FRIDAY, APRIL 25, 2025
Ways to tame air pollution
Published on Mar 30, 2025
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- Notwithstanding the Supreme Court’s assertion that the right to breathe is a fundamental right, India’s air quality has not improved much. The fact has come to light in a recent report published by a Swiss technology company on air pollution in which 16 Indian cities have prominently figured in the list of 50 most polluted cities of the world, even after spending thousands of crores so far through the National Clean Air Policy (NCAP) in the last eight years. The utter failure of this ambitious project is clearly indicative of the fact that not much efforts have been made to implement the anti-air pollution programme as ten out of 16 Indian cities that have been declared as most polluted, are under NCAP, despite the fact that it is the most expensive initiative that the country has taken up to combat air pollution. The failure raises a question mark about our ability to ensure sustainable development in the country.
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- In the said study, it has been found that the presence of PM 2.5 in the air has risen alarmingly in many cities including national capital Delhi although more than INR 11 thousand crore have been allocated to NCAP since 2019 with the aim to clean the air of 130 cities of the country. Despite such a huge allocation it’s a pity that India stands at the fifth place among the most polluted nations’ list. As NCAP has failed to produce any positive outcome, various questions are also being asked about its viability, besides demands to scrap it at once. In absence of any sincere efforts to reduce the numbers of hazardous particles in the air, India may turn into a gas chamber sooner than later, where large-scale deaths can occur due to various lung alignments.
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- It is no gainsaying that if we are really interested in combating global warming, we will have to make an all-out effort to clean the air first as air pollution creates greenhouse gasses which are responsible for the rising temperature of the earth. In the modern era, the largest air polluter is the emissions from fossil-fuel driven vehicles. All big cities of India have not been able to tame vehicular pollutants so far, despite adopting various plans like odd-even schemes or investing in mass rapid transport (MRT) projects. It is time now to reduce the numbers of private vehicles operating on our city roads every day. People should be encouraged to avail MRTs as much as possible. At the same time, the use of electric vehicles should be encouraged by reducing their prices. For instance, two varieties of electric cars are now available in India at present which are priced below INR 10 lakh, while the prices of fossil fuel driven cars start from INR five lakh. Efforts should be made to reduce the price gap as much as possible. At the same time, the authorities should keep a close watch on other air pollutants like industries, construction sites, etc. as proper policy and strict vigil seems to be the key to clean air.
Nagaland Districts
