air pollution यूपीएससी 11 december 2023

No more hot air about air pollution

If the government is serious about the fight for clean air, it should ensure that the issue is discussed in the winter session of Parliament

manifesto for the 2014 elections

1 Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his colleagues in the Bharatiya Janata Party must have forgotten what they have said about the menace of air pollution in their manifesto for the 2014 elections. 

2 To brush up their memory, here is a quote from page 36 of the said manifesto:

🍁 “The present generation has to make this world a better place to live. A better place not only for us, but for our future generations as well.

🍁 We have to nurture the environment, institutions, people, resources and amenities… 

🍁We will take Climate Change mitigation initiatives with all seriousness and work with the global community and institutions in this regard. 

🍁We will: (do) Ecological Audit of projects and pollution indexing of cities and townships will be done on a scientific basis. Pollution control mechanisms will be set up on priority basis”.

Only promises

2019 manifesto

 In 2019 manifesto:

 “We have evolved technologically better strategies and devices to map the level of pollution in cities and rivers 

and have taken effective steps to reduce the level of pollution in major cities, including the national capital. 

We will convene the National Clean Air Plan into a Mission and we will focus on 102 most polluted cities in the country. 

Through concerted action, we will reduce the level of pollution in each of the mission cities by at least 35% over the next years.” 

Living in Delhi and breathing its polluted air, they should have understood by now that the promises still remain the same — as only promises.

National Clean Air Programme that BJP promised

1 in its manifesto was officially launched in 2019, 

2 comprising 131 most polluted cities, due to the utter negligence of the government, the programme has ended up being a non-starter. 

In the million-plus (population) cities

1 where the National Clean Air Programme is supposed to have done miracles चमत्कार, 

2 people still experience tortured breathing in the aftermath of profit-motivated growth for which the BJP is full of self-praise. 

released the World Air Quality Report और वायु प्रदूषण से होने वाला नुकसान

1 When IQAir released the World Air Quality Report ,, 39 Indian cities were named in the list of the 50 most polluted cities in the world. 

2 The report said that air pollution is the second biggest risk factor for disease in India. 

3 In 2019, a Lancet study found that nearly 1.6 million deaths in India could be attributed to air pollution, comprising 18% of the total deaths in the country.

Disease burden

India’s air pollution is solely responsible for the highest number of diseases such as :

🍁 chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (50% of all cases in the world are in India), 

🍁asthma (13% of global burden is in India) and

🍁 rising cases of cancer and 

🍁stroke throughout the country.

🍁 reduced life expectancy, of nine years, at the present stage.

🍁 Even the World Economic Forum reports that the cost India pays in terms of air pollution is ₹7.91 lakh crore annually.

What we are facing

The adapted safety standards of the World Health Organization have said that

 the annual average concentrations of PM2.5 should not exceed 5 ug/m3. 

Lured by power and guided by corporate greed, the party in power has never cared to revisit the promises made to the people.

सरकार द्वारा कानून में ढील देना

1 Let the country have a look at the amendments made by the Modi government in the forest and environment-related legislations. 

2 They were all meant for the destruction of forests and environment; not for their protection. 

3 The Great Nicobar Development Plan 

is an assault on the richness of the biodiverse abundance of the islands,

 with a disastrous impact on the air, water and environment conditions of India as a whole. 

4 The Central Vista project

 has caused unimaginable damage to the air of the capital. 

The ₹20,000-crore project has resulted in the loss of tens of thousands of trees in Lutyens’ Delhi. 

building laws

To ensure the Central Vista Project, the government blatantly disregarded building laws in the country and found shelter in the outdated Government Buildings Act of 1899

 Pollution from the indiscriminate demolitions (recently, 80,000 tonnes of debris were heaped in Noida)

 and carbon dioxide emissions from an ever-growing number of vehicles (over 3.38 million private cars in 2021 in Delhi) cannot be ignored. 

stubble burning को जिम्मेदार ठहराना

Yet, discussions on air pollution by the government and the political forces behind it always revolve around stubble burning and ‘irresponsible’ farmers.

Practices worth examining

1 urgent proactive plan

The existing and alarming situation of air pollution in the country warrants an urgent proactive plan on the part of the government to protect life expectancy.

2 lives are of importance

 government should understand that people and their lives are of  importance; not the profits of the government cronies. 

3 discuss in the winter session of Parliament 

If the government is serious, it should find the time to discuss in the winter session of Parliament the severe crisis caused by the frightening rate of air pollution. 

4   wind path forests

 There are various worthy practices worth emulating such as “wind path forests” in different countries and India’s own concept of “Social Forestry”. 

5 This is the time to act, and to give hope to the people. 

The Prime Minister should convene an all-party meeting urgently to set the ground for India’s fight for ensuring safe air and environment

Source the hindu