Air Crisis
India’s escalating air pollution crisis is one of its gravest public health challenges, yet it remains strikingly absent from mainstream cultural narratives.
India’s escalating air pollution crisis is one of its gravest public health challenges, yet it remains strikingly absent from mainstream cultural narratives.
Within a fortnight, the degree of air pollution in the industrial cities of Durgapur and Asansol have further crossed the pollution levels of the country's highest polluted cities in recent times.
According to the 2010 Global Burden of Diseases (GBD), published by the WHO, indoor air pollution is the second largest killer in India after blood pressure, claiming two lives every minute.
Besides, air pollution ranks among the leading risk factors contributing to the disease burden in most South East Asian countries and India is no exception.
The National Human Rights Commission has asked the Union Environment, Forest and Climate Change Ministry to take steps to curb air pollution and negative impacts of climate change in Delhi, Odisha and other states.
A lawyer mentioned the matter before a bench headed by Chief Justice U.U. Lalit and sought an urgent hearing in the matter.
Unfavorable meteorological conditions with slower wind speed and sudden spike in farm fire incidents are attributed to the dip in air quality. An AQI between 401 and 500 is categorized as severe.
The pollution in and around Delhi has reached an alarming level as the air quality index (AQI) has been recorded as very poor on Wednesday.
The overall Air Quality Index (AQI) of Delhi stood at 396 at 10am, worsening from 357 at 4pm on Friday. It was 354 on Thursday, 271 on Wednesday, 302 on Tuesday and 312 on Monday (Diwali).
According to data from the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC), the AQI stood at 357 (under very poor category) at Anand Vihar on 12 p.m., ITO registered an AQI of 259, Lodhi Road (195) under the moderate category, Patparganj (268) AQI under poor category.
