ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES IN

CONTEMPORARY INDIA
z

DEGRADING AIR QUALITY

Radhika Aggarwal (20158)

z
WHAT IS AIR POLLUTION?

 Air pollution is the result of gas and particle emissions, and the chemical
reactions they have in the atmosphere.

 Two kinds of contaminants are especially hazardous: fine particulate matter

(PM2.5) and ground-level ozone.

 PM2.5 infiltrates lungs and permits poisonous mixtures into the circulatory
system.

 Ground-level ozone is both a greenhouse gas and an air pollutant –a threat to

the wellbeing of humans and the whole ecosystem.
z
EXTENT OF AIR POLLUTION IN INDIA

 A fifty percent of the 12.4 lakh deaths in India ascribed to air contamination in 2017 were
of people younger than 70.

 The average life expectancy in the nation could be 1.7 years higher, if air contamination is
contained at a level at which human wellbeing isn't threatened.

 World Air Quality Report, 2020’, prepared by Swiss organization ‘IQAir’, placed twenty-
two Indian cities in the list of the thirty most polluted cities in the world.

 In a study by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), air pollution was found as the
second leading health risk factor in India after child and maternal malnutrition.

 A report published by the UNEP (United Nations Environmental Programme) estimated the
contribution of indoor or household emissions from cooking and heating to ambient air
pollution fluctuates between 22% to 52%
 AIR QUALITY INDEX
 z is an apparatus for viable correspondence of air quality status to the general public in terms, which
Air Quality Index
are straightforward. It changes complex air quality information of different toxins into a solitary number (index
value), terminology and colour. There are six AQI categories, namely

I. Good;

II. Satisfactory;

III. Moderately polluted;

IV. Poor;

V. Very Poor;

VI. Severe.

 Each of these categories is decided based on ambient concentration values of air pollutants and their likely health
impacts (known as health breakpoints). AQ sub-index and health breakpoints are evolved for eight pollutants
(PM10, PM2.5, NO2, SO2, CO, O3, NH3, and Pb) for which short-term (upto 24-hours) National Ambient Air
Quality Standards are prescribed.
 HISTORY OF POLLUTION

z
The way of thinking which streams from the Vedas and the Upanishads shows divine respect for nature
and all its indications.

 This aspect has been conveyed into Buddhist way of thinking and keeps on finding articulation in the
current acts of customary Indian factions.

 "All in this manifested world, consisting of moving and non-moving, are covered by the Lord. Use its
resources with restraint. Do not waste the property of others - distant and yet to come." – Isha Upnishad

 The case for development and the expulsion of poverty was made distinctly by India's Prime Minister,
Indira Gandhi, at the United Nations Conference on the Human Climate at Stockholm in 1972, where
she expressed that the expulsion of poverty is integral to the goal of an environmental strategy for the
world.

 The 'polluter pays principle' was for the first time, applied and defined in the case of Indian Council for
Enviro-Legal Action v. Union of India.

 The first anti-air pollution law was framed by the British in the then Indian capital in Bengal in 1905,
The Bengal Smoke Nuisance Act, 1905. The British also enacted Shore Nuisance (Bombay and Kolaba)
Act, 1853; the Oriental Gas Company Act, 1857; and the Bombay Smoke Nuisance Act, 1912.
 z
YELLOW TAJ MAHAL

 A 6 million metric ton-a- year oil refinery in Mathur has been the subject of bitter environmental
controversy since the priceless Taj Mahal in Agra lies only 40 km away.

 Prime Minister Indira Gandhi asked for an expert committee to be appointed in July 1974 to
examine how the pollution could be minimized

 Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) and Tecneco, conducted their own studies and found
that the long-term S02 concentration at Agra would be 1.50 ug/m3 and 1.75 ug/m3 respectively.
Both of these levels were harmless.

 Pollutants like sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide, generated by vehicles and industries, react
with air moisture to form acids that eat into the marble resulting in change of colour and even
corrosion.

 Another reason for this yellowing of Taj Mahal is corrosive downpour or acid rain.
z