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Breathless Capital: Reasons and Initiatives to Combat

Introduction

Air pollution is defined by the World Health Organisation (WHO, 1996) as “substances put into the air by human activity in concentrations sufficient to cause harmful effects to health, property, crop yield, or to interfere with the enjoyment of property.” [1]

Pollution is a worldwide conflict however Delhi seems to bare the larger brunt of it in India. The capital of the country renowned for its rich heritage has now become synonymous with grey smog and masked inhabitants. The crisis has been actively challenged yet it persists with greater and more significant health risks. The city also has to face even harsher conditions during winters when it ranks globally as one of the most polluted cities to live in. Air pollution is an amalgamation of various sources that contribute to the overall depletion of air quality. Whether it is vehicular emissions, industrial activities or even construction dust, there is not one solution that can rid a city of it entirely. Simply fretting about this situation is not enough. Regulatory actions in play must be stricter in order to completely eradicate the dire issue. While the situation only gets worse one reasoning for the worsened conditions especially during the current season of winters is a phenomenon known as ‘temperature inversion’. Temperature inversion, traps the pollutants close to the ground which leads to smog – the visible haze. Consequently, we observe the mases of Delhi roaming around in stuffy masks to prevent health risks and also prolong their life. Addressing the crisis requires  an in depth analysis of the situation. Currently, New Delhi’s government has made a decision to stop construction work in areas that lie within a one-kilometre radius of AQI hot spots. The thick smog that encapsulates every building in the city has also led the government to ask primary schools to refrain from running in an offline mode in order to prevent the young lives from being severely affected by it and possibly switch to an online mode of imparting knowledge for the time being until the crisis is in better control. While concerns rise at a quick rate, the current aim is to see the levels in pollution deplete at a quicker rate.

Reasons

The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) in India monitors air quality at over 450 sites around the country as part of the National Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Programme (NAMP) to analyse concentrations in industrial, residential, transportation, and environmentally sensitive areas. The primary goal of this monitoring network is to determine whether or not national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) are being met. If an area fails to satisfy the NAAQS, it is categorised as a non-attainment area, which means that adverse health impacts are likely. According to the CPCB, 94 cities in 22 states registered non-attainment zones between 2011 and 2015. The growing number of cities failing to meet the NAAQS calls into question the efficacy of past and current initiatives as well as their execution. Delhi, India’s capital, is one of the cities with non-attainment zones.[2]

The citizens’ health and well- being are at threat due to the megacity’s decreasingly dangerous air quality in recent times. Delhi’s air pollution issue is substantially caused by the intricate relations of multiple factors, including auto emigrations, erecting dust, artificial exertion, and agrarian burning in neighbouring countries. An adding number of buses are being driven on Delhi’s roads, contributing to air pollution in the megacity from vehicle emigrations. Private vehicle power has increased dramatically, and this is substantially due to the use of antiquated, emigration- ferocious transportation systems. Another significant cause of air pollution is artificial exertion, which releases a variety of adulterants into the atmosphere, including particulate matter, heavy essence, and unpredictable organic composites( VOCs). The unbounded growth of assiduity in and around Delhi has led to the atmospheric discharge of dangerous substances, worsening the megacity’s air pollution problems. The air burden is further increased by open burning ways used in husbandry and waste operation, as well as by erecting dust from growing civic structure systems.

Delhi’s air pollution issue extends beyond its boundaries; other agrarian countries frequently burn their stubble. The volume of adulterants released into the atmosphere by burning agrarian waste has an impact on the quality of the air in a particular area. In confluence with unfavourable rainfall patterns, this event constantly. Delhi is the most polluted state in India, according to the Air Quality Index. Though the majority of the media has concentrated on the cause of air pollution in New Delhi during the winter months, it also occurs throughout other seasons. The lack of efficient municipal services causes two major issues: open rubbish burning and the widespread usage of diesel generators in response to regular power outages. Water supply and sanitation, storm water drainage, waste water treatment and disposal, solid and hazardous waste management, and enough and safe food and housing are all failing to keep up with urban growth in Delhi. All of this resulted in a rise in pollution levels.

Initiatives

An initiative called Atmospheric Pollution and Human Health (APHH) has been funded by the Indian Ministry of Earth Sciences, the Newton-Bhabha Fund, the Indian Medical Research Council, and NERC to support research on the causes, effects, and potential solutions to reduce air pollution in Delhi. Four interconnected areas make up the programme: confirming the origins and emissions of urban air pollution; comprehending the underlying chemical and physical processes; examining mitigation and treatments; and assessing the effects of air pollution on health outcomes. The four themes will be comprehensively covered by five distinct initiatives. Among these initiatives is Clean Air in Delhi through Implementation, Mitigation, and Engagement (CADTIME), which seeks to determine what reasonably priced, practical measures might be used to significantly reduce air pollution.

In order to uncover information and policy gaps, explore long-standing concerns, and highlight the major obstacles, the policy review seeks to contextualise Delhi’s air quality interventions within the larger evolution of environmental politics and policies in India. By doing this, it brings to light the historical conflicts associated with the intricate interplay between economic progress and environmental preservation. In order to investigate the most optimal possibilities for solutions, the goal of the policy review is to establish a baseline of knowledge. Examining the development of air quality control in India requires taking into account the country’s political and constitutional structure, as well as more general environmental protection concerns.

Traditionally, the start of contemporary environmental protection is attributed to Indira Gandhi, the prime minister at the time, who attended the Stockholm UN Conference on the Human Environment in 1972. Indira Gandhi’s stance on environmental conservation underwent a sea change after the UN summit. In fact, although her prior concentration had been mostly on wildlife protection, she now addressed for the first time more general environmental challenges and how they relate to the historical obligations, economic growth, and development of industrialised countries. India’s current approach to environmental policy, which views the environment and development as interconnected and crucial national pillars, is encapsulated in this speech. In actuality, the ratio of environment to development has changed throughout time.

Following Indira Gandhi’s participation in the Stockholm conference in 1972, the Indian constitution was amended to include environmental protection. In particular, Art. 48a stipulates that:

The state shall endeavour to protect and improve the environment and to safeguard the forests and wild life of the country

Moreover art. 51(g), Part IV – Fundamental duties – stipulates that:

It shall be the duty of every citizen of India to protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers and wild life and to have compassion for living creatures.

These two articles become even more poignant if read in conjunction with art. 21, which affirms the right to life:

No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law.[3]

Over time, the Supreme Court has provided evidence to support the connection between environmental conservation and rights to life. Moreover, the Supreme Court has made clear in significant court cases such as M.C. Mehta v. Union of India, Damodhar Rao v. Municipal Corporation, and Subhash Kumar v. State of Bihar and consequently, public health is dependent on a clean and healthy environment.

Important environmental laws were passed following the 1972 Stockholm Conference and in accordance with the principles outlined in the Constitution. These laws include the Water Act of 1974, the Air Pollution Act of 1981, the Environment Act of 1986, the Environmental Pollution Control Authority of Delhi NCR (1998), the National Environment Policy (2006), which was the first strategic initiative for environmental protection that aimed to integrate environmental protection with economic and social development and explicitly took equity between and among generations into consideration, the Environmental Protection Act of 1978, and, more recently, the National Green Tribunal (2010).

Even longer-term solutions, such making CNG mandatory or moving industrial estates, did not significantly improve the situation of the air, which has become a public health emergency, especially in the major cities, despite the implementation of the NAAQS.

The Supreme Court of India gave the government instructions in November 2016 to create and implement a Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) to decrease the number of occurrences of severe pollution in the Delhi National Capital Region (NCR) in order to resolve short-term episodes. The Union environment minister notified the GRAP in January of 2017. Depending on the amount of air pollution in the city, the GRAP consists of a series of reactive and progressively harsher interventions.

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Written by- Rupika Goundla  

 

 

References:

Nagdeve, Dewaram A. “Environmental Pollution and Control: A Case Study of Delhi Mega City.” Population and Environment 25, no. 5 (2004): 461–73. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27503896. 

AIR POLLUTION IN DELHI: A REVIEW OF PAST AND CURRENT POLICY APPROACHES (no date) WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment . Available at: https://www.witpress.com/Secure/elibrary/papers/AIR18/AIR18041FU1.pdf.

 

 

[1] Nagdeve, Dewaram A. “Environmental Pollution and Control: A Case Study of Delhi Mega City.” Population and Environment 25, no. 5 (2004): 461–73. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27503896.

[2] Nagdeve, Dewaram A. “Environmental Pollution and Control: A Case Study of Delhi Mega City.” Population and Environment 25, no. 5 (2004): 461–73. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27503896.

[3] AIR POLLUTION IN DELHI: A REVIEW OF PAST AND CURRENT POLICY APPROACHES (no date) WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment . Available at: https://www.witpress.com/Secure/elibrary/papers/AIR18/AIR18041FU1.pdf.