Worsening air quality

17/10/2019

Air pollution occurs when harmful or excessive quantities of substances including gases, particles, and biological molecules are introduced into the Earth's atmosphere. Air pollution in India is a serious issue, ranking higher than smoking, high blood pressure, child and maternal malnutrition, and risk factors for diabetes. At least 140 million people breathe air 10 times or more over the WHO safe limit and 13 of the world's 20 cities with the highest annual levels of air pollution are in India. Air pollution contributes to the premature deaths of 2 million Indians every year. In urban areas, most emissions come from vehicles and industry, whereas in rural areas, much of the pollution stems from biomass burning for cooking and keeping warm. In autumn and winter months, large scale crop residue burning in agriculture fields - a low cost alternative to mechanical tilling - is a major source of smoke, smog and particulate pollution. India has a low per capita emissions of greenhouse gases but the country as a whole is the third largest after China and the United States. One of the most important reasons for concern for the growing air pollution in the country is its effects on the health of individuals. Exposure to particulate matter for a long time can lead to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases such as asthma, bronchitis, lung cancer and heart attacks. The Global Burden of Disease Study for 2010, published in 2013, had found that outdoor air pollution was the fifth-largest killer in India and around 620,000 early deaths occurred from air pollution-related diseases in 2010. Over a million Indians die prematurely every year due to air pollution, according to the non-profit Health Effects Institute. Over two million children half the children in Delhi have abnormalities in their lung function, according to the Delhi Heart and Lung Institute. Over the past decade air pollution has increased in India significant. Aasthma is the most common health problem faced by Indians and it accounts for more than half of the health issues caused by air pollution.
Air quality of Jammu and Srinagar cities is worsening continuously because of varied reasons, no action is being taken on several important steps identified in the Action Plan, which was prepared early this year in compliance to the directions of the National Green Tribunal. Moreover, there is no end to the lack of coordination between the Government agencies although they are supposed to work in unison so as to minimize the air pollution. On the basis of air quality data submitted by the State Pollution Control Board through Environment Data Bank under National Air Monitoring Programme, Jammu and Srinagar have been declared as non-attainment cities by the Central Pollution Control Board for violating the standard permissible norms for Respirable Suspended Particulate Matter (RSPM). Jammu and Srinagar cities have the level of air pollutants towards higher side as such violate the standard permissible limits.
Due to this, these cities figure at Serial No.28 and 29 respectively in the list of a total of 104 non-attainment cities across the country. Vehicular emission has been reflected as major cause of air pollution in Jammu and Srinagar cities. The other causes are road dust due to bad road conditions, industrial pollution, construction and demolition activities and garbage burning. Moreover, it has been mentioned in the Action Plan that Jammu district is having maximum number of vehicles registered amongst all the 22 districts of the State.

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