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The Union government, on Friday, 5 August, told the Parliament that air pollution is primarily an urban phenomenon and the government is focusing on monitoring ambient air quality in the urban areas.
Of the 1,243 air quality monitoring stations covering 465 cities in the country, only 26 have been installed in rural areas – 24 in Punjab and two in Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu on an experimental basis.
However, experts say if the government doesn't monitor air pollution in rural areas, "it doesn't mean it doesn't exist" and there is more and enough scientific evidence to suggest otherwise.
There is a lot of satellite data and studies that show air pollution is as big a problem in rural areas as in the urban, said Chandra Bhushan, CEO of International Forum for Environment, Sustainability & Technology (iForest).
Citing the example of poor air quality in the entire Indo-Gangetic plain, Sunil Dahiya, an analyst at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, stressed that air pollution "flows like a river" from Punjab to West Bengal, and all areas get affected.
Any air quality management plan has to be intersectoral and regional. "In fact, in the Indo-Gangetic plane, particularly, air pollution is equally high in the rural areas," said Sagnik Dey, Institute Chair Professor at the Centre for Atmospheric Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi.
The government's air pollution management strategy needs to move beyond the city-centric approach and cover all areas. For example, improving air quality in Delhi alone doesn't help if outer areas do not control air pollution properly, explained Chattopadhyaya.
"Delhi’s pollution is going where? Delhi’s pollution is going to Uttar Pradesh, so unless Delhi cleans up, it will not make any major impact in UP," said Dey
(With inputs from PTI.)
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