To those, who think or believe India to be least affected by air pollution need to see the new journal ‘The Lancet,’ which has highlighted the harshness of air contamination across the country. In every one minute, two people are dying due to polluted air, alleged the new study published recently. According to the reports, pollution over Northern India is digging out a heavy toll; causing two deaths in one minute. The report also said that India hosts some of the world’s most polluted cities, which is really concerning for the Indian government.
The new study, mutually conducted by 48 leading scientists has also placed Delhi and Patna as India’s most affected cities. With elevated levels of the Fine particulate matter (PM2.5), Delhi and Patna are set among world’s worst polluted cities. Published in the medical journal, the 48 scientists-endorsed also highlighted how air pollution is contributing to more than millions of deaths each year in India.
In the new report, scientists have listed Patna and Delhi as the most polluted cities in the nation as well as the world. Both cities have annual PM 2.5 absorption of over 120 micrograms per cubic metres, which is nearly 12 times higher than the guidelines, prescribed by World Health Organisation (WHO). While WHO’s annual guidance suggests PM 2.5 levels are ten micrograms per cubic metres, in Delhi and Patna’s atmosphere, the level is extremely high. The new study had sourced these statistical data from the WHO’s urban air quality record of 2016.
Due to the excessive exposure to ambient and domestic air pollution, each day, nearly 18,000 Indian are departing their lives, and hence Indian atmosphere now has emerged as the single largest environmental health threat to the world. While earlier, ambient air pollution was estimated to affect the municipal areas, the new survey has reported about the impacts of air pollution in non-urban regions too.
As air pollution and climate change are deeply connected with each other, scientists have urged the Indian Governments to embark upon both segments collectively. The Lancet also suggested that the abnormal changes in climatic patterns pose an extreme calamitous threat to the general wellness of human being as well as Earth’s ecology. In addition to this, concluded the climate change to be the greatest threat to the populace of the 21st century and if the right measures are taken, this can be transformed into the most major health opportunities.
As per the statistics of the report, coal-fired power plants are 50% contributing to the ambient air pollution in the country. The country is spending more than Rs 7 crore per annum just for monitoring climate change and air pollution across the nation. There are no credible data available which can suggest the exact number of people who have suffered or been suffering from lung and related infections or disorders and the number of deaths, directly attributable to air pollution, and hence currently it is quite difficult to say, for now, how intense the impacts of air pollution is in India.
However, from the estimated death rates, it is quite confirmed that, air pollution is not just a climatic issue now; it has been becoming more monstrous and if right steps are not taken soon, it may end up wiping out the entire nation, or may be the globe; suggested the new academic journal.
