Data Lab | Gasping for breath: What is India doing about its air pollution crisis?
Story highlights
In the 2022 World Air Quality Report published by Swiss company IQAir, India was placed eighth among the world's most polluted countries in terms of air quality. What is India lacking in its fight against air pollution? WION Data Lab takes a deep dive.
Moving down three spots, India was ranked eighth in the world's most polluted countries in terms of air quality in the 2022 World Air Quality Report by Swiss company IQAir. As per the findings of the report, 12 out of the 15 most polluted cities in central and south Asia were located in India, as they were in the previous year.
The report states that India's annual average PM2.5 level in 2022 was 53.3 g/m3, slightly lower than the 58.1 average in 2021. It was, however, significantly higher than the World Health Organisation (WHO) annual PM2.5 concentration limit of 5 g/m3.
Bhiwadi in Rajasthan's Alwar district was the most polluted city in India and the second-most polluted in the Central and South Asia area, with annual PM2.5 levels of 92.7 g/m3.
Darbhanga and Asopur in Bihar were not far behind, with 90.3 and 90.2 levels, respectively. Patna, Ghaziabad, Dharuhera, Chapra, Muzaffarnagar, Greater Noida, Bahadurgarh, and Faridabad are among the other Indian cities on the list of the 15 most polluted in the region.
What does India lack in its fight against air pollution?
India has implemented a variety of regulations aimed at various sources of air pollution, ranging from industry to road traffic. Despite this, its air quality has steadily deteriorated, to the degree of today's public health catastrophe.
On January 10, 2023, India's National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) marked four years of its implementation. Three years after its inception, the targeted cities have made little headway in decreasing air pollution, and in some cases, such as Chennai and Mumbai, pollution has worsened.
“The difficulty in achieving a lasting impact from these initiatives is multi-faceted,” Suresh Ramasubramanya Iyer, Senior Fellow and Area Convenor, Centre for Environmental Studies, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) told WION.
“Air pollution stems from numerous sources: vehicular emissions, industrial pollutants, construction dust, and agricultural practices like crop burning, to name just a few. Controlling each of these sources presents its own unique set of challenges. Moreover, plans that seem effective in theory often confront various obstacles during implementation. They require robust collaboration and coordination between different departments and sectors,” he said.
“Besides, ensuring that sufficient funding and resources are available, raising public awareness, encouraging participation, and enforcing strict pollution control measures are equally vital. Another often overlooked obstacle is the lack of political willpower to tackle air pollution. It's a complicated issue with no quick fixes. Many politicians might be hesitant to act due to the potential economic implications of stricter regulations, creating a conflict between short-term economic gains and long-term environmental health,” he noted.
ALSO WATCH | Air pollution can affect Covid-19 vaccine efficacy: Study
Only six nations attained WHO's safe limit
Chad, a landlocked nation in central Africa, was named the world's most polluted, with annual PM2.5 levels of 89.7 g/m3. Iraq came in second only to Chad (80.1), followed by Pakistan (70.9), Bahrain (66.6), and Bangladesh (65.8).
Based on the IQAir analysis, only 13 of the 131 nations and areas covered in the report achieved PM2.5 concentrations of 5 g/m3 or less – the WHO limit for yearly PM2.5 concentrations. Guam in the western Pacific Ocean had the lowest annual PM2.5 levels at 1.3 g/m3, followed by French Polynesia (2.5), the US Virgin Islands (2.9), Bermuda (3.0), and Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba (3.3) in the Caribbean.
At the same time, just six nations, namely Australia, Estonia, Finland, Grenada, Iceland, and New Zealand, reached the WHO's safe level.
Heath toll of air pollution
Air pollution killed an estimated 1.6 million people in India in 2019 – the highest number in the world, according to a Lancet report. The report also noted that air pollution was the most severe in the Indo-Gangetic plain, where New Delhi and many of the most polluted cities are situated.
“Air pollution is a mixture of harmful chemicals which via multiple mechanisms will damage the airways, blood vessels, and can lead to irreversible organ damage,” Dr Arjun Khanna, Head, Department of Pulmonary Medicine, Amrita Hospital, Faridabad, told WION.
“Airways and lung diseases are getting more difficult to treat. The number of chronic intractable coughs I see these days are substantially more than it was a decade ago. Previously, when a patient asked whether they could buy an air purifier for their home, I would tell them that we didn't have enough evidence to support the usage of these devices. My response has entirely changed now. Air purifiers, in my opinion, are no longer a luxury for people who live in Delhi NCR, but rather a necessity. The number of children and adolescents suffering from chronic respiratory disorders is far more than in the past. These trends are highly alarming,” said Dr Khanna.
Way forward for India
Air pollution mitigation is a multi-stage process. “We need to understand that it takes decades to reduce high air pollution levels. The US took almost three decades to come to its present level,” Prof Sagnik Dey, Institute Chair Professor, Centre for Atmospheric Sciences, IIT Delhi, told WION.
“Efforts cannot be ad-hoc arrangements and we have to target reducing emissions at the source,” noted Prof Dey.
“India needs to prioritise interventions, impose stringent emission norms, adopt a cross-sectoral plan in air sheds, focus on sustainable plans and engage with awareness activities at multiple levels,” he added.
WATCH WION LIVE HERE: