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Cse In News

Del fuego a las inundaciones: el cambio climático azota al planeta

El cambio climático está agravando las sequías e inundaciones que sufre el planeta. La semana pasada, Europa y Estados Unidos registraban temperaturas récord. Esta semana, las inundaciones afectan de Kentucky a India. Las lluvias torrenciales han dejado tres muertos en Kentucky, donde el gobernador Andy Beshear dijo que “estamos ante una de las peores, la más devastadora de las inundaciones en la historia del estado”. En rueda de prensa, Beshear dijo que se prevé que la cifra de fallecidos llegue “a los dos dígitos”. Miles de personas están sin corriente eléctrica en el estado. Hasta la tarde del jueves se registraban 25 mil 111 cortes de electricidad. Las lluvias, alertó el gobernador, continuarán en algunos puntos de Kentucky, donde en determinadas zonas se espera que caigan en las próximas horas hasta dos y tres pulgadas (más de 5 y 7 centímetros) de agua. “Es un desastre natural en marcha”, dijo. Beshear declaró estado de emergencia y activó a la Guardia Nacional para ayudar en las labores de rescate, pues hay reporte de varios desaparecidos y de personas atrapadas en tejados y árboles. El oeste de Virginia y el sur de Virginia Occidental también registran inundaciones derivadas de las lluvias intensas de los últimos días, que han ido acompañadas por tormentas eléctricas. En Irán, al menos siete personas murieron el jueves y 14 están desaparecidas debido a inundaciones cerca de Teherán, la capital. Estas inundaciones se producen menos de una semana después de otras en el sur de Irán, una región árida, que dejaron 22 muertos. Coches y personas atrapados por el barro, deslaves, se han convertido en escenas comunes en estos últimos días en el país. Una de las imágenes mostraba a un adolescente cubierto de barro aferrándose a un poste mientras se precipita ante él una crecida de agua llena de escombros. Momentos después se ve cómo se derrumba un muro. En Paquistán, las intensas lluvias provocadas por el monzón y las inundaciones han dejado al menos 357 muertos y 408 heridos desde mediados de junio, de acuerdo con cifras oficiales. La provincia suroccidental de Baluchistán es hasta ahora la región más afectada, con 190 fallecidos, seguida por la sureña Sindh, con 90 muertes. Lee también: Tras ola de calor, preocupa el acelerado derretimiento de hielo en Groenlandia; sube el nivel del mar Las fuertes lluvias del monzón han provocado además importantes daños materiales con más de 6 mil viviendas destruidas, casi 20 mil hogares dañados y medio centenar de puentes colapsados. El primer ministro paquistaní, Shehbaz Sharif, subrayó que el cambio climático es una “realidad innegable” y tiene serias consecuencias para países en desarrollo como Paquistán. “Nuestras inundaciones y lluvias torrenciales en curso deben ser vistos desde esta perspectiva”, dijo en Twitter, antes de añadir que el gobierno “está alineando sus objetivos de desarrollo con las exigencias del cambio climático”. En India, siete personas, en su mayoría agricultores, fallecieron por la caída de un rayo en una aldea del estado de Uttar Pradesh, en el norte de India. El incidente elevó a 49 los fallecidos por rayos en la región esta semana. El coronel Sanjay Srivastava, quien trabaja con el Departamento Meteorológico de India, dijo que los rayos han causado casi 170 decesos en todo el país desde abril. Esto incluye 20 personas en el estado oriental de Bihar en los dos últimos días y otros 16 en la región central de Madhya Pradesh a principios de mes. Sunita Narain, directora general del Centro de Ciencia y Medio Ambiente, afirmó que el calentamiento global influye en el aumento de la incidencia de los rayos. Un incremento de la temperatura de un grado centígrado multiplica los rayos por 12. Lee también: Cambio climático en América Latina pega a abasto mundial de alimentos Srivastava apuntó que la deforestación, el agotamiento de los acuíferos y la contaminación contribuyen al cambio climático, lo que genera más rayos. J P Gupta, director del Departamento Meteorológico, dijo que las tormentas eléctricas y los rayos se han incrementado este año debido al aumento del nivel de contaminación. “La alta temperatura del piso causa más evaporación de las masas de agua, lo que añade humedad a la atmósfera. La presencia de aerosoles por la contaminación atmosférica crea condiciones favorables para que las nubes de tormenta desencadenen la actividad de rayos", indicó Gupta. Más de 200 personas han muerto debido a los fuertes aguaceros y los deslaves en varios estados indios, incluyendo Assam, Manipur, Tripura y Sikkim, y otras 42 han perdido la vida en Bangladesh desde el 17 de mayo. Cientos de miles de personas se han visto desplazadas en la temporada del monzón. Expertos advierten que la crisis climática está potenciando las precipitaciones en todo el mundo. La atmósfera puede retener más humedad a medida que suben las temperaturas, y eso puede provocar un aumento de las precipitaciones y hacer más probables los aguaceros que baten récords. Los científicos señalan que el calentamiento global tiene un papel clave en los fenómenos meteorológicos extremos, y han advertido que estos fenómenos serán más intensos y peligrosos con cada fracción de grado de calentamiento.

ABD’de sel: Çok sayıda can kaybı bekleniyor!

ABD’nin Kentucky eyaletinde etkili olan şiddetli yağışların neden olduğu sellerde 3 kişinin hayatını kaybettiği açıklandı ABD’nin Kentucky eyaletinin doğusunda dün geceden itibaren etkili olan şiddetli yağışlar sele neden oldu. Çok sayıda ev ve işyeri sular altında kalırken, ilk belirmelere göre sellerde 3 kişinin hayatını kaybettiği aktarıldı. Kentucky Valisi Andy Beshear yaptığı açıklamada, bazı vatandaşlarının evlerinde çatılarına çıkarak yardım beklediklerini ifade ederek, meydana gelen selleri eyaletteki "en kötü, en yıkıcı sel olaylarından biri" olarak nitelendirdi. Beshear, arama-kurtarma operasyonlarına destek olmaları için Ulusal Muhafızları harekete geçirdiğini açıkladı. "BU SELDE ÇİFT HANELİ ÖLÜMLER BEKLİYORUM" Beshear, sellerde yaşanan can kayıplarına değinerek, "Ne yazık ki, bu selde çift haneli ölümler bekliyorum" dedi. Yaygın su ve elektrik kesintilerinin Kentucky’deki arama-kurtarma çalışmalarını engellemeye devam ettiğini ifade eden Beshear, "Bu sadece bir felaket değil, devam eden bir doğal afettir. Tam ortasındayız." dedi.

Garbage Management Crisis: How Effective Are Waste To Energy Treatment Plants?

Team Banega Swasth India spoke with Environmental experts to know why Waste-To-Energy plants are not an ideal solution for India’s waste Jiyo or jeene do, hummein saas lenein do (Live and let live and help us breathe freely); WTE plant ko hatana hai, zindagi bachani hai (We need to remove WTE plants and save our lives) – These were some of the messages from the residents of Sukhdev Vihar, in New Delhi. These residents have time and again raised their voice to protest against the waste-to-energy (WTE) plant in Delhi’s Okhla area and called for its closure. Back in March 23, 2019, over 300 South Delhi residents organised one of the largest open-chain rallies to protest against the Okhla waste-to-energy (WTE) plant. Their appeal was that the WTE plant, located in the heart of the city is spewing toxic fumes, filling the atmosphere with stench and making people sick. According to the data shared by Down To Earth, a fortnightly magazine which was started by environmentalist Anil Agarwal with an aim to make people aware of the challenges that the environment is facing, more than one million people reside in the residential colonies that surround the plant. This is the scenario when Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) norms states that boilers, in case of explosion, will hazardously impact everything within 260-metre radius and a manual by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development adds that such plants should be located no nearer than 300 meters from residences and industries. What’s even worse is the fact that despite these guidelines, Okhla WTE plant is within the vicinity of residential areas like Sukhdev Vihar DDA Flats, Haji Colony and are located mere 45 metres away from the plant. It’s not just about the Okhla WTE plant, it is about all the WTE plants as more or less all pose the same risk. There have been repeated violations by most of the WTE plants in the country. In 2016, the National Green Tribunal slapped Rs 25 lakh fine on the Okhla WTE plant for affecting the environment. Though all the four operational incinerator-based WTE plants in the country have installed Continuous Emission Monitoring Systems (CEMS), which sends real-time pollution data to the environment ministry and the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Delhi-based environment think tank Centre for Science and Environment states that the implementation has been lax. There is a lack of equipment standardisation, faulty installation, and inadequate maintenance in most plants. Explaining why WTE plants are not an ideal solution for India, Chitra Mukherjee, Consultant, Waste and Sustainable Livelihood said, The country’s first WTE plant was set up in 1987 in Timarpur, Delhi. That time, it ran for just 21 days before it was shut down due to poor quality of incoming waste. Since then, 14 more WTE plants of 130 MW capacities have been installed in the country. Out of these, half have already been closed down and the remaining are under scrutiny for environmental violations. This is the proof that WTE plants are not an ideal solution but they are a mere tool of waste management. Reiterating the same fact and highlighting why WTE is not an ideal solution for the waste that India produces, Richa Singh, Landfill expert from Centre for Science and Environment said, We feel waste to energy is that magical technology and a one stop solution to everything. But we have to understand that we have a very different type of waste. If you see the composition of the kind of waste we generate then you will find that most of it is biodegradable and organic waste that is your food or kitchen waste. This type of waste has 70-80 per cent of water, now when you put this waste in the waste-to-energy plant, you are simply spending money on burning more of water. And that’s where the logic behind the waste-to-energy plant fails. Talking about the national capital specifically, Swati Sambyal, Independent Waste and Circular Economy expert said that Delhi generates 11,000 tonnes of waste in a day, out of which only 10 per cent is non-recyclables, which highlights that Delhi clearly doesn’t need three WTE plants. The experts also listed the major issues with WTE plants in India: 1. India’s Waste Has Lower Calorific Value As per the definition, calorific value is the amount of heat or energy produced when waste is burnt. According to CSE, the ideal calorific value for WTE plants is 1,900-3800 kcal/kg. However, India’s waste calorific value ranges anywhere between 1,411–2,150 kcal/kg, which is considered too low to burn. Explaining this concept, Ms Singh said that India’s waste is full of water, now to burn it one will need more fuel, which will be impacting the environment more as it will be creating more emissions. She added, Feed stock, the kind of waste that should be there in the waste-to-energy plant should have high calorific value, which means the heating value. With more of water waste, this value will drastically reduce as a result a lot of emissions will be generated. Now, can you imagine in a city like Delhi, where the air quality is already compromised, with the implementation of more and more waste-to-energy plants, we are further compromising the air and impacting the health of people living in the nearby areas. Highlighting this issue of the kind of waste being sent for processing to WTE plants, Ms Mukherjee said, The kind of waste that is needed in waste-to-energy plant is around 1800 kcal/kg. But Indian waste is low in the calorific value (the amount of heat or energy produced when waste is burnt), it is high in organic content and is less than 1500 kcal/kg. So how will this technology work in India and that’s why even waste-to-energy plant in Ghazipur was shut for quite some time. 2. To Be Effective, WTE Plants Required Only Segregated Waste Underlining the Solid Waste Management Rules of 2016 and what it states for WTE plants, Ms Mukherjee said, The 2016 waste to management rules clearly states that the WTE plants should get the waste that is non-biodegradable, non-reactive and non-recyclable. But at the moment when segregation is not happening then how do you send that segregated waste to these plants. As a result, what is simply happening is that unsegregated waste which has about 50-60 per cent of wet waste, 15-16 per cent of dry recyclables, and 10-15 per cent inert waste is going to these plants. So, how will it function? We are using the government’s money in building these technologies that doesn’t really give context, it is just being used here because it is an easy option for our waste management woes. Ms Mukherjee signed of by saying the need of the hour is to focus on reusing and recycling of waste in our cities. Swati Sambyal also reiterated the same fact and said, The biggest flaw of these plants is that they are getting mixed waste and not segregated waste. The mixed waste is not suitable for burning, it also requires an additional fuel to burn the waste, which makes the plants economically very unviable and this is the reason why WTE plants not just in Delhi but in other cities are not functioning properly. We are not really focusing on the composition and quantity of the waste that is needed for WTEs. 3. Electricity Produced By WTE Plants Is Negligible Ms Mukherjee states that in India incineration is a very easy option. What we do is that we simply burn our waste or simply put it in the landfill. But these are not the appropriate measures. Explaining why the WTE plant is a misnomer, she said, These plants don’t really produce much of the electricity, the electricity that is produced is very negligible. Nor do these take care of any of the electricity needS in the city. These are basically the incinerators which the west and developing countries have been using to manage their waste. Even there this technology has started to phase out, so, the plant manufacturers are trying to make the market in India and China. These are very expensive plants; they need a lot of monitoring and environment norms that are needed to be met. Even data from Centre for Science and Environment highlights the fact that western countries are phasing out WTE technology. As per CSE, the US has not set up a single incinerator-based WTE plant since 1997 as the US Environmental Protection Agency and the European Commission have developed comprehensive standards for municipal solid waste incineration. 4. WTE Plants Impacting Health Of The Environment And Residents Explaining how WTE plants are impacting the environment and the health of people around, Swati Sambyal said, Ideally for WTE plants the bottom ash (Which is the solid residue from combustion of municipal waste) shouldn’t be more than 20 percent and for most of our plants it is as high as 40 percent. Bottom ash disposal is also challenging and we clearly don’t have a mechanism to treat that waste, perhaps at some corner of the city there is already a mountain of this bottom ash that is already there and is creating a huge havoc because it is hazardous in nature. Further talking about the health impact of WTEs on lives of people who are living nearby, Ms Sambhyal added, The WTEs are very polluting in nature because we are feeding the poor quality of waste. We know the huge impact of Okhla plant in Sukhdev Vihar colony wherein the doctors have only advised residents to shift if it is a viable option for them. So, WTE in many ways is not the way to go, of course they are required for big cities but why can’t we have hubs or regional integrated processing sites with waste-to-energy plants over every city demanding their own WTE plants, that I think is a huge no-no. The Solution Highlighting the fix to the waste crisis, Ms Singh added that we should instead of depending on waste-to-energy plants focus our energies on the basic rule of waste management and that is waste segregation. She added, “We should be channelising segregated waste into various recycling facilities instead of putting all of that into waste-to-energy plants.” WTE Plants Work For Different Countries But Not India In one of the reports of CSE, it said that WTE can be the option for only fraction of waste that cannot be managed by other technologies. It adds that the choice of technology – whether the waste should be burned, composted or recycled – depends on the quality of the waste. On the other hand, Down To Earth in one of its reports shared an example of Amsterdam and said that the capital city of the Netherlands has one of the biggest incinerator-based WTE plants in the world, which treats about 4,400 tonnes of waste every day and has an electricity efficiency rate of over 30 per cent, the highest in the world. It produces 1 million megawatt-hour of electricity and up to 600 giga joules of heat annually, which is enough to service 0.32 million houses in the city. But adds that the same technology, however, has failed in India because of quality and composition of India’s municipal waste and because most cities in India still collect unsegregated waste, which has high moisture content (around 50 per cent) and low calorific value. CSE suggests that waste should at least have 1,800 kcal/kg for self-sustaining combustion. WTE plants in countries like Sweden, Norway and the US have worked because the garbage there ranges between 1,900-3,800 kcal/kg. However, in India low calorific value was the reason behind the closing of most of WTE plants. Talking about Delhi, currently the national capital has three working waste-to-energy plants and the fourth one will be in operation from August at South Delhi’s Tehkhand area. In the city, the general trend is towards using incineration as primary method of waste processing, even when it has faced stiff resistance from both residents and environmental experts. Residents have also flagged pollution generated from such plants as affecting their lives and experts have pointed out that it is high time that city should start focusing on segregation of household waste instead of setting up waste to energy plants. So, to tackle India’s burgeoning garbage crisis there are no easy solutions or shortcuts. It has to be back to basics of segregate waste, compost organic/biodegradable waste and recycle as much as possible of the non-biodegradable waste and only treat whatever else remains that can neither be composted nor recycled. And there are quite a few successful examples within India of cities becoming garbage free or attaining zero-waste status by effective implementation of these basic principles of waste management.

A greentech startup making sustainable packaging from bamboo, sugarcane

As an animal lover and a pet parent, Vaibhav Anant was pained to watch videos of plastic straws being pulled out of a turtle’s nasal track. Social media platforms are filled with videos about animals getting caught in plastic litter. While some of us watching these videos are moved to make changes in our lifestyle, Vaibhav decided to address the root cause of the problem—single-use plastic. In 2018, Vaibhav quit his job as Associate Vice-President at a leading edtech company, to launch green packaging startup Bambrew. “The problem that the world is facing with single-use plastic today is a menace. It is a huge problem across the globe, not only in India. On a regular basis, we consume a lot of micro-plastics unknowingly which was another thing that led me to drive this single-use plastic alternate business,” says Vaibhav. Bengaluru-based Bambrew uses its proprietary technology to provide alternatives to ecommerce mailer bags, food packaging in the F&B industry, pouches and foldable cartons in the FMCG industry and PVC in the pharmaceutical industry. The greentech startup uses sustainable materials developed in-house to make these products. It has so far replaced more than 1,000 tons of plastic from the supply chain. In January, Bambrew raised a pre-series A round of $2.35 million led by Blue Ashva Capital and Supack Industries. The round also saw participation from Mumbai Angels and other angel investors. “Single-use plastics have been widely used for various applications, even though their negative environmental impact has been well understood for decades. There are simply two parameters that have driven this choice: price and application. Previous attempts at sustainable packaging have failed on one or both of these parameters,” said Satya Bansal, Founder at Blue Ashva Capital at the time of the funding, adding that Bambrew provides cost-effective alternatives to plastic. The product and composition Plastic contributes to eight percent of India's total solid waste, with Delhi producing the maximum quantity followed by Kolkata and Ahmedabad, according to Central Pollution Control Board of India (CPCB) reports. In India, around 43 percent of manufactured plastic is used for packaging purposes, most of which is for single use. While the greentech startup began its journey to find sustainable alternatives for straws, Vaibhav realised that single-use plastic is a much larger problem. This is when he forayed into packaging products. “We utilised the COVID period as a R&D period, and we came up with multiple alternatives during the two years for e-commerce, pharmaceutical, take-away, food and beverages packaging, and FMCG. Since then, we have constantly been working on innovations,” recalls Vaibhav. Bambrew produces eco-friendly packaging products that are made out of bamboo, sugarcane, and seaweed. The startup sources its raw materials from tribes in Assam, Tripura, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, and Karnataka. The greentech startup caters to 170 clients across sectors such as hospitality, FMCG, retail, and logistics sectors. Its clientele includes Amazon, Nykaa, 1MG, Puma, Chumbak, Zomato, Myntra, BigBasket, and Zepto among others. A new dawn Bambrew says its products can be manufactured by machines that are used to make plastic packaging. “There were two problems that we wanted to solve—making sustainable products commercially viable and scaling rapidly. What we needed to understand was that we need to develop a product which can be immediately consumed by the market without a major price difference,” Vaibhav explains. “This is why we decided to work in a hybrid model wherein we partnered with manufacturers who were previously working with plastic,” he adds. Bambrew has its own set up of manufacturing units where it manufactures 7.5 crore packaging bags each month. Apart from this, the startup also outsources the production of certain products to other manufacturers. It onboards clients both by approaching some companies and through queries. After the first few clients, Bambrew has experienced the “snowball effect,” Vaibhav says. “In the initial years, the challenge was to convince the clients to take a trial in their machines because these are expensive machines. They were very hesitant to take a trial, and asked questions like ‘what will happen to my machine?’, and ‘what if the machine breaks down?’. We are also young people, and they would not believe in us,” Vaibhav recalls. Market and the road ahead According to a report titled 'State of India's Environment 2022' released by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), India generated 25,940 tonnes of plastic waste every day. “The first and foremost agenda of the company is that how can we solve the problem that our clients are facing in terms of eradicating the use of single-use plastic in the supply chain,” says Vaibhav. The startup claims that it clocked Rs 77 lakh in revenue in the financial year 2020-21. Bambrew’s revenue grew 13X to Rs 10 crore in FY 2021-22. The startup aims to clock Rs 100 crore in revenue in the current financial year. After witnessing growth in India, Bambrew now wants to expand its footprint globally. The startup already has a presence in the Middle East, Australia, and the USA. “In the packaging space, there is always a manufacturer or vendor. We are trying to disrupt this space by creating a brand. Bambrew should resonate with anything and everything sustainable,” says Vaibhav. Currently, Bambrew is also developing a tech platform aimed at small and medium buyers, who “aren’t able to find the right source for sustainable packaging,” the founder says. This platform would allow purchase of sustainable packaging products in smaller quantities. “Generally, when you reach out to a manufacturer, they say that my minimum order quantity (MOQ) is 1 lakh or 2 lakh pieces. A small kirana store, which is currently using plastic bags, cannot match that quantity. Either they purchase from a local seller at a very high price or continue using the same plastic bag. Because of our scale, we are able to offer better pricing from mills, and pass on the same benefit to our buyers,” explains Vaibhav. Bambrew faces competition from startups like Bizongo, and Aggarwal Biotech among others.

West Bengal govt to seek extension of National Green Tribunal order on old vehicles

State wants more time to phase out all old vehicles The state government will appeal to the National Green Tribunal to extend the six-month deadline that the tribunal has fixed for the state to phase out all vehicles that are 15 years old or older from West Bengal, transport minister and Kolkata mayor Firhad Hakim told The Telegraph on Wednesday. Hakim said the state government has already phased out several buses belonging to the transport department that were 15 years old or more. The six-month deadline is too short a time to phase out all such vehicles, he said. The state transport will simultaneously issue a notification saying that all such vehicles have to be phased out. “We will appeal to the NGT to extend the deadline. We are already taking steps to phase out vehicles that are 15 years old or more. We will also issue a notification mentioning that vehicles that are at least 15 years old must be phased out,” he said. “There are questions of finance involved in this phasing out. Also, new vehicles have to be manufactured,” he said. The tribunal on Tuesday ordered the West Bengal government to phase out all vehicles — both private and commercial — that are over 15 years within six months. The tribunal’s eastern zone bench said the state also has to phase out all public transport vehicles that are below BS IV emission norms within that timeframe. “A huge number of private and commercial vehicles older than 15 years are plying in the cities of Kolkata and Howrah and also in other places in the State of West Bengal which amounts to few lakhs... It is, therefore, directed that all the old commercial and private vehicles... be phased out in the next six months,” the order read. There are over 92 lakh vehicles in the state — private and commercial combined — that are 15 years old or more, the ministry of road transport and highways had informed the tribunal through an affidavit in July 2019. The city and the state need to have a fleet renewal policy along with a strategy to handle the scrap that will be generated in replacing these vehicles, an air quality management expert, who has followed a similar fleet renewal being executed in Delhi, said on Wednesday. The scrap that will be created when the vehicles are phased out can harm the environment severely if not managed well, she said. Anumita Roy Chowdhury, the executive director of New Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) that the government should first identify and prioritise vehicles that have become completely unfit to run on roads. “All commercial vehicles have to undergo an annual roadworthiness and fitness test. This will help the government identify vehicles that are unfit to ply. The government should prioritise the phasing out of such end-of-the-life vehicles,” she said. The prioritisation is necessary because the task at hand is mammoth.The government should also have a policy on how to deal with scrap that will be generated. If there is no strategy, then the waste will end up in dumping grounds, she said. The government should also see that the vehicles discarded here are taken to other places and used there. “Fleet replacement strategy must not shift pollu-tion from old vehicles to regions in the airshed,” said Roy Chowdhury.

Financing, Technology, and Inter-State Coordination: Imperatives for Cleaning India’s Air

Air pollution is a global environmental threat, and a cause of significant proportions of diseases and premature deaths. The threat is massive in India, which continuously fails to meet World Health Organization (WHO) standards[1] and is home to 21 of the 30 most polluted cities of the world.[2] Air pollution is caused by particulate matter, oxides of carbon, nitrogen and sulphur, and other pollutants. The primary sources of ambient particulate matter (PM) in India are biomass burning by both commercial and residential establishments, windblown mineral dust, coal burning, industrial emissions, and transport emissions.[3] In rural regions, the main source of air pollution is the burning of organic matter; in urban areas, it is industrial and vehicular emissions.[4] Poor air quality led to over 1.6 million deaths in the country in 2019 alone; the 2020 State of Global Air report named air pollution the single largest death risk factor in India.[5] Figure 1: Sources of PM 2.5 Emissions in India Source: Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), 2021[6] It was in 1981 that India first enacted legislation on air quality—the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act. In 1986, The Environment (Protection) Act (EPA) was passed as an umbrella law for environmental protection. Later, in 1995, the National Environmental Tribunal was created which established strict liabilities for environmental damage, and in 2010, the National Green Tribunal Act highlighted the right to live in a clean environment. A pivotal effort was made in 2019, with the launch of the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) designed to reduce air pollution in 122 ‘non-attainment’[a] cities and set clear timelines for achieving the targets. To clean India’s air, however, legislation is only part of the strategy. A requirement is mobilising finances. Crucial decisions—for example, on fossil fuel use and switching to clean energy—will play a key role. The transport sector, which remains a primary source of pollution, will need to be tackled. It is also important for states to collaborate as air pollution is trans-boundary. In February 2022, ORF, in collaboration with Air Quality Asia (AQA), hosted the 5th annual roundtable consultation, Addressing India’s Air Pollution Challenge, where policymakers, scholars, and civil society representatives explored solutions to India’s poor air quality. Panel discussions were held on four broad topics: financing air pollution solutions; transitioning to renewable and cleaner energy; transitioning to sustainable transportation; and the need for inter-state coordination. Financing Clean Air A prerequisite for India’s transition to a cleaner air is the mobilisation of capital. The NCAP[7] was launched in 2019, and is India’s only national programme for managing air quality in 122 cities across 21 states. It laid down plans to reduce PM2.5 and PM10 emissions by 20-30 percent by 2024 as compared to 2017 levels. It directed the states to prepare action plans to build capacity and achieve better air quality. The NCAP received an initial funding of ₹ 300 crore (US$41 million) for the first two years. The funds were divided among the 122 cities through their respective State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs). Under NCAP, 28 cities which had annual PM10 concentrations above 90 ug/m3 (micrograms per cubic metre) received the bulk of the funds, about ₹ 10 crore ($1.4 million each); the rest was distributed among the remaining 94 cities.[8] In March 2020, based on the recommendations of the 15th Finance Commission (FC), the government allocated an additional ₹ 4,400 crores (US $600 million) o urban local bodies (ULBs) for air quality improvement for the year 2020-21. Of this, 50 percent was allocated to 42 cities for the next five years on the condition that they reduce air pollution levels by 15 percent every year.[9] Other than the allocation of funds, however, mechanisms must be put in place to ensure that these funds are utilised for maximum impact. Yet, there remains ambiguity in fund utilisation and governance. First, it is a matter of concern that there are two unaligned and disconnected sources of funding to improve air quality. The funds released from the FC’s grants are separate from those allocated under NCAP. This could lead to duplication of actions, low impact, and improper utilisation.[10] Second, there is a notable bias in the funding being made available to the non-attainment cities. A significant portion of the NCAP funding has gone to metropolitan cities with populations exceeding 1 million. Similarly, Finance Commission grants have also been allocated to 42 metropolitan cities of more than 1 million.[11] Third, the mismatch of sources of funding has led to a mismatch of cities under both. A few cities that have received FC grants are not listed under the NCAP and therefore have no city-specific action plans for air quality improvement.[12] Lastly, the two funding programmes have different frameworks for monitoring and reporting outcomes. The two mechanisms should be aligned and merged to improve air quality.[13] Large sums of money have indeed been allocated to reduce air pollution, but a proper action plan, performance metrics and institutional arrangements have to be put in place to make a visible difference. First, the Finance Commission’s funds must be aligned with NCAP implementation to avoid duplication of effort. States that have not utilised their share of funds under NCAP should be held accountable. Punjab, for instance, has nine cities in the list of 122, and is also known to cause pollution in the airshed above the Indo-Gangetic plain every winter. Yet it has utilised only 5 percent of the ₹27.5 crore (US $3 million) allocated to it under NCAP. Similarly, Assam has used only 11 percent and Haryana, 25 percent.[14] Further, dedicated funding is needed to build capacity in municipalities and improve infrastructure to tackle varied and dispersed sources of emission. Air quality monitoring at the local and airshed level, which includes tracking satellite data, is imperative.[15] Moreover, under both plans, the regulatory capacity is weak. Clear targets, action plans, extensive investment in data, and a suitable legal framework to oversee implementation, are required.[16] Gathering data is crucial for effective investments to be identified, returns on clean air to be evaluated, and performance-based incentives to be allocated and used efficiently.[17] Interventions should lead to substantial air quality improvement, even in the short run. City action plans must prioritise interventions, such as controlling emissions from non-compliant power plants and augmenting public transportation to curb the exponential growth in private vehicle use, and thereby promote low-polluting, cleaner fleet.[18] Transition to Cleaner Transportation Systems The transport sector remains one of the highest emitters of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in India – around 312.3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) in 2018.[19] Figure 2: Projected Growth of Two-Wheelers Ownership by 2030 Source: Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) 2020 [20] India has adopted various measures to reduce transport-linked pollution in the past decade, implementing progressively more stringent norms for internal combustion (IC) engine emissions, from Bharat Stage (BS) III to BS IV to BS VI, the equivalent of Euro III, IV and VI; phasing out older vehicles; expanding the Metro Rapid Transport Service (MRTS) to new cities; diversifying fuel portfolios and popularising less-polluting fuels such as compressed natural gas (CNG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG).[21] However, far more needs to be done. A strategic plan is necessary—one that is based on an estimate of the capital available, can be easily implemented, and will lead to practices that contribute to the curbing of pollution. A mechanism to ensure that every vehicle’s pollution control certificate is regularly updated needs to be created.[22] The strategic plan should include measures to encourage the following:[23] Reduction of tail-pipe emissions by encouraging a switch to electric vehicles (EVs) and improving on-road management of polluting vehicles. Shift to alternative forms of travel such as cycling or walking; use of carpooling and public transport. Improved traffic engineering and better street design. Improved last-mile connectivity to increase the reach of public transport and reduce private vehicle use. Reduction of road congestion by spreading peak hours of travel across the day. Public transport needs to be improved to discourage personal motorised travel. India only has 1.2 buses for every 1,000 people, for instance, while the global average is four. India requires even more than the global average, given its high population density.[24] India has launched the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid and) Electric Vehicles in India (FAME) scheme under its National Mission on Electric Mobility. The second phase of the scheme, FAME-II, has been approved, which aims to deploy EVs on a large scale: about 7,000 buses, 55,000 passenger cars, 500,000 three-wheelers, and 1 million two-wheelers by the end of 2022. Two-wheelers and three-wheelers are responsible for a large part of transport-induced pollution in the country—61 percent of total petrol sales are to two-wheelers, while 28 percent of total diesel consumption is by three-wheelers. A 2018 study of the city of Bengaluru in Karnataka by TERI (The Energy Research Institute) showed that its three-wheelers emitted around 1,200 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2), 0.5 tonne of PM10 and 4 tonnes of nitrogen oxides (NOx) daily.[25] Other low-emission alternatives such as LNG and CNG can also be popularised further. The transition should be to a mix of low-emission technologies with eventual adoption of an Electric Vehicle (EV) fleet as the cost of batteries declines and the renewable energy contribution to the grid increases, while coal-based power use comes down.[26] Setting up an adequate number of charging stations is also a challenge due to their high initial investment cost, complex technical competencies needed, and certain software and hardware issues.[27] Even so, under FAME-II, charging infrastructure is being expanded.[28] What is needed is a policy thrust that promotes a mixture of schemes prioritising lower emissions. Transition to Renewable Energy A 2021 study by Harvard University showed that burning of fossil fuels—mainly coal, petroleum, and diesel—contributes to about 30 percent of deaths due to air pollution in India.[29] It found that the fossil fuel component of PM2.5 is mainly responsible for these deaths, and also contributes to extreme weather events and increased crop failure. Technologies generating power from wind, geothermal and solar photo voltaic (PV) have proven effective in pollution abatement.[30] India has great potential as a green energy superpower with long-term focused policies and appropriate and targeted solutions. It has set itself a target of 175 gigawatts (GW) of renewable capacity by end-2022, which will include 100 GW of solar power. For 2030, the target is 500 GW.[31] Solar power generation has been allocated ₹ 19,500 crore (US $2500 million) in the 2022 union budget.[32] However, there remain many impediments to the growth of renewable energy in India. First, current policies need to be more stringently implemented. Second, financing remains a challenge. High interest rates of about 12-15 percent charged by financial institutions providing loans for solar and wind projects, coupled with the need to match the low tariffs of power generated from conventional sources, is impeding the growth of the sector.[33] India is also dependent on imports of solar modules, power storage batteries, and other components of the renewable energy system.[34] Strategies and interventions are required to provide an impetus to the renewable energy sector. While India receives an annual investment of approximately ₹1,00,000 crore (US $ 10-15 billion) in renewable energy, what is required is almost double this amount to deploy renewable energy.[35] Small companies and start-ups need state support to grow.[36] Decentralised installation of renewable energy is imperative to achieve the 2030 RE targets.[37] For example, rooftop solar has huge potential but is ridden with multiple problems, especially when it comes to the distribution companies (discoms). A main obstacle is the net metering vs gross metering regulations. With net metering, surplus power produced by the rooftop solar system goes back to the grid, due to which the discoms are liable to compensate the consumers for this surplus against their electricity bills.[38] They then tend to lose their high-paying consumers, making them reticent to adopting the rooftop solar segment.[39] Emphasis on improving technology is important, as well as synergies between policymakers and the industry operators. Lastly, the discoms play an important role in increasing and providing impetus to the use of renewable energy.[40] Inter-State Coordination for Air-Quality Management PM2.5 emissions in India are formed in both primary and secondary ways. The secondary pollutants spread faster and farther than the primary ones, travelling across states, cities and jurisdictional borders. The air pollution challenge is multi-sectoral and multi- jurisdictional. It has been often observed, for instance, that the sources of air pollution in the National Capital Region (NCR) include factors beyond its local limits. The effects of air pollution are felt well beyond their point of origin. Cities and states must therefore look beyond their immediate jurisdiction,[41] and aim for regional-level initiatives.[42] Figure 3: The Five Most Polluted Indian States with PM 2.5 (kt/year) Source: Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) 2021 [43] Air quality in a state depends on emissions both within the state and from upwind states. Every state is both a recipient of air pollution and a contributor to it. In addition, source-receptor relationships between states are seasonal and significant, with upwind regions contributing to much of a given area’s pollution.[44] There are only a few existing formal mechanisms for India’s cities, states or regions to work towards airshed pollution management. Improving airshed management requires first recognising that air pollution is trans-boundary. Airshed-based air quality management calls for an area-wide approach, setting standards, monitoring, and enforcement.[45] The NCAP’s mitigation strategies also have drawbacks. Information on sources of emission is lacking, which has led to action plans being blindly replicated for different cities within states. State PCBs can audit and monitor industrial pollution levels, but are not empowered to levy penalties in case of non-compliance. They can only request compliance and penalties can be levied only by criminal courts, significantly limiting the power of SPCBs.[46] Lastly, there are no clear guidelines on regional coordination among states. For example, Delhi’s action plan has an electric mobility policy for three-wheelers across the National Capital Region (NCR, an area which includes parts of the neighbouring states of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan) but a lack of clear guidelines on the division of responsibilities between the concerned Delhi departments and the state PCBs, resulting in lapses in management.[47] In August 2021, Parliament passed the bill setting up the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM)[48] in the NCR and Adjoining Areas.[b] It is designed as a collaborative and participatory mechanism that will involve relevant central ministries, state governments, local bodies, and other stakeholders in the region to tackle the problem of air pollution. However, the CAQM has achieved little so far. What is required is a short-term plan with time-bound annual targets for each city in the Delhi-NCR airshed. This would incentivise states to reach the targets.[49] The social and political facets of air pollution also need to be tackled. Technological interventions have not been enough. Degradation of air quality violates Article 21 of the Indian Constitution, which guarantees the right to life and personal liberty to all citizens.[50] It is imperative to view air pollution as a constitutional and political issue as well, rather than merely a technical one.[51] Lastly, air pollution is generally perceived as an urban problem, with hardly any initiatives to alleviate rural pollution. The NCAP has little focus, if at all, on air pollution outside the non-attainment cities. Of the 804 manual and 286 real-time air quality monitoring stations in India, only 26 are located in rural districts.[52],[53] Pollution being a trans-boundary phenomenon, it is imperative to acknowledge its impact on rural areas, too. A study by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi, found that if just three current government programmes are properly implemented, it would not only bring down air pollution but also generate power surplus of 3-8 terawatt hours a year. These are the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY), which seeks to provide an LPG gas connection in every home, thereby reducing pollution from burning firewood and other domestic sources; the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Grameen Jyoti Yojana (DDUGIY), aimed at full rural electrification, which would remove the need to use kerosene for lighting; and the NCAP. Conclusion There are multiple dimensions to India’s air pollution crisis. Policymakers, investors, and civil society need to come together to combat it. Decoupling air pollution from the broader discourse of climate change is also important for a shift to a targeted and more nuanced mitigation strategy. Success will depend on adequate and targeted financing, tapping the right industries, proper execution of policies, collaboration, coordination, and knowledge sharing. The battle involves multiple stakeholders and approaches. It cannot be won overnight, but it is imperative to engage in it effectively and immediately. Srishti Jain and Tanya Mittal are Research Interns at ORF. Endnotes [a] Non-attainment cities are those which did not meet national ambient air quality standards between 2011 and 2015. [b] The reference to ‘Adjoining Areas’ added parts of Punjab to the CAQM’s jurisdiction, since a substantial part of Delhi’s air pollution in winter is caused by farm stubble burning in Punjab. [1]L.S. Kurinji, “International Day of Clean Air — 5 Facts You Should Know About Air Pollution in India.”Council on Energy, Environment and Water, September 6, 2021, https://www.ceew.in/blogs/five-striking-facts-about-air-pollution-crisis-in-india. [2] “India Air Quality Index (AQI) and Air Pollution Information IQAir,”https://www.iqair.com/in-en/india. [3]Anamika Pandey, Michael Brauer, Maureen L Cropper, Kalpana Balakrishnan, Prashant Mathur, Sagnik Dey, Burak Turkgulu, et al, “Health and Economic Impact of Air Pollution in the States of India: The Global Burden of Disease Study 2019.” The Lancet Planetary Health 5 (1): e25–38. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(20)30298-9. [4]“India Air Quality Index (AQI) and Air Pollution Information.” [5]“India Air Quality Index (AQI) and Air Pollution Information” [6] Tanushree Ganguly, Adeel Khan, and Karthik Ganesan, “What’s Polluting India’s Air? The Need for an Official Air Pollution Emissions Database.” New Delhi: Council on Energy, Environment and Water,2021, https://www.ceew.in/publications/sources-of-air-pollution-in-india-and-need-for-official-air-pollution-emissions-inventory. [7] Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India, “National Clean Air Programme 2019.” https://moef.gov.in/wp-ontent/uploads/2019/05/NCAP_Report.pdf [8]Natural Resources Defence Council, Indian Institute of Public Health, “Clearing the Air: A Review of City Actions to Fight Air Pollution in India.” NRDC, 2021 https://www.nrdc.org/resources/clearing-air-review-of-city-actions-to-fight-air-pollution-india. [9]“Clearing the Air: A Review of City Actions to Fight Air Pollution in India, 2021” [10] Anumita Roychowdhury, “Funds for Clean Air: Get the Blueprint Right.” 2020. https://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/pollution/funds-for-clean-air-get-the-blueprint-right-74122. [11]“Clearing the Air: A Review of City Actions to Fight Air Pollution in India.” [12]“Clearing the Air: A Review of City Actions to Fight Air Pollution in India.” [13]Rowchowdhury “Funds for Clean Air: Get the Blueprint Right.” 2020. [14] Shivnarayan Rajpurohit, “What Happened to Modi’s National ‘Clean Air’ Project? Not Much in Three Years.” Newslaundry, March 6, 2022, https://www.newslaundry.com/2022/06/03/what-happened-to-modis-national-clean-air-project-not-much-in-three-years. [15]Rowchowdhury “Funds for Clean Air: Get the Blueprint Right.” [16], Jessica Seddon, “Clean Air for All: Financing Clean Air in India, Report to the XVth Finance Commission, Government of India.” World Resources Institute, 2019, https://fincomindia.nic.in/writereaddata/html_en_files/fincom15/StudyReports/WRI_summary_report.pdf [17]Seddon, “Clean Air for All: Financing Clean Air in India, Report to the XVth Finance Commission” [18]Clearing the Air: A Review of City Actions to Fight Air Pollution in India.” [19]S Kumar, N Yadav, S Das and S Mathew, Green Vehicle Rating for 2 and 3 Wheelers in India. New Delhi: Alliance for an Energy Efficient Economy, 2018, https://shaktifoundation.in/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/GVR-Report_Final.pdf [20] Abhinav Soman, Harsimran Kaur, Himani Jain, and Karthik Ganesan. “India’s Electric Vehicle Transition: Can Electric Mobility Support India’s Sustainable Economic Recovery Post COVID-19?” New Delhi: Council on Energy, Environment and Water, 2021, https://www.ceew.in/publications/indias-electric-vehicle-transition-0 [21] Haseeb Hakkim, Ashish Kumar, Baerbel Sinha and Vinayak Sinha, “Air Pollution Scenario Analyses of Fleet Replacement Strategies to Accomplish Reductions in Criteria Air Pollutants and 74 VOCs over India.” Atmospheric Environment: X 13 (January 2022): 100150, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aeaoa.2022.100150. [22] Madhav Pai. “Tackling Transport Emissions.” WRI INDIA. 2021, https://wri-india.org/blog/tackling-transport-emissions. [23]Pai, “Tackling Transport Emissions.” [24] Sharif Qamar, “Don’t Miss the Bus: Providing Sustainable Mobility for Urban India,” The Energy and Resources Institute, 2020, https://www.teriin.org/infographics/dont-miss-bus-providing-sustainable-mobility-urban-india. [25] Palak Thakur and Sugandha Pal, “Replacing Bengaluru’s Auto Fleet with Electric Autos Will Clean up the Air and Save LPG,” The Energy and Resources Institute, 2018, https://www.teriin.org/article/replacing-bengalurus-auto-fleet-electric-autos-will-clean-air-and-save-lpg. [26]Promit Mookherjee and Kushan Mitra, “Electric Buses in India: Emerging Issues and Policy Lessons,” Observer Research Foundation, 2022, https://www.orfonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/ORF_PolicyReport_Electric-Buses.pdf [27]Abhiskek, “Cost of Setting up an EV Charging Station in India.” Inverted Energy (blog), December 24, 2021, https://inverted.in/blog/cost-of-setting-up-an-ev-charging-station-in-india. [28]Ministry of Heavy Industries, Government of India. “Brief: National Automotive Board (NAB),” https://fame2.heavyindustries.gov.in/content/english/13_1_brief.aspx. [29] Karn Vohra, Alina Vodonos, Joel Schwartz, Eloise A. Marais, Melissa P. Sulprizio, and Loretta J. Mickley. “Global Mortality from Outdoor Fine Particle Pollution Generated by Fossil Fuel Combustion: Results from GEOS-Chem.” Environmental Research 195 (April 2021): 110754, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2021.110754. [30] Christer Ågren, “Renewable Energy – Technology Choices Matter for Air Quality,” Airclim, March 1, 2020, https://www.airclim.org/acidnews/renewable-energy-%E2%80%93-technology-choices-matter-air-quality. [31] Anoop Jaipurkar, “India on Path to Meet Renewable Energy Target in 2030, but Hurdles Remain,” The Federal, November 22, 2021, https://thefederal.com/cop26-impact/india-on-path-to-meet-renewable-energy-target-in-2030-but-hurdles-remain/. [32] Harshita Tyagi, “Union Budget 2022: PLI Scheme Extended to Solar Equipment; Allocates Rs 19500 Cr Boost for Modules,” Financialexpress (blog), 2022, https://www.financialexpress.com/budget/union-budget-2022-pli-scheme-extended-to-solar-equipment-allocates-rs-19500-cr-boost-for-modules/2422284/. [33] Nandini Jhalani, “India Looks Likely to Miss the 2022 Renewable Energy Targets,” Mongabay-India, June 3, 2021, https://india.mongabay.com/2021/06/india-looks-likely-to-miss-the-2022-renewable-energy-targets/. [34] Jhalani, “India Looks Likely to Miss the 2022 Renewable Energy Targets.” [35] “Only decentralised renewable energy can help achieve 2030 targets,” Business Standard, July 21, 2022. [36] “India Looks Likely to Miss the 2022 Renewable Energy Targets.” [37] “Only decentralised renewable energy can help achieve 2030 targets.” [38] Binita Das “Rooftop Solar : Why India is now considered to be a laggard globally,” DownTo Earth, January 12, 2022. [39] “Difference between gross metering and net metering” Centre for Energy Finance, Council on Energy Environment and Water, July 16, 2019. [40] Manish Kumar, “Discoms and states pivot al to make renewable energy via open access a success,” Mongabay, July 4, 2022. [41]World Health Organisation. 2021. “Catalyzing Clean Air in India.” World Bank. 2021, https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/india/publication/catalyzing-clean-air-in-india. [42] Bobins Abraham, “Everything You Need to Know About the Commission for Air Quality Management in NCR Bill 2021,” Indiatimes, August 5, 2021. [43] Tanushree Ganguly, Adeel Khan, and Karthik Ganesan. 2021. “What’s Polluting India’s Air? The Need for an Official Air Pollution Emissions Database,” New Delhi: Council on Energy, Environment and Water 2021. [44]“Clean Air for All: Financing Clean Air in India, Report to the XVth Finance Commission, Government of India.” [45]“Clean Air for All: Financing Clean Air in India, Report to the XVth Finance Commission, Government of India.” [46] Tanushree Ganguly, Kurinji L. Selvaraj, and Sarath K. Guttikunda. 2020. “National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) for Indian Cities: Review and Outlook of Clean Air Action Plans.” Atmospheric Environment: X 8 (December): 100096. [47]“National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) for Indian Cities: Review and Outlook of Clean Air Action Plans.” [48]Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India. “The Commission for Air Quality Management in National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas Act, 2021.” [49] Reena Gupta, “To Tackle Air Pollution, Devise Concrete, Measurable Time-Bound Targets,” Hindustan Times, January 31, 2022. [50] G Darsini, Indira Priya, and K. Uma Devi, “Article 21 of Indian Constitution- A Mandate to Pollution Free Environment,” Legalserviceindia. [51] Aishwarya Shrihari, “Delhi Pollution: Looking at Social, Political Facets of Climate Crisis Can Help in Better Adaptation,” DownToEarth, December 9, 2021. [52]“International Day of Clean Air — 5 Facts You Should Know About Air Pollution in India.” [53] Swagata Dey, “Air Pollution in Rural India: Ignored but Not Absent,” DownToEarth, February 3, 2021.

Lightning kills nearly 50 this week in India's Uttar Pradesh

Indian police say that seven people, mostly farmers, have been killed by lightning in a village in India’s northern Uttar Pradesh state, bringing the death toll by lightning to 49 people in the state this week LUCKNOW, India -- Seven people, mostly farmers, were killed by lightning in a village in India's northern Uttar Pradesh state, police said Thursday, bringing the death toll by lightning to 49 people in the state this week. The farmers had taken shelter under trees during a drenching monsoon rain when they were struck by lightning Tuesday and died instantly. The victims included four members of a family and some cattle grazers near the city of Kaushambi, according to police officer Hem Raj Meena. The high death toll has prompted the government to issue new guidelines for how people can protect themselves during a lightning storm, said state government spokesman Shishir Singh. "People are dying more from lightning than rain-related incidents, though this is the time when people (typically) die of floods or other rain-related incidents,” Singh said. India's monsoon season runs from June through September. Col. Sanjay Srivastava, who works with the Indian Meteorological Department, said lightning has killed nearly 750 people across India since April. That includes 20 people who died in eastern Bihar state in the past two days and 16 in Madhya Pradesh state in central India earlier this month. Sunita Narain, director-general of the Center for Science and Environment, said global warming plays a role in the rising number of lightning strikes. A one-degree Celsius rise in temperature increases lightning by 12 times. Srivastava said that deforestation, the depletion of bodies of water, and pollution all contribute to climate change, which leads to more lightning. J P Gupta, director of the Meteorological Department, said thunderstorms and lightning have increased this year due to an increase in pollution levels. “High ground temperature leads to evaporation from water bodies that adds moisture to the atmosphere. The presence of aerosols due to air pollution creates favorable conditions for thunderclouds to trigger lightning activity,” Gupta said. More than 200 people have been killed in heavy downpours and mudslides in Indian states including Assam, Manipur, Tripura and Sikkim, while 42 people have died in Bangladesh since May 17. Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced in the monsoon season.

Lightning in Indian state kills 49 in days

Seven people, mostly farmers, have been killed by lightning in a village in India's northern Uttar Pradesh state, bringing the death toll by lightning to 49 people in the state this week. The farmers had taken shelter under trees during a drenching monsoon rain when they were struck by lightning on Tuesday and died instantly. The victims included four members of a family and some cattle graziers near the city of Kaushambi, according to police officer Hem Raj Meena. The high death toll has prompted the government to issue new guidelines for how people can protect themselves during a lightning storm, said state government spokesman Shishir Singh. "People are dying more from lightning than rain-related incidents, though this is the time when people (typically) die of floods or other rain-related incidents," Singh said. India's monsoon season runs from June through September. Colonel Sanjay Srivastava, who works with the Indian Meteorological Department, said lightning had killed nearly 750 people across India since April, including 20 people in eastern Bihar state in the past two days and 16 in Madhya Pradesh state in central India earlier this month. Sunita Narain, director-general of the Center for Science and Environment, said global warming played a role in the rising number of lightning strikes. A 1C rise in temperature increases lightning by 12 times.

Lightning kills FORTY-NINE people in a week in India - with four members of one family losing their lives in one storm

Lightning in India has killed 49 people this week during the country's monsoon season. Four cattle farmers from the same family died during a single storm after they were struck by lightning that killed them and three others instantly as they took shelter under trees during a huge downpour near Kaushambi, Uttar Pradesh state. India's monsoon season runs from June to September and the high death toll has forced the government to issue new guidelines on how people can protect themselves during a lightning storm. A government spokesman for the north Indian state, Shishir Singh, said: 'People are dying more from lightning than rain-related incidents, though this is the time when people (typically) die of floods or other rain-related incidents.' Colonel Sanjay Srivastava, who works with the Indian Meteorological Department, said lightning has killed nearly 750 people across India since April. That includes 20 people who died in eastern Bihar state in the past two days and 16 in Madhya Pradesh state in central India earlier this month. More than 200 people have been killed in heavy downpours and mudslides in Indian states including Assam, Manipur, Tripura and Sikkim, while 42 people have died in Bangladesh since May 17. Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced in the monsoon season. Sunita Narain, director-general of the Centre for Science and Environment, said global warming plays a role in the rising number of lightning strikes. A one-degree Celsius rise in temperature increases lightning by 12 times. Col Srivastava said that deforestation, the depletion of bodies of water and pollution all contribute to climate change, which leads to more lightning. J P Gupta, director of the Meteorological Department, said thunderstorms and lightning have increased this year due to an increase in pollution levels. He said: 'High ground temperature leads to evaporation from water bodies that adds moisture to the atmosphere. 'The presence of aerosols due to air pollution creates favourable conditions for thunderclouds to trigger lightning activity.'

Los rayos matan a casi 50 en un estado de India esta semana

Siete personas, en su mayoría agricultores, fallecieron por la caída de un rayo en una aldea del estado de Uttar Pradesh, en el norte de India, dijo la policía el jueves. El incidente elevó a 49 los fallecidos por rayos en la región esta semana. Los agricultores se habían cobijado de las fuertes lluvias del monzón debajo de árboles cuando fueron alcanzados por un rayo el martes y murieron al instante. Entre las víctimas registradas cerca de la ciudad de Kaushambi había cuatro miembros de una misma familia y algunos pastores, explicó el agente de policía Hem Raj Meena. El elevado número de muertes ha llevado al gobierno a publicar nuevas directrices sobre cómo protegerse durante una tormenta eléctrica, explicó el vocero del ejecutivo regional, Shishir Singh. “La gente está muriendo más por los rayos que por incidentes relacionados con la lluvia, aunque esta es la época en la que la gente (normalmente) fallece por inundaciones u otros incidentes relacionados con la lluvia”, indicó Singh. ADVERTISEMENT En India, la temporada del monzón va de junio a septiembre. El coronel Sanjay Srivastava, que trabaja con el Departamento Meteorológico de India, dijo que los rayos han causado casi 170 decesos en todo el país desde abril. Esto incluye 20 personas en el estado oriental de Bihar en los dos últimos días y otros 16 en la región central de Madhya Pradesh a principios de mes. Sunita Narain, directora general del Centro de Ciencia y Medio Ambiente, afirmó que el calentamiento global influye en el aumento de la incidencia de los rayos. Un incremento de la temperatura de un grado centígrado multiplica los rayos por 12. Srivastava apuntó que la deforestación, el agotamiento de los acuíferos y la contaminación contribuyen al cambio climático, lo que genera más rayos. J P Gupta, director del Departamento Meteorológico, dijo que las tormentas eléctricas y los rayos se han incrementado este año debido al aumento del nivel de contaminación. “La alta temperatura del piso causa más evaporación de las masas de agua, lo que añade humedad a la atmósfera. La presencia de aerosoles por la contaminación atmosférica crea condiciones favorables para que las nubes de tormenta desencadenen la actividad de rayos”, indicó Gupta. Más de 200 personas han muerto debido a los fuertes aguaceros y los deslaves en varios estados indios, incluyendo Assam, Manipur, Tripura y Sikkim, y otras 42 han perdido la vida en Bangladesh desde el 17 de mayo. Cientos de miles de personas se han visto desplazadas en la temporada del monzón.

La foudre tue près de 50 personnes cette semaine dans l’Uttar Pradesh en Inde

Sept personnes, pour la plupart des agriculteurs, ont été tuées par la foudre dans un village de l’État de l’Uttar Pradesh, dans le nord de l’Inde, a annoncé jeudi la police, portant le nombre de morts par la foudre à 49 personnes dans l’État cette semaine. Les agriculteurs s’étaient abrités sous des arbres pendant une pluie de mousson abondante lorsqu’ils ont été frappés par la foudre mardi et sont morts sur le coup. Les victimes comprenaient quatre membres d’une famille et des éleveurs de bétail près de la ville de Kaushambi, selon l’officier de police Kaushambi Hem Raj Meena. Le nombre élevé de morts a incité le gouvernement à publier de nouvelles directives sur la façon dont les gens peuvent se protéger pendant un orage, a déclaré le porte-parole du gouvernement de l’État, Shishir Singh. “Les gens meurent plus de la foudre que d’incidents liés à la pluie, bien que ce soit le moment où les gens meurent (généralement) d’inondations ou d’autres incidents liés à la pluie”, a déclaré Singh. La saison de la mousson en Inde s’étend de juin à septembre. Le colonel Sanjay Srivastava, qui travaille avec le département météorologique indien, a déclaré que la foudre avait tué près de 750 personnes à travers l’Inde depuis avril. Cela comprend 20 personnes décédées dans l’est de l’État du Bihar au cours des deux derniers jours et 16 dans l’État du Madhya Pradesh, dans le centre de l’Inde, au début du mois. Sunita Narain, directrice générale du Centre pour la science et l’environnement, a déclaré que le réchauffement climatique joue un rôle dans le nombre croissant de coups de foudre. Une élévation de température d’un degré Celsius multiplie par 12 la foudre. Srivastava a déclaré que la déforestation, l’épuisement des masses d’eau et la pollution contribuent tous au changement climatique, ce qui entraîne davantage de foudre. JP Gupta, directeur du département météorologique, a déclaré que les orages et la foudre ont augmenté cette année en raison d’une augmentation des niveaux de pollution. “La température élevée du sol entraîne l’évaporation des masses d’eau qui ajoute de l’humidité à l’atmosphère. La présence d’aérosols dus à la pollution de l’air crée des conditions favorables pour que les nuages ​​orageux déclenchent l’activité de la foudre », a déclaré Gupta. Plus de 200 personnes ont été tuées dans des pluies torrentielles et des coulées de boue dans des États indiens tels que l’Assam, le Manipur, le Tripura et le Sikkim, tandis que 42 personnes sont mortes au Bangladesh depuis le 17 mai. Des centaines de milliers de personnes ont été déplacées pendant la saison de la mousson.

Près de 50 personnes tuées par la foudre en une semaine pendant la saison de la mousson indienne | Nouvelles du monde

Sept personnes ont été tuées par la foudre dans le nord de l’Inde, portant le nombre total de morts à 49 cette semaine. Tous ceux qui sont morts se trouvaient dans l’État de l’Uttar Pradesh, qui est actuellement dans sa saison de mousson. Les sept décès les plus récents concernaient principalement des agriculteurs du village, qui s’abritaient sous des arbres lors d’une averse. Quatre étaient de la même famille, selon la police de la ville voisine de Kaushambi. Jusqu’à présent cette saison, plus de personnes sont mortes de la foudre que d’incidents liés à la pluie comme les inondations. À la suite des décès, le gouvernement a publié de nouvelles directives pour les tempêtes. Le porte-parole Shishir Singh a déclaré: “Les gens meurent plus de la foudre que d’incidents liés à la pluie, bien que ce soit le moment où les gens meurent (généralement) des inondations ou d’autres incidents liés à la pluie.” Le colonel Sanjay Srivastava du Département météorologique indien a déclaré que près de 750 personnes dans Inde ont été tués par la foudre depuis avril. Image: De fortes pluies à Mumbai au début du mois Sunita Narain, directrice générale du Centre pour la science et l’environnement, a déclaré que le réchauffement climatique influençait le nombre de grèves. Certaines études ont prédit qu’une hausse des températures d’un degré augmenterait le nombre de grèves de 12 %. :: Abonnez-vous à ClimateCast sur Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Spreaker Et JP Gupta, directeur du Département météorologique, a déclaré que les orages et la foudre ont augmenté cette année en raison d’une augmentation des niveaux de pollution. Il a déclaré: “La température élevée du sol entraîne l’évaporation des masses d’eau qui ajoute de l’humidité à l’atmosphère. “La présence d’aérosols dus à la pollution de l’air crée des conditions favorables pour que les nuages ​​orageux déclenchent l’activité de la foudre.” Plus de 200 personnes ont été tuées dans les pluies et les glissements de terrain en Inde, et 42 au Bangladesh, depuis le 17 mai, tandis que des centaines de milliers de personnes ont été déplacées.

What Indore, The Cleanest City Of India For 5 Years In A Row, Did Right And How Other Cities Can Go Zero Waste Too?

Not only has Indore continued to retain its position as the cleanest city in the country, but every year it also manages to move ahead and make city more sustainable, green and eco-friendly with unique initiatives New Delhi: Indore, the largest city in Madhya Pradesh and central India’s business and education hub, has set a record of winning the title of the cleanest city in India every year since 2017. Not only has the city continued to retain its position, but every year Indore also manages to better its own performance and make the city more sustainable, green, and eco-friendly with unique initiatives. After making the whole city Open Defecation Free (ODF) and landfill-free, for the last few years, Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) has been making the city cleaner by focusing on waste management at the source. IMC tells NDTV that its main goal is to make recycling, reusing, and disposing of waste faster and in a more organised way. At present, the cleanest city in the country practices six-bin waste segregation at source for the household and commercial levels, which include bins for dry waste, wet waste, plastic waste, e-waste, domestic sanitary waste, and domestic hazardous waste. The IMC, however, credits the people of Indore and their commitment and cooperation for being able to achieve a spectacular waste management mechanism, Asad Warsi, Centre’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan adviser for Indore Municipal Corporation explains, On average, the per day waste generation by the city includes 530 tonnes of wet waste, 460 tonnes of dry waste, 14 tonnes of plastic waste, 2.5 tonnes of e-waste, 11 tonnes of sanitary waste, and 3.5 tonnes of hazardous waste. To deal with each kind of waste in the city, we have created a separate system. The city has also been working on strategies to eliminate waste generation at the source itself and has been able to establish four wards as zero-waste wards. In 2016, the IMC started collecting only segregated waste every day from households. When the waste segregation began, over 80 per cent of the residents would not segregate waste. We had to plead with them as to why this is essential for the environment. However, if people repeatedly gave unsegregated trash, we eventually started fining those households, Mr Warsi said. In 2017-18, the IMC collected Rs 27 crore in the form of user fees for waste collection, he added. Now, 6 years and 5 titles later, people are happy to segregate their waste at source. He further says that the waste collected by the municipal corporation is transported in vehicles and the processing of 100 per cent of the waste collected is done on the same day. Presently Indore is among the six cities in the country to hold a Five-star rating in the Garbage Free Cities Rating, which was one of the four important components of Swachh Survekshan. The IMC has also established several wet waste processing plants to process its wet waste. Indore is undertaking an initiative to convert waste into energy with an aim to deal with wet waste and at the same time reduce the city’s dependence on fossil fuel which causes air pollution. The Waste-to-Energy plant installed by IMC converts wet waste into 95 per cent pure biogas called Methane which is further converted into CNG (Compressed Natural Gas). We also have undertaken an initiative of garden waste management under which about 59 tonnes of bulk garden and horticultural waste is being processed every day. IMC also uses Mobile Composting Units for making compost from waste. We have also been encouraging people to practice home composting. Currently, more than 50,000 households in the city are composting their kitchen waste at home. When it comes to solid waste management, Mr Warsi explains, IMC follows a unique system of garbage collection, all the households that come under IMC area have been given two large bags for them to store plastic waste separately. When one bag is filled, people send a message to the agency appointed for recycling the plastic waste in the city. The agency sends its personnel to the household to buy the plastic from them at a minimum price of Rs. 1.5 per kilogram up to Rs. 5 per kg depending upon the quality of the plastic. Thus, not only is IMC saving on transportation and handling of plastic waste with this process, but it is also helping people gain out of their scrapped plastic products. Moreover, plastic waste from the city is successfully collected and is being sent to the plastic waste treatment facility where it is converted into diesel. The treatment plant is able to process 8 tonnes of plastic every day and give 3500 litres of diesel on a daily basis. We also have a treatment facility where the plastic waste is being converted into cement bricks. Non-recyclable waste is sent to this plant and the M.P. Rural Road Development Corporation uses in the construction of road and sidewalks. These steps ensure a hundred percent waste management on the same day and we simply have no need for a landfill anymore. In 2019, IMC decided to make Indore ‘a no landfill city’ and therefore removed 15 lakh tonnes of legacy waste in a mere six months’ time and reclaimed 100 acres of land which is now worth Rs. 400 Crores. Along with all this, Indore has also been given the tag of India’s first “water plus” city, which is a certificate provided to a city for maintaining cleanliness in rivers and drains under its administration. According to the guidelines of Swachh Bharat Mission, a city can be declared as Water Plus only after all wastewater released from households, and commercial establishments is treated to a satisfactory level before releasing the treated wastewater into the environment. Richa Singh, Landfill expert from Centre for Science and Environment tells NDTV how Indore could manage the mammoth task of streamlining the waste management in the city. Most of the cities are presently struggling to even achieve two-way segregation, which is to separate your waste in two categories – wet and dry. But having said that, there have been many success stories in our country like Indore, Bhopal, Ambikapur, Karad in Maharashtra. They have done so well in waste segregation. Indore is the city that is segregating waste in six categories – wet, dry, plastic, hazardous, sanitary and e-waste and it is not that they did it in one day, it is a process that will take time, but willingness is very important. Indore started with two-way segregation with an extensive awareness campaign by the local bodies and they achieved this in just three years. She further says that the city was able to motivate the citizens to adopt the practice of waste segregation and treat all their 95 per cent of waste and this way they are making sure that only 5 to 10 per cent of the reject, or which is not recycled only that waste goes to the scientifically designed dumping ground. So, you are reducing the burden also you are earning revenue with the help of this. The same thing is being done in Ambikapur and other cities as well and these are the good examples that need to be replicated, she adds. Ms Singh asserts that we need to understand that dumpsite remediation is the mandate by the government and the authorities are in constant pressure to do so. She said, Having said that it is very very important for the urban local bodies to have an action plan to manage their fresh waste. For example, in Indore they are treating 550 tonnes of wet waste in a bio CNG plant – now imagine what is the cost of CNG in Delhi, it can become a self-sustaining option for the city. 550 tones every day Indore is generating 17,000 kg of bio CNG, so if we go by that statistics imagine how much change a city like Delhi can bring. Swati Singh Sambyal, Waste Management Specialist at the UN-Habitat (United Nations Human Settlements Programme) says that the achievements by Indore are a result of its political and administrative will. Indore has definitely resolved the majority of its solid waste challenge and it continues to do so. If we look at the finances, its model is highly cost-intensive. Indore has made an investment of Rs 180 crore into waste management practices and spent Rs 155 crore on its operations in 2017-2018, many cities do not get that much of money for solid waste management and sanitation. However, Indore also has a collection of user fees, and high penalty charges, and makes revenue from the sale of compost and dry waste, which makes it a win-win situation. Also, at this point, the city is known for its cleanliness and the governments have no problem in further enhancing it and ensuring the title of the cleanest city of India remains intact, for politically the will emerges from that angle. Mr Warsi says that the success of Indore’s waste management model shows that this is not only doable but the only way forward to protect the planet from the ever-rising plastic waste problem.

Single-use plastic ban: The straw that broke the plastic pack

The government's sweeping ban on single-use plastic is of massive significance as the concern for preserving the planet heightens. However, its implementation and execution are challenging, finds Ratna Bhushan. For example, the beverage cartons market is estimated at six billion small packs ranging from 75 ml to 250 ml - that’s a lot of plastic straws to replace. “I was on a flight last week, and a leading airline was serving all food trays with single-use plastic spoons and forks. So much for the plastic ban,” says a top official of a foods and beverages company. Ironically, the brand is also among the ones which has announced ‘significant’ investments on eliminating single-use plastic (items that are used one time and discarded).<br><br>India’s Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has banned the use of all single-use plastic from being manufactured, imported, stocked, distributed or sold, starting July 1, 2022. Ideally, spoons, plates, glasses, trays, earbuds, balloon sticks, candy and ice-cream sticks, carry bags that are

Explained: What Is Natural Farming?

The government is pushing natural farming across India, without the use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides. Bengaluru: Nearly 3.8 million hectares, or 2.7% of the total area under farming in India, is farmed organically or through natural methods, which means using natural processes and inputs to improve the health of soil, crop yield and quality, a move away from commonly used chemical fertilisers and pesticides. The objective of natural farming, said the government's 2021 Economic Survey, is elimination of chemical fertilisers and pesticides, the indiscriminate use of which pollutes the environment, and to promote "good agronomic practices", which means using science and technology to manage crops. In the 2022 budget speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that "chemical-free natural farming will be promoted throughout the country, with a focus on farmers' lands in 5-km wide corridors along river Ganga, at the first stage". Advertisement This move towards chemical-free farming is juxtaposed against a large workforce (43%) employed in agriculture and related jobs, a sector that contributes to just 18.8% of India's gross domestic product. Increased farmer indebtedness due to costly agricultural inputs like chemical fertilisers, pesticides, seeds, the increasing cost of cultivation, climate change, and low farm produce prices, have aggravated India's farm crisis, even as the government has said that farmer income will double by 2022. But experts are divided on whether a complete transition to natural and organic farming would work in India's favour, especially if it is pushed top down, and follows a rigid definition of what natural farming entails. Supporters of natural farming believe that it will reduce farm input costs, improve soil health and water efficiency and lead to an increase in farm produce prices. Though natural farming might be able to reduce costs and mean that farmers use methods that suit the agro-ecology of a region, say experts, there are concerns that yields from natural farming could be lower, especially in nutrient-deficient soil in many parts of the country. While we need a forward-looking sustainable model in agriculture and not a revivalistic model that talks about farming practices centuries ago, existing [government] schemes are getting politicised, said G.V. Ramanjaneyulu, executive director of the Secunderabad-based nonprofit, the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture. "The focus should be on reducing agro-chemicals, water use and energy utilisation." In a multi-part series, IndiaSpend will explore the different facets of natural farming, its implementation in India, and the possibility of success. In this first part, we explain what natural farming is, and where it is being practised in India. What is natural farming? India became food secure by using high yielding varieties of seeds, fertilisers to nourish the soil and pesticides to keep crop damage at bay. But this was accompanied with environmental damage through overuse of fertilisers, and impacted human and ecological health. Due to the impact of the Green Revolution, "heightened further" by the pandemic, "there is an urgent need to scale up alternative approaches" of farming, wrote economist Mihir Shah, in a January 2022 report in the journal Ecology, Economy and Society. In December 2021, during a conclave on natural farming, Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasised the need for working on alternative methods of farming, while acknowledging the importance of chemicals and fertilisers in the Green Revolution. "We have to take our agriculture out of the lab of chemistry and connect it to the lab of nature," he said. This refers to agroecology, which guides public policies towards sustainable agriculture and food systems, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). While there is no specific set of practices that are classified as agroecological, it includes those methods that maintain and enhance natural processes related to soil, water and climate in agricultural production, reduce the use of purchased inputs, like fossil fuels and agrochemicals, and create resilient agroecosystems, noted a 2019 High Level Panel of Experts for Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE) of the FAO. These methods focus on promoting crop diversification, restoring and rebuilding natural cycles in the soil, and reducing water demand, among others. Natural farming and organic farming, both come under agroecological practices and are terms used interchangeably in India. In natural farming the focus is on the use of bio inputs prepared from farm and local ecosystems instead of purchasing those from outside. "Organic farming is defined now more from a perspective of product certification. Except for such certification, organic and natural farming in India are largely similar," said Sridhar Radhakrishnan, activist and independent agriculture researcher based in Thiruvananthapuram. What binds organic and natural farming proponents "is the thrust on the absence of application of chemical fertilisers or chemical pesticides during cultivation", said R. Ramakumar, an economist at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS). In organic farming, farmers might use "external agricultural inputs" such as rock phosphate, biopesticides and biofertilisers, he added. "But [some] natural farming proponents argue that even these external applications are not required, as the farm itself can generate much of the inputs required," he said, adding that, "therefore, they call it Zero-Budget Natural Farming." Zero-Budget Natural Farming is one of the many methods of natural farming, popularised by agriculturist Subash Palekar (later known as Subash Palekar Natural Farming). According to the approach, a concoction of natural inputs like cow urine and dung, jaggery, lime, neem among others are used to improve soil health, nutrients and reduce input costs, among other benefits. In July 2022, the government announced that it would constitute a committee to "promote zero-budget based farming, to change crop pattern keeping in mind the changing needs of the country, and to make MSP [Minimum Support Price] more effective and transparent…". On natural farming the committee will make suggestions for programmes for value chain development, strategies to introduce natural farming curriculum in universities and suggest farmer-friendly alternative certification systems for natural farm produce. Is natural farming better than 'conventional' farming? Various state governments have supported organic farming as an alternative farming option in the last few decades. But there are debates worldwide on the impact on crop yield by transitioning to agroecological farming methods and discarding conventional practices that use chemical inputs, especially where soils are nutrient-deficient. If biofertilisers, rhizobium and acetobacter can fix soil health to an extent, there is no need for heavy chemical use, said Ramanjaneyulu. This would also help the government cut spending on fertiliser subsidies, which cost Rs 1.4 lakh crore ($18.7 billion) in 2021-22 and are estimated to cost Rs 1.1 lakh crore ($14.7 billion) in 2022-23, which could rise to Rs 2.5 lakh crore due to higher import prices. But compared to 'conventional farming', according to a 2019 ICAR-National Academy of Agricultural Research Management report, "organic products are usually 3-4 times more expensive due to higher labour cost, certification costs, handling costs and comparatively lower yields". The jury is still out on which method or which combination of methods would be the best for crop yields. There are knowledge gaps on comparing relative yields and performance of different agroecological practices, according to the HLPE report. "..out of the 504 times that yield results were recorded during 2014–19, 41% of the times yields were highest with organic approach, followed by 33% with integrated and 26% with inorganic approach," said the February 2022 CSE report that analysed the All India Network Project on Organic Farming (AI-NPOF) of the Indian Council of Agriculture Research and other scientific studies. It reported evidence of highest net returns and best soil health under the organic approach in study centres. "There is scientific evidence on the benefits of natural farming, but the government has to take the initiative to formally collate like it did under AI-NPOF," said Vineet Kumar, deputy programme manager of Sustainable Food Systems at CSE. On the other hand, the 2019 NAAS report highlighted that studies initiated by the Indian Council of Agriculture Research-Indian Institute of Farming System Research "clearly indicated that yield levels were drastically reduced in rice-wheat cropping system by 59% in wheat and 32% in basmati rice" when tenets of zero-budget natural farming were followed. It further showed a three-year natural farming experiment that showed "a yield decline" in crops tested which "established that food security will be seriously challenged along with farmers' income, if ZBNF [Zero Budget Natural Farming] is adopted". There is concern that yields will fall with natural farming because 59% of soils in India are deficient in nitrogen, 49% are low in phosphorus and 48% are low in potassium, said Ramakumar. "Organic or ZBNF methods do not replenish enough nutrients in the soils as much as the plants uptake them every season." Organic and natural farming can be scaled up only to a level, because of several reasons. These include a lack of a national action plan to promote organic and natural farming, dependence on expensive certification for organic produce, which smaller farmers cannot afford, inadequate funding, target-driven and timeline-based policies for natural farming, among others. Why painting all other farming methods with one brush isn't right When proponents of organic/natural farming use the term 'conventional farming', they use it to denote all cases of misuse or overuse of chemicals in agriculture, none of which are sanctioned by agricultural scientists. "..condemning the technology that ushered in Green Revolution for the negative impacts on the environment and health is neither fair nor justified. It was the injudicious, indiscriminate and excessive use of agro-chemicals which is to be blamed," said a 2019 National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS) report on Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF). Some say scientific conventional farming can be considered closer to natural farming than most think. Scientific farming involves the use of both organic manures as well as chemical fertilisers, but only where required, after a soil test and in prescribed quantities, which scientists call balanced nutrient management, said Ramakumar. "Similarly, they prescribe 'integrated pest management', where you use natural means to control pests and diseases and use pesticides only as a last option. I would like to consider this as 'conventional farming'." Government schemes for natural farming Source: Centre for Science and Environment The Union government's 2005 policy on organic farming was "not successful in bringing necessary attention towards organic farming", noted a 2020 CSE report. Since then, the government has had several initiatives and sub-missions under ​​the National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA), which began in 2014-15, the Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY), which began in 2015, and the Mission Organic Value Chain Development in North East Region (MOVCDNER), which started in 2015. A scheme to promote chemical-free organic farming in clusters of land, PKVY provides financial assistance of Rs 50,000 per hectare for three years for creating farming clusters, capacity building, incentive for inputs, value addition like processing, packaging and marketing of organic produce. In 2020-21, Bhartiya Prakritik Krishi Paddati (BPKP), a subscheme under PKVY, was launched to promote natural farming including Zero-Budget Natural Farming. Nearly 410,000 hectares has been covered in eight states with a total fund of Rs 49.8 crore. The 2022 allocation for PKVY is not clear and as of 2022-23 it has been rationalised under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana, a Union government scheme to develop agriculture and allied sectors. Have other countries adopted natural farming? There have been various agroecological initiatives in different parts of the world. In November 2021, 45 governments, led by the UK, pledged urgent action and investment to protect nature and shift to more sustainable ways of farming at the 26th Conference of Parties, the climate change conference in Glasgow, according to a UK government press release. It said that the commitments would help leverage over $4 billion of public sector investment into agricultural innovation to improve soil health, helping make these techniques and resources affordable and accessible to farmers. In May 2020, the EU announced the Farm to Fork Strategy, as a part of the European Green Deal to "make food systems fair, healthy and environmentally-friendly". As part of the strategy, the European Commission announced a 50% reduction in the use and risk of chemical pesticides, and in the use of more hazardous pesticides by 2030. But as countries are promising to transition to sustainable agriculture, Sri Lanka's experience of transitioning to the first organic farming nation failed. The country's government, which fell after weeks of massive protests and an ongoing economic crisis, had announced, in April 2021, that only organic farming would be allowed across the country. It proceeded to ban imports of chemical inputs, impacting millions of farmers. Following farmer protests, the ban was revoked in November 2021. "The chemical fertiliser ban, combined with bad weather, led to falling crop yields and contributed to inflation hitting a 47-month high of 8.3% in October with food inflation at 11.7%," said a November 24, 2021 Reuters report. The way ahead Experts believe that there are far too many debates on methods of natural and conventional farming, rather than the impact and design of the schemes being implemented. For instance, Subash Palekar's method for Zero-Budget Natural Farming is considered too rigid, and has created a dichotomy about farm practices that were organic or natural, said Radhakrishnan, the independent agricultural researcher. "Although this is not a criticism of ZBNF, in some ways the government prioritises ZBNF over other agroecological farming practices." In addition, "there are a lot of concerns about BPKP and PKVY", the government programmes, said Kumar of CSE. "Usually, these schemes are implemented by the state agriculture department who may not have adequate training on this." There is a need to invest more resources, including trained agriculture staff, and funds for science and technology and research, to better understand organic and natural farming practices, experts say. "A modern agricultural scientist may not even be able to explain why a concoction sprayed by a farmer increased yield in natural farming, while the scientist may understand how chemicals work," said Kavitha Kuruganti, a social activist with the Alliance for Sustainable & Holistic Agriculture (ASHA). There is a need for the government to support alternative farming methods rather than only supporting farming that uses chemicals, she added. The 2022 Union budget announced that states will be encouraged to "revise syllabi of agricultural universities to meet the needs of natural, zero-budget and organic farming, modern-day agriculture, value addition and management". The government needs to invest in processing and packaging of products, and ensure that products are procured in sufficient quantities to ensure remunerative prices for farmers. Due to gaps, for example, in PKVY, "..in the absence of direct linkages with processors, retailers and exporters, farmers are dependent on middlemen to market their produce", said the 2020 CSE report. The agroecological methods need to be based on local contexts in various states and regions and use bio-inputs based on local ecosystems. Andhra Pradesh (AP community-managed natural farming) has established a ZBNF system to suit its requirements, while other states like Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka and Kerala have also initiated it. Karnataka initiated implementation of ZBNF on a pilot basis in 2,000 ha in each of the 10 agro-climatic zones of the state. Ramakumar reiterated that India needs to trust its agricultural scientists. "Only by practising scientific agriculture can we attain the goals of raising farm incomes, raising yields and reducing chemical use in agriculture. And this science has to be promoted in the public sector and not through private corporates."