling, Indian and Chinese are rising. The US continues to have the highest per capita carbon emissions in the world.

These emissions come from the burning of fossil fuels or even changes in land-use patterns. Large scale deforestation could lead to a net rise in carbon emissions from a country.

Countries With World’s Highest CO2 Emissions

Carbon emissions from India and China continue to rise, while those of the US and the EU are declining. The US has the world’s highest per capita carbon emissions.
Source: Global Carbon Budget Report 2018

A majority of Indian cities in the top 20 most polluted cities in the world are in the Indo-Gangetic plain.

What makes this region, that stretches from Pakistan in the west to Bangladesh in the east, so polluted?

“Apart from being densely populated the region also has a unique topography,” said Tripathi. “To the north of the Indo-Gangetic plain are the Himalayas, and to the south is the Deccan plateau. This creates a valley effect and causes the air to stagnate.”

Northwesterly winds that blow across the region spread polluted air across the Indo-Gangetic plain. Winds can also spread pollution from Central Asia and Pakistan all the way to parts of Punjab, said Tripathi.

The Indo-Gangetic plain is a “global aerosol hotspot”, causing the ice in the Himalayas to melt faster, said a 2011 NASA study. The aerosol is also causing rainfall variability during the summer monsoon, another 2015 study said.

But it is not just cities in the Indo-Gangetic plain that are polluted.

“There is high pollution around both Mumbai and Hyderabad as well. In the case of Mumbai, due to the topography, the pollution gets carried by the winds to the oceans,” said Sagnik Dey, associate professor at the Centre for Atmospheric Sciences, IIT-Delhi. Dey has studied the distribution of aerosols over India using satellite imagery and found that the distribution changes every season, varying even between neighbourhoods.

This image from NASA, taken on August 23, 2018, shows aerosol pollution–a mix of particulate matter and gases–over India. The red over the Indo-Gangetic plain in north India indicates aerosol pollution caused by soot, the purple haze over Rajasthan indicates aerosol pollution due to dust from the Thar desert, while the blue specks over northern Gujarat are from aerosol pollution caused by the presence of sea salt in the air.
Credit: Earth Observatory, National Aeronautical and Space Agency, USA

Dey highlights another gap: the lack of air-quality sensors.

“We have just over 130 continuous automatic air monitoring systems, of which 40 are in the NCR [National Capital Region],” said Dey. “Nearly 500 districts in India don’t have a single monitoring system, whether automatic or manual. To put it simply, we have no idea how polluted many of India’s tier-2 and -3 cities are because we are not measuring the pollution levels there at all.”

Back in the Indo-Gangetic plain, the effects of India’s inaction are plainly evident.

A lifetime of changes

Baijnath Majhi is 87. He has never gone to school. Like his father, he is a boatman, as are his children and grandchildren. Over his lifetime, Majhi has watched the Ganga’s water get visibly polluted and the air quality in Varanasi deteriorate.

“We can earn money only when people come,” said Majhi, “I have been sitting here since morning but there hasn’t been a single customer yet.”

Baijnath Majhi said he has seen air and water quality in Varanasi deteriorate over his lifetime. These are changes that should, normally, take hundreds of years, according to experts.

For those like Majhi, the polluted air means a worsening quality of life and a cycle of poverty he hasn’t been able to escape. Majhi accepts whatever a tourist is willing to pay. The alternative is day long idleness.

Many changes that Majhi has seen over his lifetime tend to play out over a timescale of hundreds of years, said experts. But the sheer quantity of air pollution has meant that those like Majhi are able to notice a perceptible difference.

The amount of CO2 in the atmosphere has almost doubled since the pre-industrial age till now, according to the Global Carbon Budget report released in December 2018. Between 1960 and 2017 alone, the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere has gone from 310 ppm (parts per million) to 410 ppm–a rise of over 32%.

Level Of CO2 In The Air Since 1950s

Source: Global Carbon Budget 2018 report

A lot of this pollution does not come from vehicles in India. “Household pollution in rural India is a big contributor mostly caused when solid fuels like coal or wood is used for cooking,” said Dey. This is a feature common to most developing countries, he added.

Improving monitoring

In Delhi in January 2019, unprecedented air pollution and public pressure led the government to launch the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP)–a five-year plan that focused on improving air quality across 102 cities in India.

A key component of this plan is increasing the monitoring of data using low-cost air monitoring devices. “For real change, different departments have to work together; the pollution control board alone will not be able to make much of an impact,” said a senior official at the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC), speaking on condition of anonymity since he was not authorised to talk to the media.

The NCAP has its flaws: it lacks legal mandate, does not have clear timelines for its action plan, and does not fix accountability. It also ignores air quality in rural India, as IndiaSpend reported in February 2019.

Solutions to tackle air pollution exist, but state government officials must lead the way, said the MoEFCC official. “An increase in public pressure is needed to drive change,” he added.

Coordination between government departments to address air pollution is another requirement. In Varanasi, for instance, the civic body in charge of making regulations rarely consults the pollution control board.

Dey of IIT-Delhi believes that while the NCAP is “heading in the right direction”, it is not enough. “We need to invest a lot more in measuring the data,” he said.

Measuring air pollution and climate-change impacts is difficult, said IASS-Potsdam’s Schneidemesser, because “there are so many interactions and feedback mechanisms” between air, land and ocean systems.

But on the bright side, “if regulations are put in place, it is possible to see improvements in air quality on the timescale of weeks and at times even days”, she said, citing the example of Beijing–a city where the minimum temperature falls to -8 deg C– where air pollution was brought down by 35% over five years to 2017.

Beijing’s transformation was possible because the government had a plan, various departments enforced the plan and the laws and helped millions of households switch from coal to natural gas for winter indoor heating. In Varanasi, it would be a start if government officials started talking to their colleagues.

This is the fifth of a series on India’s climate change hotspots. You can read the first part here, the second here, the third here and the fourth here.

(Disha Shetty is a Columbia Journalism School-IndiaSpend reporting fellow covering climate change.)

Courtesy: India Spend

The post On The Gangetic Plain, 600 Million Indians Feel Effects Of Air Pollution And Changing Climate appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Six cities in the National Capital Region (NCR)–Gurugram, Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Bhiwadi, Delhi and Noida–represent almost half the number of Indian cities in the top 20. Gurugram was the most polluted city in the world in 2018, closely followed by Ghaziabad, recording 135.8 μg/m3 average daily PM 2.5 levels, more than 13 times the limit of 10 μg/m3 recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).

PM 2.5 refers to particulate matter measuring up to 2.5 microns in size, small enough to “penetrate deep into the human respiratory system and from there to the entire body, causing a wide range of short- and long-term health effects”, the report said. PM 2.5 is known to pose the greatest risk to human beings, potentially leading to cardiovascular and respiratory disease, and cancers.

Source: 2018 World Air Quality Report

While Delhi “typically receives most media coverage as one of the world’s ‘pollution capitals’”, there are other cities in northern India and Pakistan recording higher annual average PM 2.5 levels, the report notes. Patna (7th) and Lucknow (9th), both outside the NCR, rank higher than the capital, but receive markedly less attention in the national media, suggesting that there may be other air pollution hotspots going unnoticed.

Indeed, Thane near Mumbai in Maharashtra showed the worst air quality in the country today (March 5, 2019), according to the IQAir Air Visual website, a centralized platform for global and hyper-local air quality information in real-time, which was used to compile the report. The city recorded a “hazardous” figure of 354 on the US Air Quality Index (AQI) scale, which uses a colour-coded scale between 0-500 to communicate health risks.

Source: airvisual.com/india
 

The post Gurugram Most Polluted City In The World, South Asia Most Polluted Region: New Report appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Only Patiala among 74 cities assessed by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) met the national safe air standards as on February 4, 2019, said a CPCB daily bulletin.

On January 17, 2019, Ghaziabad, an industrial city bordering capital Delhi, reported a 24-hour average for toxic particulate matter (PM) 2.5 that was 14 times higher than World Health Organization’s (WHO) safe standard. The PM 2.5 average that day in Ghaziabad was six times higher than even India’s own, more lenient, safe-air standard. The national standard allows 2.4 times higher levels of particulate matter than the WHO’s.

The air quality in the world’s most polluted city, Delhi–home to 20 million people–remained above safe limits almost all days this winter between November 2018 and the first week of January 2019, IndiaSpend reported on January 17, 2019.

To fix this pollution crisis, the Indian government launched its first-ever national framework called National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) on January 10, 2019.
 

 

With a budget of Rs 300 crore for financial years 2018-19 and 2019-20–about Rs 2.9 crore per city–the programme will focus on 102 polluted Indian cities. The plan is to bring the country’s overall annual pollution levels down by 20-30% over the next five years to 2024. The plan counts 2017 as the base year.

The programme that envisages a national source inventory for air pollution will issue guidelines for indoor air pollution, expand air quality monitoring network in cities and in villages and conduct air pollution health impact studies.

NCAP, however, is a flawed plan as we explain later, because it lacks legal mandate, does not have clear timelines for its action plan and does not fix accountability for failure.

India saw 1.24 million deaths in 2017 due to polluted air, IndiaSpend reportedon December 7, 2018.

Source: Central Pollution Control Board

Targets are not ambitious enough to make a significant difference

Twenty-eight of India’s 74 cities (about 38%) assessed on February 4, 2019, by the CPCB struggled to breathe that day. Cities such as Lucknow, Varanasi, Ujjain, Patna, Delhi, Kolkata, and Singrauli recorded ‘poor’ and ‘very poor’ air quality.

Another 35 cities, including Jaipur, Kalburgi, Jalandhar, Mumbai and Pune, suffered ‘moderately’ polluted air.

While moderately polluted air could cause breathing discomfort to those who have asthma, lung or heart diseases, severely polluted air make even healthy people ill.
 

Possible Health Impacts Of Polluted Air

Source: Central Pollution Control Board

Most of these cities, under the NCAP, are expected to create their own plans to curb air pollution over the next five years. No city-level targets were announced in the NCAP. But even if the cities were to reduce their pollution levels by the national target of 20-30%, they will still not be breathing safe air.

Take for example the 14 cities that make it to the global worst list. Even after we make reductions in tune with the NCAP’s national targets, none of them will meet national standards for PM 2.5 by 2024.

Source: Annual Averages For 2017: World Health Organization, Annual Averages in 2024: Reporter’s Calculations

Even after the targeted pollution cuts, the PM 2.5 levels in these 14 cities is likely to range 7-12 times over the WHO safe limit and 2-3 times over the national safe limit.

The NCAP agenda: How it will work

The NCAP is described as an evolving “dynamic” five-year action plan that may be further extended after a mid-term review in 2024, as per the government release. It will be implemented in the 102 cities that did not meet the annual national standards of clean air over five years to 2015. These criteria, however, do not include more than 130 polluted cities.

 

The programme, guided by the ministry of environment, will be implemented with the help of other ministries, such as road transport and highways, petroleum and natural gas, renewable energy, heavy industry, housing and urban affairs, agriculture and health.

Mitigation actions proposed involve plantation drives in highly polluted areas, management of road dust, power sector compliance to stringent pollution guidelines and curbs on stubble burning.

“The good thing is that it is quite comprehensive in a way that it is looking at India as a whole and not just as Delhi-NCR which has been the case very often for pollution related conversation,” Hem Dholakia, senior research associate, Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), a Delhi-based think-tank, told IndiaSpend. Certification of monitoring systems and installation of pollution forecast systems were also good ideas introduced in NCAP, he added.

But the national ambient air quality standards need to be reviewed to declare standards for other pollutants, including finer particles than PM 2.5, Dholakia suggested. “As we bring in measures to control pollution, the nature of pollutants, their composition and contribution changes,” he said.

Air quality tests done in November and December 2018 in Delhi and Gurugram showed dangerous levels of heavy metals such as manganese, nickel and lead in the air. Of these, India does not even have standards in place for manganese.

A plan without timeline or teeth

Unlike the draft made public in July 2018, the final NCAP has a national target of 20-30% pollution reduction. But experts have found it lacking in critical areas.

Post-NCAP, the environment ministry is unlikely to announce any large-scale air pollution reduction effort for a couple of years. In this scenario, NCAP should have signaled some major sectoral changes and listed clear timelines, said Santosh Harish, fellow, Center for Policy Research (CPR), a Delhi-based think-tank.

“NCAP should have had clarity around the actions, targets and timelines for sectors like transport, power and construction,” Dholakia said. A clear matrix to monitor the programme is essential to check its efficacy, he added.

“Unless there are clear targets to follow, how can regulating bodies find teeth to ensure pollution reductions?” Sunil Dahiya, senior campaigner, Greenpeace India, a non-profit, told IndiaSpend. “It is needed even more because NCAP has no legal binding over states–it is just a central scheme.”

NCAP talks about “stringent enforcement”. But one of the major reasons why State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs) fail to enforce laws is because existing environmental regulations do not provide them with enough teeth or flexibility to act, Harish said.

“So one of the things that NCAP could have laid out, given that it recognises governance as a problem, is some kind of a commitment towards reforming the regulatory structures [under Air Act and Environment Protection Act],” he suggested.

Why Delhi’s pollution control strategy failed
Currently, the national capital Delhi is the only city in the entire country with an active long-term Comprehensive Action Plan (CAP) for air pollution control and an emergency response plan, the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP).

CAP measures include traffic management, use of cleaner fuels and increased electrification of vehicles. GRAP, on the other hand, kicks in when pollution in the city crosses hazardous levels and includes emergency measures to cut pollution–ban on garbage burning and entry of trucks into the city and the closure of power plants, brick kilns and stone crushers.

GRAP failed because 12 responsible agencies including the transport department, the ministry of environment, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation which operates across the NCR and neighbouring states could not work together. At GRAP meetings, the attendance of the responsible agencies was as low at 39%, IndiaSpend reported on January 18, 2019. 

There is high risk that other cities will end up with pollution plans modelled around Delhi’s CAP. This template is flawed because it has a laundry list of more than 90 action points with loose timelines.

NCAP’s city-specific plans could have been more effective if they use the information gleaned from Delhi. Source apportionment studies conducted for Delhi, for instance, are readily available as a template for other cities. So NCAP could simply have suggested specific pollution reduction targets for sources, such as transport and industries, with clear timelines, said Dahiya.

NCAP also mentions regional and transboundary action plans but provides no clarity about what will be done. It would have been really helpful to see an airshed management plan being explicitly mentioned in the NCAP, said Harish. Airshed management combats pollution in a geographical area where local topography and meteorology limit the dispersion of pollutants.

In the absence of an airshed management plan “…cities may make plan to tackle pollution but they may not have the wherewithal to deliver on those actions given that many sources may fall outside of their purview”, said Dholakia.

Some of the plans submitted by cities and accessed by Greenpeace are only limited to municipality boundaries, and they talk about only transport management and road and flyover construction. It is very important for cities to stretch their neck and look out of their peripheries to deal with sources–like industrial clusters, brick kilns, power plants located just outside their jurisdiction–while figuring out their action points to tackle air pollution, said Dahiya.

No concrete action for rural India
About 75% of 1.09 million deaths in India in 2015 attributable to air pollution were in rural areas, IndiaSpend reported on January 18, 2018.
In NCAP, the government talked about monitoring air quality in rural areas for the first time, said Dholakia. But the plan says nothing further about mitigation strategy which is disappointing, said Dahiya.

Finances could be a problem area for NCAP too: Its proposed cost is about Rs 638 crore over the next five years. But CEEW’s research found that to clean the country’s air to meet just the national standards, about 1.1 to 1.5% of India’s annual gross domestic product will be needed, said Dholakia.

“It is dynamic document,” said Dahiya. “I hope these things are fixed as the plan evolves.”

(Tripathi is a principal correspondent with IndiaSpend.)

Courtesy: India Spend
 

The post Patiala Only Indian City With Clean Air Among 74 Assessed, As New Anti-Pollution Plan Stumbles At Start appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Kolkata: People wearing masks participate in an awareness rally on pollution.

While 93% believe that air pollution has a negative impact on health, 80% feel sick when the air quality in their city worsens, the study, Perception Study on Air Quality, commissioned by The Clean Air Collective, a network of more than 80 civil society organisations, citizen groups and experts working on the issue of air pollution and conducted by CMSR Consultants, a research group, across 17 cities and 5,000 respondents, found.

The study noted that only 13% people always seek information about air quality in their city while 12% never seek such information.

Delhi has the highest number of people (100%) who have heard about air pollution, followed by Chennai, Bengaluru, Pune and Kolkata (all above 98%).

Air pollution has also become a household issue: 78% of people interviewed reportedly discussed air pollution at home on numerous occasions.

India is ranked as one of the world’s most polluted countries, with 14 cities in the top 20 most polluted cities globally, according to the 2018 Global Ambient Air Quality Database of the World Health Organization (WHO).

Rural deaths, life expectancy and air pollution: The Indian equation
In 2016, 195 deaths per 100,000 people in India were attributed to air pollution, just behind Afghanistan (406) and Pakistan (207), according to data from the State of Global Air, an initiative of independent population health research centres Health Effect Institute of Global Air and Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation.

Kanpur had the world’s worst fine particulate matter (PM 2.5)–known to pose the greatest threat to human health, these are particles smaller than 2.5 micrometres, or roughly 1/30th the thickness of the human hair–of 173 micrograms per cubic metre of air (μg/m3 annual mean), which is 17 times the WHO’s annual mean of 10 µg/m³ and three times more than the national ambient air quality annual mean of 40 µg/m³, IndiaSpend reported on May 2, 2018.

High levels of PM 2.5 have reduced life expectancy of Indians by up to nine years relative to what it would be if the WHO-prescribed 24-hour safe level of PM 2.5 (25 µg/m3) was met, according to 2016 Air Quality Life Index by the University of Chicago.

The poorest and the marginalised appear to bear the brunt of air pollution. In 2015, about 75% of deaths linked to air pollution in India, some 1.1 million people, were in rural areas, Vox reported on October 31, 2018.

Two-thirds of the Indian population is rural with 80% households operating on biomass like wood and dung for cooking and heating, which together contribute to 25% of outdoor pollution in India.

Indoor air pollution caused 66,800 deaths of under-five children in India in 2016, 10% more than 60,900 deaths of under-five children caused by outdoor air pollution in the same year, IndiaSpend reported on October 29, 2018.

The affected know the least
The survey shows large disparity in awareness of air pollution and basic terminologies like PM 2.5, PM 10 and air quality index (AQI).

While more women (80%) than men (78%) discuss air pollution at home, awareness of technical terms, such as  PM 2.5 and PM 10, was lower among women, 27.7% and 14.5%, respectively, compared to men (31.1% and 20.3%).

More women are aware of AQI (21.6%) than men (17.6%), but they don’t understand its importance.

More women (34.8%) felt that air pollution affected them to a “large extent” and to “some extent” (46.1%), compared to 31.3% and 44.9%, respectively, for men.

The awareness about technical terms was found to be lowest among respondents of smaller cities, such as  Singrauli (12% for PM 2.5 and 6.3% for PM 10) in Madhya Pradesh and Angul (11.3% for PM 2.5 and 5.7% for PM 10) in Odisha. Dhanbad (63.7%) in Jharkhand and Raipur (83.3%) in Chhattisgarh had the most number of people who were not aware and did not understand the relevance of AQI.

These were also the regions with the highest proportion of people who regarded the air quality in their city as ‘unhealthy’: 85% in Angul, 64% in Lucknow and 62% in Korba.

Source: Perception study on Air Quality; figures in %

Scope for improvement
The data not only highlight low awareness but also reflect how information is disseminated inadequately, especially among women and in small cities.

The reliance on government websites and AQI boards for information was reported to be 26% and 17%, respectively, as a source of awareness, compared to newspapers (70%) and mobile apps (36%).

While 32% “strongly agreed” that polluting companies needed to be closed, even if it put jobs at risk, more than 50% agreed on the need for laws to control air pollution.

As many as 70% of Indians polled said they had taken steps in their individual capacity to mitigate the impact of bad air quality, and 86% showed interest in knowing more about AQI.

Source: Perception study on Air Quality; figures in %

(Singh, a bachelors student at St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, is an intern with IndiaSpend.)

Courtesy: India Spend
 

The post 80% Of Indians Polled In 17 Cities Believe Air Pollution Affects Quality of Life: New Study appeared first on SabrangIndia.