India Supersedes China When It Comes To Pollution

According to an evaluation on National Air Quality Index (NAQI) released by the Central Pollution

Control Board (CPCB) reveal that 15 out of the 17 cities in India are being monitored for not meeting the ambient air quality standard. At the same time, Greenpeace India, also reveals that the infrastructure to monitor air pollution in India also depicts its wretched condition, despite the severity of the pollution.

As an example to point out the poor air-quality monitoring stations in India, the CPCB has mentioned the number of the high quality monitoring stations in the big cities of Europe, US, and China. In fact, China has 8 stations in its major cities, all of which has an excellent quality to monitor and keep pollution at bay. In India, there is an average of just 2.5 stations across the only 17 cities.

As per the data of the evaluation, cities like Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Luck now, Faridabad is topping the list of the most polluted regions between July to November. In fact, the condition of Jaipur is abysmal and the air quality remains poor, in fact, much below the desired level almost every day. So is the condition of Delhi, Faridabad and Patna. 

India started using AQI index (the standard to monitor daily air quality) just last year, while on the other hand the big cities of the countries have been using it for a long time. Several pollutants that are being considered the main culprits are CO, PM 2.5, NO2, Ozone and SO2 are monitored as part of the AQI. "As the political capital - and indeed, the most polluted of all cities - the bad air in Delhi gets the most attention. But, scratch below the murky surface, and you will find concentrations of PM2.5 in several other cities - Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Muzaffarpur and Faridabad, among others - that would justify the triggering of a 'red alert', like Beijing does. Even the government's own largely inadequate NAQI data reveals that 23 of the 32 stations across India are showing more than 70% more of the national standards," said Greenpeace India campaigner Sunil Dahiya.

In relation to this, something that is always required to be mentioned is Beijing has a four-level alarm system that seeks exercise restrictions on outdoor activities and the use of personal vehicles, emissions from factories and power plants, if the air quality is extremely poor.

Dahiya added, "The NAQI, in its present form, fails to acknowledge the scale of the problem. Data is only available in 17 cities, which is a shockingly low number considering the size of our country. There is an immediate need to diversify and upgrade the manual stations to ambient air quality monitoring stations feeding data to the online NAQI portal. The existing system needs to include short- and long-term solutions and advisories."

In this circumstances, Greenpeace is giving a call for an ambitious and systematic Clean Air action plan with highly focused targets and clear timelines. In addition they are also looking up to maintain the health standards of the country. However, this is a grand campaign, the results of which will take years to come. 

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