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♤ India’s air pollution, ranked among the worst in the world is adversely impacting the lifespan of its citizens, reducing most Indian lives by over three years - WHO.
♤ Over half of India’s population - 660 million people -live in areas where fine particulate matter pollution
is above India’s standards for what is considered safe -‘Economic & Political Weekly’
♤ Of the world’s top 20 polluted cities, 13 are in India. Air pollution slashes life expectancy by 3.2 years for the 660 million Indians who live in cities.
♤ 2014 global analysis of how nations tackle environmental challenges has ranked India 155 among 177 nations and labelled the country’s air quality among the worst in the world.
♤ India is placed as the “bottom performer” on several indicators such as environmental health impact, air quality, water and sanitation and india’s environment health severly lags behind the BRICS nations - Environmental Performance Index 2014.
♤ The Ganga and Yamuna are ranked among the world’s 10 most polluted rivers.
♤ Despite the directives of the National Green Tribunal, civic agencies continue to allow concretisation in green belts. Booming real estate and demand for housing units is leading to change of land use and shrinkage of natural conservation zones such as forests, water bodies, wastelands, sanctuaries, groundwater rechargeable areas.
♤ Mindless concretisation of ground and green belts and booming real estate has led to heat island effect - shortwave radiations emanate from concrete surfaces at night time. Concretisation prevents ground water recharge thus depleting green cover. Tall buildings also block winds thereby reducing their cooling effect. Excessive concretisation also leads to weakening of trees.
♤ The environmental crisis in India is many-sided and multi-faceted which has to be addressed on different fronts and by a variety of different actors. We need to harness scientific and social-scientific expertise to develop and promote eco-friendly technologies in construction, energy, water management, industrial production and transportation. Scientific innovation needs to be complemented by legislative change as well as by changes in social behaviour.