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As the Centre plans to clean the air in 13 south Indian cities, 26 more cities spread across four south Indian states reported annual particulate pollution levels higher than the national safe standards, according to an analysis of government data.
The union environment ministry is planning to bring down air pollution in around 100 cities nationwide–exceeding national air pollution standards–by 50% in the next five years through the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP).
The Centre’s list includes three cities from Telangana, five from Andhra Pradesh, one from Tamil Nadu and four from Karnataka.
In comparison, 10 cities in Telangana, 15 in Andhra Pradesh, four in Tamil Nadu and 10 in Karnataka reported annual levels of PM 10–tiny airborne particles seven times finer than human hair–exceeding national standards (60 micrograms per cubic metre, or µg/m³) in 2015 and 2016, according to this January 2018 analysis by Greenpeace-India, an advocacy, based on data obtained from state pollution control boards using right to information applications.
All these cities need city-specific action plans to fight air pollution.
For now, Delhi’s Graded Response Action is the only available programme in India to combat pollution.
In a bid to shift the limelight from over the National Capital Region (NCR) to southern parts of the country–which are also suffering from bad air quality–independent researchers used two separate methods for monitoring air quality in Chennai and Bengaluru.
While the researchers deployed roof-top air quality monitoring stations in five locations across Chennai, Bengaluru was monitored for pollution levels on seven arterial roads during peak traffic hours.
However, studies have shown that even brief exposures to high air pollution result in premature deaths, as IndiaSpend reported on January 19, 2018.
PM 2.5 levels up to 60 µg/m³ (annual average) and 40 µg/m³ (24 hour average) are considered safe, while for PM 10 levels up to 100 µg/m³ (24 hour average) and 60 µg/m³ (annual average) are considered safe, according to Indian national standards.
Other than recording high instant values, the averages observed over the four-hour auto rides carried out in two parts during the study also consistently generated averages above 200 µg/m³.
“[This] indicates that very poor air quality levels prevail for several hours every day owing to traffic congestion,” said the statement.
The report also looked at the annual averages of air quality data from the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board.
The PM 2.5 values have exceeded national safe standards by 3% to 45% during 2016-17, while PM 10 exceeded the standards by 30% to 120%, the analysis showed.
None of the days had particulate levels within the more stringent World Health Organization (WHO) standards of 25 µg/m³, the statement said.
“All locations recorded hazardous levels (above 180 µg/m³) of PM 2.5 on 13 January (2018), the day of Bhogi festival (first day of four days pongal festival),” it added. That was three times more than the national standard and about seven times more than the WHO limits.
These monitoring efforts are also essential in light of the inadequate monitoring capacities of monitoring stations deployed the the state pollution control boards, experts believe.
“State air quality monitoring stations are collecting [only] regulatory grade air quality data. That is what they are designed to do,” added Sutaria, also the architect of IndiaSpend’s #Breathe project.
(This piece was first published on India Spend and has been re-published with permission.)
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