Team-BHP (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/)

-   Street Experiences (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/street-experiences/)

-   -   India has 14 out of the 15 most polluted cities in the world (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/street-experiences/198233-india-has-14-out-15-most-polluted-cities-world.html)

Source - TOI

Honestly, I am not that surprised by the results and feel they are a combination of various factors & reasons.
IMO key reasons for this are:
1) The desire to see India grow on a fast track: more industries being set up, more construction activities etc.

2) Outdated and/or poorly thought Laws, and corruption: If your company pollutes / vehicle pollutes - many people just bribe the authorities to turn a blind eye, similarly increasing taxes on hybrids etc. aren't going to help matters.

3) Poor infrastructure: greater reliance on a poorly maintained bus / auto as compared to trains and metros which may pollute less

4) Density and Affordability (to repair a polluting vehicle, embrace new technology, etc.)

That's a wrong title, why even bother put 15th city there?

It should be "India scores a perfect tonne in top 14 most polluted cities in the world" :D

Okay, the rule says that the weakest is the first to take a hit, and if the government again takes this report seriously (Which social media will force them to); again we are looking at diesel cars being the first target! :Frustrati

Sad to see this, but not surprised!

Air pollution is the biggest concern from this report, but there are many other ways our cities are being polluted (in the larger context, water pollution and even lack of proper trash/waste disposal systems). We cannot simply turn a blind turn to all these in the name of development, just hope each one of us does his/her bit and being responsible towards the environment.

Sadly, my city ranks at no.9 and the way I've been looking at it, no one is bothered to take stock of situation. Neither the administration is interested nor the government or the people staying here. If you even tell someone burning garbage, they'll look down upon you and can even lead to verbal spats. :Frustrati There is too much of vehicular pollution due to large number of diesel autos without any pollution control. Plus there is too much of construction which is unsupervised leading to extreme dusty environment. I myself have allergic cough for the time I stay here, but it just vanishes when I travel out. I just hope, somehow this place becomes better. please:

Screenshot from AirVisual android app - PM 2.5 concentration as of today:



5) Geography & natural causes too.

We knew this; we even knew why. What remains to be seen is, what will we do about it.

Oh hey, NCR. Watch out for the NGT and Supreme Court for some interesting decisions. :D

I am surprised (and saddened) to see my hometown, Patiala make the list.
It is not an industrial city, it doesn't have more population than Ludhiana or Jalandhar, which have way more industry. So, why did it make the list?
EDIT: Also, is it any surprise that China shaped up so quickly?

Lest we put the blame for this achievement on the increasing numbers of vehicles alone, let us not lose sight of the fact that the report focusses mainly on Particulate Matter - the sources of which are many.



Interesting also is the fact that all fourteen of the cities are located in the northern half of the nation - indicating that geography has played a major role here. Not one south Indian city figures in the list - a matter of immense wonder, specifically to Bengalureans :Frustrati.

A lot of it comes down to political apathy.

In China, the pollution stemmed mainly from the promotion of industry to enhance local GDP targets. Now each city has strict pollution improvement targets.

• Industries are being driven out of town.
• Restriction of new cars purchased
• Electric car incentives

Now you do not see Beijing in the top 20 most polluted cities. They have a long way to go but political will is driving progress.

Traffic congestion, waste burning, DG sets, road and construction dust are the major contributors of urban air pollution especially particulate matter. It can only be improved by providing the following

• Cheap and efficient urban transportation system
• Efficient waste management system
• Uninterrupted power supply
• Maintaining well paved roads and footpaths. Covering all the exposed soil surfaces with grass/mulch patches
• Regular mechanical sweeping and vacuuming of roads. Brooms should not be used as it just displaces more dust.

In the Western world government spend a lot of money and effort to maintain a healthy environment. Government should pay more attention by allocating sufficient budgetary support to maintain and clean the environment. Else citizens will pay with poor health and medical bills.

The article focuses on Air pollution and we seem to take the worst hit worldwide inhaling the worst possible quality of air unfortunately.

The other biggest and dangerous issue we face is food contamination/adulteration
- unacceptable levels of pesticides sprayed on every fruit and vegetable sold.
- carbide laced and ripened fruits, wax coated,
- dangerous levels of fat and salt, msg and harmful contents in all processed foods.

Just unfortunate and unacceptable levels of contamination and pollution in everything that we eat, drink and breathe.
We are very poor in having a proper strategy to address these social evils. No one seem to care.

This is disturbing to say the least. And to think that this will remain just another statistic, with no one taking note and doing anything to combat it is sad indeed.
Here's an article that I had read earlier , that paints an accurate though frightening scenario of what kind of Earth will out children inherit if we continue adding greenhouse gases at the same rate.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer...or-humans.html

Here's a screenshot of the article.



At the cost of sounding like a naysayer, here's another grim article on the damage we are causing .

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer...nge-today.html

If we want our children to inherit a liveable Earth, it's time we did something.

The findings are based on data collected till 2016. With various governmental regulations and pollution control norms coming into existence after that year, it is possible that pollution levels have come down, at least marginally. Also, pollution levels in a few 'pollution hot spots' may not be indicative of the air quality level of the entire city. But the fact that India is in the initial stage of the Environmental Kuznets Curve indicates that air pollution can remain a concern for at least some time to come.

I am perhaps a living and coughing example of what can go wrong because of air pollution.

I have smoker's cough, yet I don't smoke, nor have I ever been around second-hand smoke (due to my disdain for tobacco and liquor). It's something called Chronic Bronchitis; the minute finger-like ciliae lining my bronchi (the pipes leading to the lungs) do not work in moving mucus and foreign objects away and up, toward my throat so that I may cough them out. So I have acquired a lifelong cough after prolonged exposure to Indian urban conditions. And how much ever I may cough, it's not productive and doesn't provide me with succour.

Ever so often, without warning, I feel a ticklish sensation deep within my chest and I let out a dry and unproductive cough. That's my sickly existence, enough to bug my father who thinks it can be sured somehow (I think he's wrong, based on what different pulmonologists have told me).

The cough subsided for the 4.5 years I spent in the US. A Pakistani-origin pulmonologist in the US told me that he has seen chronic bronchitis in a few non-smoking youngsters hailing from South Asia.

I remember watching a wonderful Netflix documentary, The filth of cities. The show demonstrated and showed how bad London was polluted and dirty, causing the great plagues and millions of deaths. There was also an episode on mass deaths due to cholera in early 1900s NYC, brought on by poor water management and lack of cleanliness. Did the people living in those places and those times even have a choice, in meeting their morbid fates?

You and I, living here in India, are not going to escape from all of this unscathed. At least there were immediate deaths in London and NYC to make people sit up and realize the folly of their ways; our long lives are bound to be of poorer quality and in many cases, we wouldn't even be able to link pollution as a cause for our ills...

Sorry for the morbid thoughts, but it is what it is.