• Sustainable Food Systems

चेतावनी के लेबल, सितारे नहीं, डिब्बाबंद खाद्य पदार्थों के खाने के पैटर्न को बदल सकते हैं: विशेषज्ञ

भारतीय खाद्य सुरक्षा और मानक प्राधिकरण उपभोक्ताओं को चीनी, नमक और वसा में उच्च पैकेज वाले खाद्य पदार्थों को खरीदने से हतोत्साहित करने के लिए फ्रंट-ऑफ-पैक लेबलिंग को लागू करने के लिए तैयार है, सार्वजनिक स्वास्थ्य विशेषज्ञ असहमत हैं। ऐसा करने की विधि। FSSAI ने एक स्वास्थ्य स्टार रेटिंग प्रणाली को लागू करने का प्रस्ताव दिया है जहां स्वस्थ विकल्पों को उनकी ऊर्जा दक्षता के आधार पर इलेक्ट्रॉनिक्स की स्टार रेटिंग के समान उच्च स्टार रेटिंग प्राप्त होती है। प्रणाली को एफएसएसएआई द्वारा शुरू किए गए सर्वेक्षण के आधार पर पांच तरीकों से चुना गया था और अहमदाबाद में भारतीय प्रबंधन संस्थान द्वारा 20,500 उपभोक्ताओं के बीच आयोजित किया गया था। हालांकि, स्वास्थ्य विशेषज्ञों ने कहा कि आईआईएम सर्वेक्षण के अनुसार नमक, चीनी, वसा और विभिन्न परिरक्षकों में उच्च खाद्य पैकेजों के सामने एक प्रतीक दिखाने वाला एक चेतावनी लेबल दूसरे स्थान पर आया। विशेषज्ञों ने स्टार रेटिंग सिस्टम को सर्वश्रेष्ठ के रूप में रैंकिंग के लिए किए गए सर्वेक्षण पर भी सवाल उठाया है। पब्लिक हेल्थ फाउंडेशन ऑफ इंडिया, सेंटर फॉर साइंस एंड एनवायरनमेंट और इंडियन एकेडमी ऑफ पीडियाट्रिक्स जैसे संगठनों के एक पोजीशन पेपर में कहा गया है कि कई लैटिन अमेरिकी देशों में खपत के पैटर्न में बदलाव आया है, जिन्होंने इस तरह के चेतावनी लेबल लागू किए हैं। उन्होंने कहा कि पिछले साल प्रकाशित 100 अध्ययनों के एक मेटा-विश्लेषण ने संकेत दिया कि पोषक तत्व चेतावनी लेबल अधिक प्रभावी हैं। यह गैर-संचारी रोगों के संदर्भ में होता है जो देश में सभी मौतों का 60% प्रतिनिधित्व करते हैं। पीएचएफआई के अध्यक्ष डॉ के श्रीनाथ रेड्डी ने कहा, “इस समय विभिन्न विशेषज्ञों द्वारा सर्वेक्षण (आईआईएम-ए) की रिव्यु की जा रही है, लेकिन अध्ययन विश्वसनीय नहीं है …”। एफएसएसएआई के कार्यकारी निदेशक अरुण सिंघल ने कहा: “… मसौदा दिशानिर्देश, तैयार होने के बाद, जनता के लिए उपलब्ध कराए जाएंगे और हर कोई अपनी टिप्पणी जमा कर सकता है, जिस पर विचार किया जाएगा …”

• Solid Waste Management and Circular Economy

Delhi’s three garbage mountains and the environmental, waste management challenges that they pose

Landfills catch fire due to the anaerobic decomposition of organic waste that generates heat and combustible methane gas. The National Tribunal in 2019 mandated the biomining of the legacy waste and the three landfills in the national capital, Delhi i.e. Ghazipur, Bhalswa and Okhla landfills. But it will take not less than a decade to flatten the largest dumpsite of Delhi in Ghazipur as assessed in 2019. Between 2019 and 2020, 3 lakh tonnes of legacy waste of the 140 tonnes assessed in 2019 were bio-mined. In the succeeding year, 4.81 lakh tonnes were processed. If approximately 4 lakh tonnes of waste are bio-mined every year, it would take 33 years to process the entire waste mountain, if not considering the fresh waste that it receives every day. In 2021 fresh waste dumped at the east Delhi landfill was more than the legacy waste possessed that year. Richa Singh, Programme Officer, Waste Management Programme, Centre for Science and Environment informed the Indian express that the total capacity of processing municipal waste in Delhi is 5.550 tonnes per day (49.9% of the 11,119 TPD generated) and the capacity has remained the same since 2016. Suneel Pandey, Director of the Environment and Waste Management Division at The Energy and Resources Institute called for the strengthening of waste processing infrastructure so that organic waste does not reach landfills. But in Delhi daily waste is accommodated in the same city as legacy waste. Hence Delhi Government needs to allocate space for fresh waste so that the remediation of landfills can be done in mission mode, he suggested. Why landfills catch fire Landfills catch fire due to the anaerobic decomposition of organic waste that generates heat and combustible methane gas. There were four episodes of fires at landfills this summer with soaring temperature– three at Ghazipur and one at Bhalswa that raged for many days and have been difficult to douse. The subsurface firs are difficult to douse as pockets of methane are formed inside the garbage dumps that are hard to reach in unscientifically planned landfills without access roads and a gas collection systems. NGT taking cognizance of the fires and has asked the authorities to follow the statutory timeline strictly. Moreover, the green tribunal called them dumpsites as timebomb that is constantly emitting harmful gases with a constant threat of explosion. Besides, the landfills also flout the Solid Waste Management Rules of 2016, which state that only non-usable, non-combustible, non-biodegradable, non-recyclable, and non-reactive inert waste should go to a ‘sanitary’ landfill and leachate would be treated but in Bhalswa, pools of dark-coloured leachate lie around the landfill. Singh further flagged how Waste to Energy plants are putting mixed waste comprising organic waste, into these plants. Source segregation should be non-negotiable, organic waste should go to compost centres and waste generators should share responsibility, she added. Segregation of waste only on papers According to the Economic Survey of Delhi 2020-21, segregation of waste at source, notified by Solid Waste Management Bylaws for Delhi, is being implemented in just 32% or 94 out of 294 wards mostly in New Delhi Municipal Council and Delhi Cantt areas. Former South MCD Mayor Narender Chawla, however, wants maximum public participation to ensure minimum waste reaches landfills. According to a senior official, political wings do not let them implement the penalty provision for failure to segregate waste. But, North and East MCDs finished in the bottom 10 among cities with a population of over 10 lakh ineffective waste management survey by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs A new ‘engineered’ landfill and Waste to Energy plant is coming up at Tehkhand, another WTE plant at Rani Khera, increasing the bio-mining of legacy waste to speed up the landfill flattening project. Issues with biomining Biomining cannot be carried while it rains. Moreover, there are only a few takers of the material produced from waste going through the trommels. The perception is the bricks produced are of inferior quality. Three MCDs, however, are in talks with the NHAI for taking it. Environmental damage caused by landfills Landfills generate methane which is a greenhouse gas. They also produce hazardous levels of carbon dioxide, nitrogen etc. The leachate generated contaminates groundwater, Landfill fires pollute the air. Moreover, Water in borewells near Bhalswa and Ghazipur was found to contain chlorides, copper, cadmium and total dissolved solids in excess of permissible limits in 2019, according to a report submitted to the NGT.

• Down To Earth

Adding fuel to fire?

Over half of the electricity demand during heatwave months can be attributed to need for space cooling at offices, shops and homes Delhi is burning an unprecedented volume of fossil fuel to keep cool. The average daily demand for electricity in the capital city for the month of April has shot up to 4,336 megawatts. This is the highest since real-time tracking of electricity demand started in 2018. It is also almost twice the demand recorded for April 2020. Most of the city's electricity demand is met through thermal power and, so, this greed for coolth is only adding fuel to fire. During heatwave months, over half the electricity demand can be attributed to the need for space-cooling at offices, shops and homes, an earlier assessment of the relationship between ambient heat and Delhi's demand for electricity by the Centre for Science and Environment, a Delhi-based non-profit showed. Not a standard heatwave The daily maximum temperature in Delhi has been regularly above 40 degrees Celsius for most of April. But the night-time or the daily minimum temperatures have remained in the low and mid-20s. This meant that electricity demand at night has remained relatively low as people didn't need ACs throughout the night to help them sleep. Also, given the cooler outdoors at night, ACs don't need to consume as much electricity to keep the house cool. Often ignored in popular discourse, the daily minimum temperature has a significant impact on people's comfort level and city's energy security. Regular heatwaves in previous years generally registered not only abnormal daytime temperature but also uncomfortably high night-time temperatures. This happens due to the inability of the city to cool down after sunset as it gets flooded with heat exhaust from millions of ACs running in the city. Those nights when the daily minimum temperature doesn't dip below 30 degrees Celsius, it becomes highly difficult to get sleep to recover the body from the beatdown it received during the day. And these are the days when Delhi's demand for electricity breaks records. This gobbling of resources by the rich of Delhi means the rest suffers the brunt of the sun. Delhi hardly recorded any death due to heat-stroke in the past few years as people have access to cooled spaces, something made possible by 24x7 electricity supply in the city. Most deaths due to heat stroke are reported from Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, UP, Bihar and Maharashtra, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) Not just the electricity demand but also deaths due to heat-strokes are directly related to severity of heat-stress in the cities and region. Heat-strokes have become the second leading cause of death from a natural force in India, data from the Accidental Deaths & Suicides in India (annual publication by NCRB) showed. The condition has killed over 20,000 people in the first 20 years of this century, only exceeded by lightning that has killed almost 50,000 people. Blue-collar workers worst-hit Most heat deaths are reported among men of 30-60 years, which is a strange statistic given it is generally the most physically fit sub-group of the demography. NCRB doesn't provide socio-economic background of the dead, but a quick scan of media reports reveals that these are blue-collar workers engaged in outdoor activities during the summer. Accidental Deaths & Suicides in India 2019 attributed 1,274 deaths to heat stroke. The number of deaths came down to 530 in 2020. There have been fewer heatwave days in 2020 but this drastic fall in deaths is most possibly due to the hard pandemic lockdowns during the summer of 2020 that almost eliminated outdoor activities in April and May. Heat wave management an equity issue IMD has started issuing heat-wave alerts and their forecast models have improved over years. But there is no policy action that follows after these heatwave warnings by IMD. The National Disaster Management Authority in 2019 published the 'National Guidelines for Preparation of Action Plan — Prevention and Management of Heat Wave', which is a decent document on improving government response to heatwaves. But no information is available on how many action plans were made. In fact, Delhi doesn't have one. Ahmedabad and a few more cities of Gujarat have a heat action plan but these are limited to enhancing medical response and drinking water supply during emergencies. Simple things such as stopping outdoor activities like construction and goods delivery during peak heat hours are not incorporated in these plans. There is a need to develop a multisector heat reduction and management plan, and not just focus on surviving the heatwaves. To effectively shield our population from the scorching sun, efforts need to be made to reduce heat generation within the city. Cities today are abuzz with heat exhaust like ACs, vehicles, power plants and open fires. We also have poorly designed buildings and infrastructure that trap this heat. Just like air pollution plans, there is a need to focus on reducing pollution sources within cities and regions so that when the weather becomes hostile, our cities and buildings don't automatically turn into ovens. DTE

• Sustainable Food Systems

Public Awareness on Antimicrobial Resistance: Results of a Community-Based Survey and Implications for Policy

Knowledge assessment is essential to policymaking, including for health. This report measures awareness of antibiotics and antimicrobial resistance, and finds crucial gaps in understanding on many issues. In a survey among visitors to a science museum in Kolkata, the authors found, for example, more than six of every 10 respondents (67 percent) believing that antibiotics can be used to treat viral infections. This report highlights the need to develop outreach efforts on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) for policymaking on public health. Attribution: Kamini Walia, et al., “Public Awareness on Antimicrobial Resistance: Results of a Community-Based Survey and Implications for Policy,” ORF Special Report No. 188, May 2022, Observer Research Foundation. Introduction The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared antimicrobial resistance (AMR) as one of the top ten global public health threats facing humanity.[a],1 The main drivers of AMR include misuse and overuse of antimicrobials; lack of access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene; poor infection prevention and control practices in healthcare facilities and farms; poor access to quality and affordable medicines, vaccines, and diagnostics; lack of awareness and knowledge; and weak enforcement of laws.[1],[2] AMR contributes to morbidity, prolongs hospital stay, and increases mortality. The overuse and misuse of antimicrobial agents such as antibiotics—which is one of the biggest drivers of AMR—occur not only at the individual level but also among prescribers (doctors) and institutions (hospitals). This report seeks to create an understanding of knowledge, attitudes, behaviours, and practices (KABP) related to antibiotics use and antimicrobial resistance at the population-level. KABP studies are used by social scientists to examine highly nuanced issues associated with a problem in a group or community. Their aim is to identify the most common gaps in people’s knowledge and practices, in order to guide policymaking. This report uses a survey, undertaken to assess the awareness levels of individuals visiting a science museum in Kolkata, a metropolitan city in the state of West Bengal. There is evidence that AMR is a significant problem in the city, which would have motivated the Science Museum to host a “superbug exhibition” to educate the public about AMR. The rest of the report describes the methodology employed by the authors, outlines the key findings of the survey, and analyses the implications to policymaking. Methodology The survey was conducted among visitors at an exhibition on antimicrobial-resistant pathogens, organised in January and February 2021 at the Science City Museum in Kolkata in the state of West Bengal. A part of the survey was also conducted with participants in a mobile exhibition awareness campaign across the city.[b] Volunteers at the science museum administered the questionnaire to visitors, who were randomly chosen as they emerged from the last section of the exhibition. The questionnaire was composed in both English and the vernacular, Bengali, the participants were asked to choose which version they wished to use. The questionnaire was brief, comprising 10 questions, and the researchers made sure to write them in simple language in order to facilitate easy participation. (See Annex for a sample questionnaire in English.) Volunteers at the museum explained the survey questions and recorded the answers, whenever it was required. The authors analysed the data after each response and demographic category was entered manually in a spreadsheet. The proportions were expressed as percentages. Results Demographics of Participants Responses from 613 participants visiting the “Superbugs: The End of Antibiotics” exhibition at the Science City Museum and the mobile tableau were collated during the study period. Approximately two-thirds of the responders (67 percent) visited the Science City Museum and one-third (33 percent) responded after interaction with the museum volunteers at the mobile tableau. Respondents, by age A little over 51 percent of the participants were between 19-40 years old; 22 percent were under 18 years; and nearly 18 percent were in the 41-60 age group. Some six percent of the participants did not disclose their age. Respondents, by education In terms of educational qualification, about 35 percent of the respondents were graduates, 11 percent were post-graduates, and 46 percent were high-school students. Respondents, by occupation About 36 percent were students, 12 percent were professional educators (professors or teachers), 16 percent were in business, and 7 percent did housework. Responses to questions “Antibiotics should not be purchased or used without the prescription of a registered medical doctor.” 103/613 (17 percent) disagreed. “Antibiotics are used in animals as well as humans.” 86/613 (14 percent) disagreed and 3 percent of the participants did not provide an answer to the question. “Antibiotics can be used to treat viral infections such as common cold, influenza, dengue, etc.” 175/613 disagreed (28 percent) and nearly 4 percent did not answer the question. “Antibiotic resistant bacteria can spread from person to person.” 138/613 (23 percent disagreed and a little over 3 percent of the participants did not answer the question. “Antibiotic resistant bacteria can be transmitted to humans by contaminated water or food.” 82/613 (13 percent) disagreed, and almost 4 percent of the participants did not provide an answer to the question. “Antibiotic resistant bacteria may be found both in the hospital as well as in the community.” 97/613 (nearly 16 percent) disagreed and 6 percent did not answer the question. “Antibiotic resistant infections are more difficult to treat and more expensive to treat than antibiotic sensitive infections.” 149/613 disagreed (24 percent) and nearly 9 percent of the participants did not answer the question. “Sometimes to save time, you can easily check symptoms on the internet and purchase antibiotics from the pharmacist without asking a doctor.” 449/613 (73 percent) disagreed and almost 2 percent did not answer. “Is it okay to share your antibiotics with your needy friend or relative for similar looking symptoms?” 499/613 (82 percent) disagreed, and 1 percent of the respondents did not answer. “It’s our bodies that become resistant to the antibiotic.” 146/613 (24 percent) disagreed, and 4 percent of the participants did not answer the question. Other findings More than seven of every 10 respondents (72 percent, or 443/613) were of the view that it was the human body that became resistant to antibiotics, and not the bacteria. Seventy-four percent of the 443 respondents who thought that it is our body rather than the bacteria that become resistant to antibiotics were adults; 47 percent were graduates or post-graduates; and 29 percent were professionals/teachers/business people. Fifty-nine out of 250 responses from 25 teachers and professors (23.6 percent) were wrong. One-third (31.4 percent, or 415/1,320) of the responses from children were wrong. Among the adults, 28.5 percent (1,269/4,790) responses were incorrect. Discussion and Analysis Experts estimate that some 10 million people will die every year by 2050 due to antimicrobial resistance or AMR.[3] In 2010, it was reported that India was the world’s largest consumer of antibiotics for human ailments, at 12.9 x 109 units (10.7 units per person). In a study published by Princeton University, it was reported that between the years 2000 and 2010, the consumption of antibiotics increased by 36 percent. The BRICS countries—Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—accounted for 76 percent of this increase. The per-capita use of carbapenem, for example—which is an antibiotic used to treat serious infections such as sepsis, urinary tract infections, ventilator-associated pneumonia, and post-surgical infections—had risen to over 10 million standard units by 2010.[4] Over-the-counter, non-prescription sales of carbapenems in India are among the highest in the world and contribute to growing carbapenem resistance among Gram-negative bacteria[c] like E. coli, Klebsiella, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Acinetobacter spp.[5],[6] Earlier studies have documented that the practice of self-medication is common in India, with patients resorting to such practice to treat ailments such as upper respiratory tract infection or diarrhoea.[7] This present survey found 67 percent of participants believing that antibiotics can be used to treat viral infections such as the common cold, influenza, or dengue. The researchers found poor understanding among the general population of the difference between viral and bacterial diseases, and how they are treated. One-fourth of the participants in this study said they were comfortable buying antibiotics on their own, based on the symptoms they are showing, if doing so would save them time. This could be a reflection of the lack of access to affordable consultation services with medical doctors. At the same time, however, most of the participants (83 percent) agreed that antibiotics should not be available without prescription. Still, many of them (24 percent) are not aware of the consequences of increasing antimicrobial resistance levels, such as the more expensive treatment required for drug-resistant infections. Globally, there are ongoing discussions around the concept of ‘One Health’ for antimicrobial containment. ‘One Health’ is a collaborative, multisectoral, and transdisciplinary approach—working at the local, regional, national, and global levels—aimed at achieving optimal health outcomes and recognising the interconnection between people, animals, plants, and their shared environments. Some studies from India have highlighted the presence of antibiotic residues in chicken and honey—while consuming these food products, consumers may be inadvertently getting exposed to antibiotics and facing the possibility of imbibing antibiotic-resistant bacteria.[8],[9] Other studies have found that antibiotics percolate in the food chain. The present survey also wanted to explore the respondents’ understanding of the AMR threat from antibiotic residues in animal products. A number of participants (13 percent) were unaware of this risk. Indeed, previous studies reported from India have already discovered a lack of knowledge among the general public, as well as even prescribers (i.e., medical doctors), around antimicrobial prescription. A 2019 study from Kerala reported that a little over three percent of respondents (n=755 adults) self-medicated on antibiotic drugs; about 25 percent took self-medication for sore throat; and azithromycin was the most common antibiotic used (reported being used by 39 percent of the respondents). Among the respondents of the same Kerala study, 36 percent used their own doctor’s previous prescription to get antibiotics for another illness. The reason for antibiotic self-medication reported by four of every 10 respondents (41 percent) was convenience.[10] Another study from West Bengal, conducted in 2019, revealed that although many doctors knew that antibiotics were not indicated for viral infections, over 87 percent of the respondents reported prescribing them in this situation. Moreover, nearly 31 percent of all the doctors who prescribed antibiotics in general relied on sales representatives from pharmaceutical companies as a key source of information on antibiotics.[11] To be sure, these behaviours are not unique to India. A 2018 study from Japan found that many people obtained antimicrobials from healthcare institutions to treat the common cold; about 12 percent of the participants did not finish the prescribed dosage of their antibiotics; and 24 percent adjusted the doses by themselves without consulting a healthcare professional. The same study found that about 10 percent of the participants had requested antibiotics from their doctors—i.e., although they did not necessarily meet the clinical criteria for antibiotic therapy, they still asked for it. Nearly 30 percent of the respondents preferred to consult with doctors who prescribed antibiotics even for the common cold. The participants in the study said their common sources for information on antibiotics were television news and newspapers.[12] Knowledge surveys from other developed countries have also revealed noteworthy findings about people’s perspectives on antibiotics. A 2018 study from the United Kingdom (UK) found that respondents residing in more affluent areas of the country possessed better understanding of AMR and the need for more prudent use of antibiotics.[13] The same UK study showed that exposure to an awareness campaign on antibiotics only partially raised their general knowledge on the use of these antimicrobials.[14] Meanwhile, a study from Norway found 57 percent of the 877 participants having high knowledge of antibiotics, in general; 71 percent of them were aware of the dangers of antibiotic resistance.[15] More than nine of every 10 participants in the study were aware that bacteria can become resistant against antibiotics and that unnecessary use of antibiotics can make them less effective. In contrast, most of the participants in this present study (72 percent) were not aware that bacteria can become resistant against antibiotics because of misuse and abuse. This survey also found a significant number (29 percent) of individuals who had high level of education and were engaged in some professional occupation, having an incorrect perception about antibiotics and AMR—i.e., they believed that it is the human body that could become resistant to antibiotics, and not the bacteria. Further studies to understand these knowledge gaps are required in India. Indeed, such studies that target a cross-section of the population and aimed at guiding focused and evidence-based awareness campaigns are not common in the country. This present study was undertaken among a specific target group: those with enough interest in science and AMR, that they visited a museum exhibit on the subject matter. The findings of this study highlight a limited understanding of infectious diseases, the difference between viral and bacterial infections, and the proper use of antimicrobials even among those who have finished higher levels of education. These same people can be potential consumers of significant volumes of antibiotics. Disseminating information and knowledge about the responsible use of antimicrobials (antibiotics, antiviral, anti-fungal, anti-parasitic agents) is an imperative, given the relatively few antimicrobial classes in the pipeline and increasing levels of resistance reported every year by experts such as those at the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). It is also important to dissect the various social and economic factors that contribute to the overuse of antimicrobials. After all, AMR is not only a medical problem; it has a socio-economic context as well. The solution for containing AMR will therefore come from raising awareness of patients and prescribers about the importance of antimicrobials and how their misuse can cause harm. There is good evidence that public campaigns promoting responsible antibiotic use may be associated with reductions in overall antibiotic use. The individual impact of various public campaigns in Europe between 1997 and 2007 has been estimated to be equivalent to a 6.5– 28.3-percent drop in the mean level of overall antibiotic use.2 Literature on the topic of antibiotic awareness campaigns done within India and globally support a multi-modal and coordinated strategy. For example, a nationwide voluntary antibiotic resistance awareness campaign in India in 2019 used multiple pedagogical and participatory techniques such as physical events, lectures, posters, booklet/pamphlet distribution, audio and video messages, competitions, mass rallies, and broadcast of messages in local languages using community radio stations across the country.[16] Another study by Mathew et al. from India explored the appropriate communication strategies for improving public awareness on responsible antibiotic use.[17] Key strategies included emphasising the following: a) that antibiotic resistance is a global health issue; b) the misuse of antibiotics is the primary driver of AMR; c) the imperative of designing communication strategies for AMR; d) making the proper decisions about the target groups for messaging campaigns; e) nurturing leadership in communication and raising awareness; f) designing the messaging approach; g) engaging professional and industry groups; h) identifying stakeholders of the messaging strategy; i) promoting behaviour change; j) reinforcing or building a sound regulatory environment; k) creating material and emotional incentives; and l) building an enabling social structure for behaviour change.[18] In 2019, WHO conducted a global survey of stakeholders in 55 countries on improving antibiotic awareness campaigns. It found 45 campaigns (75 percent) were conducted on a national level and most of them (47/60 or 78 percent) were organised by public health authorities and were publicly funded. There were no substantial differences between low- and middle-income countries, on one hand, and on the other, high-income countries, in the types of key messages that proved effective in raising AMR awareness. A ‘One Health’ approach was mentioned in 13/60 antibiotic awareness campaigns (22 percent). Most messages were universally applicable; however, there was no systematic effort to adapt these campaigns according to locally prevalent public misconceptions.[19] It is to be noted that large amounts of antimicrobials are also used in animals which can have important consequences on AMR in humans. It has been reported that in animals whose meat is consumed as food, the total global utilisation of antimicrobials was about 131,000 tonnes in 2013; the volume is expected to reach about 200,000 tonnes by 2030.[20] Antibiotic use in food animals is not only for treatment and prevention of infections, but also for growth promotion (i.e., the administration of antimicrobials to animals to boost weight gain.)[21] The problem of AMR cannot be adequately addressed without focusing on a ‘One Health’ approach where human health and animal health issues are recognised as being closely linked, and thereby addressed using an integrated approach. Conclusion There is enough evidence of increasing levels of antimicrobial resistance in India. The usefulness of antibiotic awareness campaigns in reducing antimicrobial use is also well-documented. The immediate imperative is for the government to address the problem on war-footing and initiate country-wide campaigns for raising awareness and changing behaviours around antibiotics use. In India, antibiotic-resistant infections—despite their high morbidity, mortality, and healthcare costs—are still not notifiable to the public health authorities under any law. Any effort to disseminate proper and adequate information on AMR will benefit from the widespread availability and use of social media. The primary challenge will be in creating the most effective messages that are suited to Indian settings, where there is considerable diversity in how healthcare is delivered. This is a crucial consideration, as some countries have reported—as discussed briefly earlier in this report—that exposure to an antibiotics campaign did not raise public respondents’ knowledge on AMR and only partially raised their general knowledge on antibiotics use.[22] Such studies imply the need for optimisation of public awareness campaigns in terms of form and content. They also underline the need to have targeted strategies, tailored to ground realities and local environments, tied together by a multi-sectorial approach. The problem of AMR is multi-faceted. Public opinion and understanding is one of the many facets but a critical one as far as end-user knowledge and awareness is concerned.9 This report has attempted to shine the light on that aspect of the AMR solution that has largely remained unaddressed within the Indian context. The aim of the authors is to offer a pathway to a deeper understanding of public perception about antibiotics and AMR—all on a more comprehensive national scale. At the same time, the community must be regarded as a critical pillar of any awareness strategy on combating AMR.[23] This survey assesses awareness levels about antibiotics use and antimicrobial resistance among urban, educated communities in a metropolitan city in India. The poor understanding and knowledge of the general population in AMR highlights the need to undertake integrated awareness campaigns based on evidence to ensure desirable results in terms of behaviour change amongst targeted population groups. Annex Invitation to the survey and questions: ANTIBIOTIC AWARENESS SURVEY AMONG VISITORS OF THE SUPERBUGS EXHIBITION AT SCIENCE CITY MUSEUM IN KOLKATA, INDIA, JAN- FEB 2021 Dear Guest, Welcome to the Superbugs Exhibition! Your participation in this short survey will help us in understanding public awareness and develop policies to combat the problem of Antibiotic Resistant Bacterial Infections in India. Thank you for your support. ICMR and National Council of Science Museum, India Your Age: A. 60 years Education: A. Post graduate; D. Graduate; C. up to Class 12; D. up to Class 10 or less Profession: A. Housework; B. Business; C. Student; D. Professional (doctor/ engineer/ lawyer, etc.); E. Teacher/ Professor; F. Others Q 1: Antibiotics should not be purchased or used without the prescription of a registered medical doctor. Answer: A. Agree; B. Disagree Q2: Antibiotics are used in animals as well as humans. Answer: A. Agree; B. Disagree Q3: Antibiotics can be used to treat viral infections such as common cold, influenza, dengue, etc. Answer: A. Agree; B. Disagree Q4: Antibiotic resistant bacteria can spread from person-to-person. Answer: A. Agree; B. Disagree Q5: Antibiotic resistant bacteria can be transmitted to humans by contaminated water or contaminated food. Answer: A. Agree; B. Disagree Q6: Antibiotic resistant bacteria may be found both in the hospital as well as in the community. Answer: A. Agree; B. Disagree Q7: Antibiotic resistant infections are more difficult to treat and more expensive to treat than antibiotic sensitive infections. Answer: A. Agree; B. Disagree Q8: Sometimes to save time, you can easily check symptoms on the Internet and purchase antibiotics medicines from the pharmacist without asking a doctor? Answer: A. Agree; B. Disagree Q9: It is okay to share your antibiotic medicines with a needy friend or relative for similar looking symptoms? Answer: A. Agree; B. Disagree Q10: It’s our bodies that become resistant to the antibiotic. Answer: A. Agree; B. Disagree Kamini Walia is Program officer AMR, Division of Epidemiology and Communicable Diseases, Indian Council of Medical Research. Subhabrata Chaudhuri is former Director, Science City, Kolkata; Director, Nehru Science Centre, Mumbai. Rina Sinha is Communication and Media Consultant, WHO Country Office India. Subhasankar Ghosh is Curator at Science City, Kolkata. Abhirup Chowdhury and Souvik Manna are students of Molecular Medical Microbiology at the Department of Microbiology, Tata Medical Center, Kolkata. Dr Sanjay Bhattacharya is Consultant in Microbiology at Tata Medical Center, Kolkata. Endnotes [a] Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) occurs when micro-organisms such as bacteria do not respond to antibiotic therapy because of certain structural, functional, genetic changes in the bacteria. [b] The exhibition was supported by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the Science Museum Group of the UK, and Welcome Trust, and organised by the National Council of Science Museums, Ministry of Culture, Government of India. [c] Gram-negative bacteria include micro-organisms such as E. coli, Salmonella, Klebsiella, Pseudomonas, and Acinetobacter which cause infections in community as well in healthcare facilities. [1] World Health Organization, “Antimicrobial resistance,” Fact Sheets, November 17, 2021. [2] Welcome Trust, HM Government, “Review on Antimicrobial Resistance: Tacking Drug Resistance Infection globally”. [3] World Health Organization, “Antimicrobial resistance.” [4] T.P. Van Boeckel, S. Gandra, A. Ashok, Q. Caudron, B.T. Grenfell, S.A. Levin, et al. “Global antibiotic consumption 2000 to 2010: An analysis of national pharmaceutical sales data,” Lancet Infect Dis 14 (2014): 742–50. [5] R. Laxminarayan and R.R. Chaudhury, “Antibiotic Resistance in India: Drivers and Opportunities for Action,” PLoS Med 13 (2016): e1001974. [6] T.P. Van Boeckel, et al., “Global antibiotic consumption 2000 to 2010: An analysis of national pharmaceutical sales data.” [7] A. Rajendran, K.G. Kulirankal, P.S. Rakesh, S. George, “Prevalence and Pattern of Antibiotic Self-Medication Practice in an Urban Population of Kerala, India: A Cross-sectional Study,” Indian J Community Med 44 (2019): S42-S45. [8] R. Sahu and P. Saxena P, “Antibiotics in Chicken Meat,” Report No.: Contract No.: PML/PR-48/2014 (New Delhi, India: Centre for Science and Environment, 2014). [9] B. Er Demirhan and B. Demirhan, “Detection of Antibiotic Residues in Blossom Honeys from Different Regions in Turkey by LC-MS/MS Method,” Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) 11 (2022): 357. [10] A. Rajendran, et al., “Prevalence and Pattern of Antibiotic Self-Medication Practice in an Urban Population of Kerala, India: A Cross-sectional Study,” Indian J Community Med 44 (2019): S42-S45 [11] M. Nair, S. Tripathi, S. Mazumdar, et al., “Knowledge, attitudes, and practices related to antibiotic use in Paschim Bardhaman District: A survey of healthcare providers in West Bengal, India,” PLoS One 14 (2019): e0217818. [12] K. Kamata, Gu. Y. Tokuda, N. Ohmagari, and K. Yanagihara, “Public knowledge and perception about antimicrobials and antimicrobial resistance in Japan: A national questionnaire survey in 2017,” PLoS One 13 (2018): e0207017.7. [13] T. Mason, C. Trochez, R. Thomas, M. Babar, I. Hesso, and R. Kayyali, “Knowledge and awareness of the general public and perception of pharmacists about antibiotic resistance,” BMC Public Health 18 (2018): 711. [14] T. Mason, et al., “Knowledge and awareness of the general public and perception of pharmacists about antibiotic resistance.” [15] M. Waaseth, A. Adan, I.L. Røen, et al., “Knowledge of antibiotics and antibiotic resistance among Norwegian pharmacy customers – A cross-sectional study,” BMC Public Health 19 (2019): 66. [16] Ashok J. Tamhankar, R. Singh, et al., “Characteristics of a Nationwide Voluntary Antibiotic Resistance Awareness Campaign in India; Future Paths and Pointers for Resource Limited Settings/Low and Middle Income Countries,” Int Environ Res Public Health 16 (2019): 5141. [17] P. Mathew, S. Sivaraman, S. Chandy, “Communication strategies for improving public awareness on appropriate antibiotic use: Bridging a vital gap for action on antibiotic resistance,” J Family Med Prim Care 8 (2019): 1867-71. [18] P. Mathew, et al., “Communication strategies for improving public awareness on appropriate antibiotic use: Bridging a vital gap for action on antibiotic resistance.” [19] B. Huttner, M. Saam, L. Moja, et al., “How to improve antibiotic awareness campaigns: findings of a WHO global survey,” BMJ Glob Health 4 (2019): e001239. [20] K. Walia, M. Sharma, S. Vijay, B.R. Shome, “Understanding policy dilemmas around antibiotic use in food animals & offering potential solutions,” Indian J Med Res 149 (2019): 107-118. [21] P. Mathew, S. Sivaraman, S. Chandy, “Communication strategies for improving public awareness on appropriate antibiotic use: Bridging a vital gap for action on antibiotic resistance.” [22] A. Rajendran, et al., “Prevalence and Pattern of Antibiotic Self-Medication Practice in an Urban Population of Kerala, India: A Cross-sectional Study,” Indian J Community Med 44 (2019): S42-S45 [23] World Health Organization, “Antimicrobial resistance.” See also, Welcome Trust, HM Government, “Review on Antimicrobial Resistance: Tacking Drug Resistance Infection globally.”

• Down To Earth

Was die extreme Hitzewelle in Indien und Pakistan anrichtet

Temperaturen bis zu 50 Grad machen mehr als einer Milliarde Menschen in Indien und Pakistan das Leben schwer. Auch für die Natur ist die Extremhitze eine Belastungsprobe. Fruchtbares Land droht zu einer Dust Bowl zu verkommen. 40 Grad Celsius Höchsttemperatur, das zählt jetzt in Delhi schon als Abkühlung. »Die Hitzewelle ist hier und in den meisten Teilen Indiens vorbei«, erklärt Rajendra Kumar Jenamami, der Chefmeteorologe des indischen Wetterdiensts IMD. Endlich sei eine aktive Sturmfront aus der Mittelmeerregion da, die Wolken und örtlich auch Regen bringe. In den kommenden sechs bis sieben Tagen werde die Temperatur kaum noch steigen. Hitzewelle vorbei? Irgendwann muss man ja das Ende einer Welle ausrufen, für einen Dauerzustand ist das Wort nicht gedacht. Viel zu heiß ist es in großen Teilen Indiens und Pakistans schon seit Mitte März, die saisonüblichen Kaltfronten aus dem Westen ließen auf sich warten. So war der April der heißeste seit Beginn der Wetterstatistik vor mehr als 120 Jahren im Nordwesten und der Mitte Indiens, ebenso wie zuvor schon der März. Am 1. Mai wurden historische Höchstwerte gemessen, bis zu 49,5 Grad im pakistanischen Nawabshah. Soweit die Werte der Lufttemperatur im Schatten – der Boden wurde von der gleißenden Sonne laut Daten des EU-Erdbeobachtungssatelliten Copernicus teils auf mehr als 60 Grad erhitzt. Empfohlener externer Inhalt Die Feuerwehr von Delhi schaffte es sechs Tage lang nicht, ein riesiges Feuer auf der Mülldeponie Bhalswa zu löschen. Doch auch abseits der Städte ist das Land in Brand geraten. Ende April zählte die staatliche Forstaufsicht mehr als 300 große Waldbrände zugleich, die meisten davon im Himalaja-Staat Uttarakhand, wo derartige Hitze und Trockenheit besonders ungewöhnlich sind. Großbrände in Schutzgebieten Die Böden seien extrem trocken, sagte der Klimaforscher Vimal Mishra vom Indian Institute of Technology der »Times of India« . »Unabhängig davon, ob ein Feuer letztlich natürliche oder menschengemachte Ursachen hat«, die Ursache liege in der Hitzewelle. »Trockene Biomasse wie Laub oder Holz in den Wäldern liefert in solchen trockenen und heißen Phasen reichlich Brennstoff.« Gebrannt habe es in diesen tropischen Trockenwäldern auch früher immer wieder, sagte R. Siddappa Setty vom Umweltforschungsinstitut Atree in Bengaluru der türkischen Nachrichtenagentur Anadolu . Doch das seien meist kleinere Feuer am Boden gewesen. Nun gerieten sie oft zu großen Bränden, die auch die Baumkronen entfachten. »Diese Waldbrände töten Setzlinge, und zu einem gewissen Maße auch erwachsene Bäume«, so Setty. »Auch die Fauna ist betroffen, weil manche Arten wie Reptilien, vor allem Schlangen, einem solchen Feuer nicht entkommen können«, warnte er. Einige der jüngsten Großbrände wurden aus Schutzgebieten für Tiger oder Löwen gemeldet. Das benötigte Wasser, um solche Brände zu löschen, fehle schon an anderer Stelle, meint Sunita Narain, Leiterin des Centre for Science and Environment in Delhi. Durch die Hitze seien die meist oberirdischen Speicher schon zu einem großen Teil verdunstet – soweit es überhaupt welche gebe. Die Landwirtschaft auf dem Subkontinent verlasse sich bislang immer noch zum größten Teil auf Regen. Nun aber seien die Böden derart vertrocknet, dass große Flächen kaum noch zum Feldbau taugten. Mancherorts drohe eine »Dust Bowl« aus Staub, den nichts mehr hält. Bereits die plötzliche Hitze im März traf die Landwirtschaft hart. Die extremen Temperaturen konzentrieren sich ausgerechnet auf die Ebenen von Indus und Ganges, die Kornkammern von Pakistan und Indien. Während der wichtigen Wachstumsphase, in der die Getreidepflanzen ihr Korn ausbilden, verkümmerten sie. Ernteeinbußen bis zu 60 Prozent Manche Landwirte in den wichtigsten Weizenanbaugebieten wie dem Punjab im indisch-pakistanischen Grenzgebiet beklagten laut dem Centre for Science and Environment Ernteeinbußen von 20 bis 60 Prozent. Die Angaben über die landesweiten Verluste gehen weit auseinander, aber klar scheint eines: Das von Indiens Premier Narendra Modi angesichts des Ukrainekriegs und der von dort fehlenden Weizenlieferungen abgegebene Versprechen, »Wir ernähren die Welt«, ist kaum zu halten.

• Solid Waste Management and Circular Economy

दिल्ली में जलती हुई समस्या : तीन माउंटेन कूड़ा डंप गाJeepुर, भलस्वा और ओखला

दिल्ली के कूड़े-कचरे पहाड़ों को समतल करने में कितना समय लगेगा? पूर्वी दिल्ली के गाJeepुर में सबसे बड़े डंप में, मौजूदा दर पर सिर्फ विरासत या पुराने कचरे को संसाधित करने में दशकों लग सकते हैं। उल्लेख नहीं करने के लिए, लैंडफिल, जिसमें 2019 में मूल्यांकन किए जाने पर सबसे अधिक विरासत या पुराना कचरा था, हर दिन ताजा कचरा प्राप्त करना जारी रखता है। दिल्ली प्रदूषण नियंत्रण समिति (डीपीसीसी) द्वारा केंद्र को सौंपे गए आंकड़ों के अनुसार, 2019 में नेशनल ग्रीन कोर्ट द्वारा पारित एक आदेश के अनुसार, अक्टूबर 2019 में गाJeepुर, भलस्वा और ओखला डंप में विरासत कचरे का जैव-खनन शुरू हुआ। अक्टूबर 2019-2020 से, पूर्वी दिल्ली नगर निगम (ईडीएमसी), जो गाJeepुर में डंप का प्रबंधन करता है, ने 140 लाख टन में से लगभग 3 लाख टन विरासत कचरे का जैव-खनन किया। अक्टूबर 2021 तक, इसने 7.81 लाख टन संसाधित किया था, जिसका अर्थ है कि जैव खनन शुरू होने के बाद दूसरे वर्ष में लगभग 4.81 लाख टन संसाधित किया गया था। यदि औसतन लगभग 4 लाख टन प्रति वर्ष संसाधित किया जाता है, तो शेष 133 लाख टन कचरे को संसाधित होने में 33 वर्ष और लग सकते हैं। तीन सैनिटरी लैंडफिल दैनिक ताजा कचरा प्राप्त करते हैं। 2021 में, गाJeepुर में डंप किया गया ताजा कचरा उस वर्ष संसाधित किए गए पुराने कचरे से अधिक था। हालाँकि, लैंडफिल को ठीक करने की समय सीमा कुछ दशक दूर नहीं है। एनजीटी को सौंपी गई एमसीडी की कार्य योजनाओं के अनुसार, गाJeepुर दिसंबर 2024 तक 100%, दिसंबर 2023 तक भलस्वा और मार्च 2023 तक ओखला को प्राप्त करने के कारण है। तापमान बढ़ने के बाद से लगभग एक महीने में भलस्वा आग लैंडफिल में आग लगने का चौथा मामला है। (मल्हार मिश्रा द्वारा एक्सप्रेस फोटो) सेंटर फॉर साइंस एंड एनवायरनमेंट के वेस्ट मैनेजमेंट प्रोग्राम की प्रोग्राम ऑफिसर ऋचा सिंह ने कहा कि पुराने कचरे को बायोमाइनिंग करते हुए ऑन-साइट निपटाया जाता है, जिससे यह एक दुष्चक्र बन जाता है। इस साल फरवरी तक, शहर में कुल नगरपालिका अपशिष्ट प्रसंस्करण क्षमता 5,550 टन प्रति दिन (उत्पन्न 11,119 टीपीडी का 49.9%) है। कम से कम 2016 के बाद से प्रसंस्करण क्षमता में वृद्धि नहीं हुई है। एनर्जी एंड रिसोर्सेज इंस्टीट्यूट में पर्यावरण और अपशिष्ट प्रबंधन प्रभाग के निदेशक सुनील पांडे ने कहा कि लैंडफिल का उपचार करते समय, अपशिष्ट प्रसंस्करण बुनियादी ढांचे को मजबूत किया जाना चाहिए ताकि कोई भी जैविक कचरा लैंडफिल तक न पहुंचे। 1651608330 456 दिल्ली में जलती हुई समस्या तीन माउंटेन कूड़ा डंप “यह स्थिति दिल्ली के लिए अद्वितीय है। जब अपशिष्ट उपचार किया जाता है, तो कोई वैकल्पिक अपशिष्ट निपटान स्थल नहीं होता है, और दैनिक अपशिष्ट उत्पादन को उसी स्थान पर समायोजित किया जाता है। यह डीडीए और दिल्ली सरकार पर निर्भर करेगा कि वह ताजा कचरे को संभालने के लिए निगमों के लिए जगह आवंटित करे ताकि लैंडफिल का उपचार किया जा सके। उपचार धीमा है और इसे मिशन मोड में करना होगा, ”उन्होंने कहा। लैंडफिल क्यों जलते हैं? इन साइटों पर सभी प्रकार के कचरे के आकस्मिक डंपिंग के कारण बार-बार आग लग जाती है। तापमान बढ़ने के साथ ही इस गर्मी में अब तक लैंडफिल में आग लगने की चार घटनाएं हो चुकी हैं, तीन गाJeepुर में और एक भलस्वा में, जिन्हें बुझाना मुश्किल है। भलस्वा में 26 अप्रैल को लगी आग कई दिनों तक भड़की रही। ऐसा इसलिए है क्योंकि लैंडफिल में कार्बनिक कचरे के अवायवीय अपघटन से गर्मी और मीथेन उत्पन्न होती है, जो कि ईंधन है। सितंबर 2020 में ईडीएमसी द्वारा उपलब्ध कराए गए आंकड़ों के अनुसार, गाJeepुर में, 2017-18 में, 31 आग के मामले थे, जबकि 2018-19 में 18 और 2019-20 में छह थे, “छोटे और स्थानीय क्षेत्रों” में। ओखला इसी अवधि के दौरान किसी भी आग की सूचना नहीं दी। भलस्वा में, 2017 में 135 मामले, 2018 में 100, 2019 में 42 और 2020 में तीन थे, नॉर्थ एमसीडी ने अगस्त 2020 में समिति को बताया। सिंह ने कहा कि लैंडफिल में सतह और भूमिगत आग हो सकती है। जिन्हें बाहर निकालना मुश्किल है, वे भूमिगत हैं जो अंदर से जलते हैं, क्योंकि कचरे की परतों में मीथेन की जेबें होती हैं जो आग पकड़ती हैं, उन्होंने समझाया, अगर कचरे को पृथ्वी की एक परत के साथ जमा किया जाता है, तो यह हो सकता है इन जेबों के गठन को रोकें। इसके अलावा, वैज्ञानिक रूप से नियोजित लैंडफिल में एक गैस संग्रह प्रणाली और पहुंच मार्ग होंगे। सिंह ने कहा कि पहुंच मार्ग के अभाव में जहां आग लगी है वहां पहुंचना मुश्किल हो सकता है। पांडे ने कहा: “यह बहुत गर्म है और तापमान 37 और उससे अधिक … 40 डिग्री … मीथेन पीढ़ी के लिए आदर्श हैं। अवायवीय प्रक्रिया में, इस तापमान पर, गैस का उत्पादन अधिकतम होता है। इसके अलावा, जब उपचार किया जाता है, तो उपचार सामग्री की खुदाई की जाती है। लैंडफिल के खुलने से अधिक गैस निकलती है जो पहले से ही उच्च दर पर उत्पन्न हो रही है। ” मीडिया रिपोर्टों के आधार पर कार्यवाही शुरू करते हुए एनजीटी को हाल ही में गाJeepुर और भलस्वा में लगी आग के बारे में पता चला है। गाJeepुर पर, अदालत ने 22 अप्रैल के आदेश में कहा: “यह चिंता का विषय है कि इस तरह की घटनाएं कहीं और भी हो रही हैं और जहां भी विरासत में मिली बर्बादी का इलाज नहीं किया जाता है, वहां भी ऐसा ही होने की संभावना है। यही कारण है कि कानूनी कार्यक्रम का सख्ती से पालन किए जाने की उम्मीद है। उन्होंने कहा कि दिल्ली और अन्य शहरों में लैंडफिल “टिकिंग टाइम बम” की तरह हैं क्योंकि वे लगातार मीथेन जैसी विस्फोटक गैसें उत्पन्न करते हैं जो ऊर्ध्वाधर और पार्श्व मार्गों से बच सकते हैं और विस्फोट का लगातार खतरा पैदा कर सकते हैं। लैंडफिल 2016 के सॉलिड वेस्ट मैनेजमेंट रेगुलेशन की भी धज्जियां उड़ाते हैं, जिसमें कहा गया है कि केवल निष्क्रिय अनुपयोगी, गैर-पुनर्नवीनीकरण, गैर-बायोडिग्रेडेबल, गैर-दहनशील और गैर-प्रतिक्रियाशील कचरे को ‘सैनिटरी’ लैंडफिल में जाना चाहिए। “वांछित लक्ष्य” लैंडफिल में जाने वाला शून्य अपशिष्ट है। लैंडफिल में लीचेट संग्रह और उपचार प्रणाली की भी आवश्यकता होती है, लेकिन भलस्वा में, लैंडफिल के आसपास गहरे रंग के लीचेट के पूल हैं। “एक सफल बायोमाइनिंग ऑपरेशन के लिए, ताजा कचरे को लैंडफिल में डंप करना बंद करना होगा। अपशिष्ट-से-ऊर्जा संयंत्रों की अपनी चिंताएँ हैं। हमने भारत में डब्ल्यूटीई संयंत्रों की विफलता देखी है क्योंकि हम इन संयंत्रों में मिश्रित अपशिष्ट, जिसमें जैविक कचरा शामिल है, डालते हैं। एक काम जो किया जा सकता है वह यह होगा कि विकेन्द्रीकृत सामुदायिक खाद केंद्रों या घरेलू खाद केंद्रों के माध्यम से जैविक कचरे से खाद और बायोगैस का उत्पादन किया जाए। स्रोत पर अलगाव गैर-परक्राम्य होना चाहिए और अपशिष्ट जनरेटर को जिम्मेदारी साझा करनी चाहिए, ”सिंह ने कहा। कागज पर बड़े पैमाने पर अलगाव दिल्ली के ठोस अपशिष्ट प्रबंधन क़ानून, 2018 में अधिसूचित, कचरे को अलग करने की ज़िम्मेदारी गीले (बायोडिग्रेडेबल) कचरे, सूखे (गैर-बायोडिग्रेडेबल) कचरे और घरेलू खतरनाक कचरे में सीधे उन लोगों को सौंपते हैं, जो इसे उत्पन्न करते हैं, जिसमें घरों भी शामिल हैं। उल्लंघन करने वालों पर 200 रुपये का जुर्माना लगाया जाता है। हालांकि, 2020-21 के दिल्ली आर्थिक सर्वेक्षण के अनुसार, स्रोत पर अपशिष्ट पृथक्करण 294 जिलों में से केवल 32% या 94 में लागू किया जा रहा है। यह प्रथा मुख्य रूप से नई दिल्ली नगर परिषद और दिल्ली कैंट क्षेत्रों में प्रचलित है, जहां 22 जिले कचरे को अलग करते हैं, जबकि शेष क्षेत्रों में 272 जिलों में से केवल 72 (26%) कचरे को अलग करते हैं। यह, भले ही तीनों DCएम ने इस दिशा में प्रयास करने का दावा किया हो। दक्षिण एमसीडी के पूर्व मेयर नरेंद्र चावला ने कहा कि नगर निकाय उनकी ओर से बार-बार प्रयास कर सकता है, लेकिन इसे पूरी तरह से सफल बनाने के लिए जनता का सहयोग जरूरी है। उन्होंने कहा, “हम घर पर अलग करने और कॉलोनी स्तर पर खाद बनाने के लिए आरडब्ल्यूए से संपर्क कर रहे हैं, क्योंकि यह सुनिश्चित करने के लिए सबसे अच्छा अभ्यास है कि कचरे की न्यूनतम मात्रा लैंडफिल तक पहुंचे,” उन्होंने कहा। हालांकि, वरिष्ठ अधिकारियों ने कहा कि राजनीतिक विंग से अनुमति नहीं लेने वालों के लिए मॉडल के सफल होने के लिए दंड प्रावधान पेश किए जाने चाहिए। एमसीडी के एक वरिष्ठ नेता ने कहा, “हर साल ऐसे चुनाव होते हैं जो हम पर ऐसा कोई कदम नहीं उठाने का दबाव डालते हैं जिससे लोगों को निराशा हो।” तीन एमDC का दावा है कि साइटों पर स्थापित ट्रोमेल मशीनों के साथ प्रति दिन 8,000 टन से अधिक कचरे को संसाधित किया जाता है। ईडीएमसी के एक वरिष्ठ अधिकारी ने कहा कि 2,500 से 2,600 टीपीडी ताजा कचरा साइट पर डाला जाता है और 20 ट्रोमेल मशीनें लगाई गई हैं। मशीनें प्रतिदिन 3,600 टन पुराने कचरे को संसाधित कर सकती हैं। जब कचरा प्रबंधन सर्वेक्षण की बात आती है तो निगमों ने भी खराब प्रदर्शन किया है, नवीनतम आवास और शहरी मामलों के मंत्रालय (एमओएचयूए) द्वारा किया गया है जिसमें उत्तर और पूर्वी एमसीडी एक बार फिर से अधिक आबादी वाले शहरों में निचले 10 में शामिल हो गए हैं। 10 लाख से अधिक। तीनों निगमों के वरिष्ठ अधिकारियों ने कहा कि तहखंड में एक नया ‘इंजीनियर्ड’ लैंडफिल और डब्ल्यूटीई प्लांट, पुराने कचरे के जैव-खनन को बढ़ाना, रानी खेड़ा में एक और डब्ल्यूटीई प्लांट और बायोमेथेनेशन प्लांट लैंडफिल में तेजी लाने के लिए तैयार हैं। समतल परियोजना। हालांकि, बायोमाइनिंग की अपनी समस्याएं हैं। बारिश होने पर प्रक्रिया रुक जाती है। इसके अलावा, ईडीएमसी के एक वरिष्ठ अधिकारी ने कहा कि कचरे को रौंदने के बाद उत्पन्न होने वाली निष्क्रिय सामग्री के कई खरीदार नहीं होते हैं, क्योंकि ऐसी धारणा है कि इससे उत्पादित सामग्री, जैसे कि ईंटें, गुणवत्ता की होती हैं। तीन DCएम इसे लेने के लिए एनएचएआई के साथ बातचीत कर रहे हैं। एसडीएमसी के एक अधिकारी ने कहा कि ओखला में 20 ट्रॉमेल्स तैनात हैं, नॉर्थ एमसीडी ने भलस्वा में रोजाना 300 टन कचरे की सफाई के लिए 40 ट्रॉमेल्स तैनात किए हैं, जिसमें 600 टीपीडी प्रोसेसिंग वाले छह हाई-स्पीड ट्रॉमेल शामिल हैं, एक वरिष्ठ नॉर्थ एमसीडी अधिकारी ने कहा। पर्यावरणीय क्षति और, परिणामस्वरूप, इन डंपों के आसपास के लोगों को होने वाली क्षति बहुत अधिक है। “इन लैंडफिल से उत्पन्न रिसाव जो 20 साल से अधिक पुराने हैं, पहले ही भूजल को दूषित कर चुके हैं। जब वे जलते हैं और अनियंत्रित मीथेन उत्सर्जन के माध्यम से लैंडफिल हवा को प्रदूषित करते हैं, तब भी जब वे आग पर नहीं होते हैं, ”पांडे ने कहा। मीथेन एक ग्रीनहाउस गैस है। लैंडफिल गैस में मीथेन, कार्बन डाइऑक्साइड, नाइट्रोजन और हाइड्रोजन सल्फाइड शामिल हैं। पर्यावरण में लैंडफिल के प्रभाव को निर्धारित करने के लिए गठित समिति द्वारा एनजीटी को सौंपी गई एक रिपोर्ट के अनुसार, भलस्वा और गाJeepुर के पास के कुओं में पानी में 2019 में कैडमियम, तांबा, क्लोराइड और कुल घुलित ठोस पदार्थ अनुमेय सीमा से अधिक पाए गए। रिपोर्ट के अनुसार, तीनों स्थलों पर भूजल में रासायनिक ऑक्सीजन और लोहे की मांग के उच्च स्तर की सूचना दी गई थी, “जो कि लैंडफिल से लीचेट के कारण हो सकता है।”

• Solid Waste Management and Circular Economy

Cháy bãi rác khổng lồ gây ô nhiễm nghiêm trọng tại New Delhi, Ấn Độ

Đám cháy đã bắt đầu diễn ra từ hôm 26/4 và với thời tiết nắng nóng, ngọn lửa càng có điều kiện để duy trì và bùng phát mạnh lên. Ngày càng có nhiều người phải nhập viện do gặp các vấn đề về hô hấp. Bãi rác Bhalswa ở ngoại ô thủ đô New Delhi, Ấn Độ rộng và cao, có kích cỡ như một ngọn đồi. Khói bốc lên từ bãi rác dày đặc và bao trùm một khu vực rộng lớn xung quanh. Khói tràn vào khu dân cư, khiến cuộc sống người dân đã khổ sở vì nắng nóng nay càng bị đe dọa hơn. Anh Mohammad Mujeeb, cư dân New Delhi, cho biết: Mọi người đang đổ bệnh vì khói. Nhìn xung quanh đã thấy cả khu dân cư của tôi chìm trong khói rồi, nhưng thực tế là khói đã lan ra xa hơn, khói bao trùm gần như toàn bộ thủ đô New Delhi". Ông Saarthi nói: "Tôi bị khó thở và phải uống đủ thứ thuốc mà vẫn không có dấu hiệu hồi phục. Từ khi xảy ra cháy đến giờ, sức khỏe của tôi bị ảnh hưởng nhiều". Bị cay mắt, đau rát cổ họng và đủ các triệu chứng khác do khói từ đám cháy, nhiều người dân phải nhập viện hoặc tới gặp bác sĩ thường xuyên. Chị Richa Singh, thuộc Trung tâm Khoa học và Môi trường Ấn Độ, xác nhận: "Đám cháy bãi rác tạo ra một lượng lớn khí độc hại tấn công người dân cả trong ngắn hạn và ảnh hưởng về dài hạn. Nó có thể gây ra cả bệnh ung thư". Các trường học quanh khu vực đã phải đóng cửa. Trong khi đó, nguyên nhân của vụ cháy bãi rác đang được điều tra, không loại trừ khả năng có người đốt. Thủ đô New Delhi của Ấn Độ vốn được xếp vào danh sách các thành phố ô nhiễm nhất thế giới, với bụi mịn thường cao hơn mức an toàn, nay càng ô nhiễm hơn do khói từ đám cháy các bãi rác. Chị Richa Singh thông tin: "Chúng ta đang đô thị hóa, chúng ta là một nền kinh tế đang phát triển và sẽ tạo ra một lượng lớn chất thải nữa trong tương lai. Vì vậy, nếu chất thải không được xử lý đúng cách, chúng ta sẽ không có không gian để sống, chúng ta sẽ không có không khí trong lành để thở".

• Director General Office

A nasty retreat

Insecurity in the supply of basic materials, from energy to food, is making countries shun global interdependence and shut doors It seems that the entire edifice of an interdependent world is collapsing, and at a time when we need cooperation more than ever to address the existential crisis of climate change. Roughly 30 years ago as our world embarked on the path to interdependency, it signed the free trade agreement and brought in rules on how it would operate commerce between nations. Then it brought in a slew of more agreements for everything from climate change to biodiversity to the global trade in hazardous waste, to stitch together a framework for an ecologically interdependent world. The twin objectives were to spread prosperity by expanding the Western model of growth and then to manage the ecological fallout of this growth, across national boundaries. The underlying belief was this would bring democracy to all. People would get richer; and they would in turn shun barbaric tendencies and embrace human rights and freedom. In the 1990s, when the Soviet Union collapsed and then in 2001, when autocratic communist China joined this democracy through a trade project, the world rejoiced at the growth through consumption moments. Today, this project has come apart. And it is not just the horrific and inhuman invasion of Ukraine by Russia that has brought it to this head — insecurity in the supply of basic materials, from energy to food, is making countries shun global interdependence and shut doors. Argentina, which produces 10 times more food than what its population needs, has now put a hefty tax on the export of beef, corn and soya from the country. Indonesia, the world's top producer of palm oil — indicted for driving destruction of its tropical forests — has now sent shock waves as it has banned exports of this cooking oil. Food security is suddenly about food sovereignty — something that all agribusiness-run countries and economies had dismissed. Then come the high energy costs — fuelled partly because of the sanctions on Russian oil and gas — that are driving the world to leapfrog to wind and solar. But it is a fact that much of the rare earth minerals that will be needed to power this new energy future — from petro to electro — are controlled by the same countries that are in the non-democracy camp, from China to Russia. We also know that unemployment is already pushing countries to manufacture at home. We are closing borders; shutting doors of global trade and, worse, dividing and polarising the world into camps of good versus evil. This, please remember, is happening at a time when climate change needs us to come together to cooperate and act globally. So, as we move ahead, let's not make light of the mistakes of the past three decades. Let's take stock of the state of the world so that we can do better. The first problem has been the very premise of the globalisation project. It was not about building inclusive prosperity — it was about building commerce on the back of cheap goods and labour. Free trade economists — they are many and they are powerful — love to tell us how inefficient it is to grow wheat and rice where land is scarce or that without large holding agribusinesses do not thrive. They tell us it is so much better to manufacture where the cost of labour is cheap and countries can avoid paying the price of environmental safeguards. This "cheapness" then means there are plentiful goods that feed our appetite for consumption. There is no doubt that this economic thinking has made some in the world very rich. There is also no doubt that this thinking has made all countries lock into the business of competing for markets — at the cost of their labour or environment. It has also meant that the world is today at the precipice of a climate emergency — because it has never really reduced emissions but has only exported them to countries where manufacturing has moved. The second, and most fatal of all mistakes, is that we have assumed the growth of social media as the growth of democracy. It is nothing less than hubris and greed to believe that governance and democracy can be substituted by loud and nasty voices of social media. It all started with the Arab Spring in 2010, when the power of social media was unleashed and it brought down what we said were dictators and despots. The world tasted blood. Now, the democracy project had another bow in its armour — this one, we believed, was the voice of people speaking out and driving change. Today, this same tool of democracy has become so twisted and tainted that it can be used to push virulent and vicious hatred and evil with the force that we imagined it would push good. This is also happening because we believed (naively) that markets could replace governments and that social media was synonymous with democracy. This cannot be the way to our common future. Let's continue to discuss this. DTE The writer is the Director-General of CSE and editor of DownToEarth. Views expressed are personal

• Clean Air & Sustainable Mobility

Infra Vaani | Burning Landfills to Killer Buses to Toxic Air, Living in Delhi is Capital Punishment

The infrastructure woes of Delhi – the National Capital Territory and National Capital Region – are so horrendous, they have a new name: The Capital Punishment. Every morning, newspapers mock at the crumbling infrastructure. On March 19 in outer Delhi area, Anil Kumar (40) was riding a scooter when he was run over by a rashly driven Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) bus. The fleeing driver was, however, nabbed by an alert constable. This accident transported me to another gory incident in another era. In 1974, aged 19, on my first ride on a DTC bus, unable to enter a moving 666 at Safdarjung hospital, I lost balance, fell and landed with the instant prize – profuse bleeding, multiple concussions, and a broken arm. A day before, I had landed in Delhi with high hopes of getting admission to Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). In so many years, rash driving by DTC bus drivers has remained a constant. Delhi buses, then or now, do not stop. Passengers must risk lives and limbs to board or alight them! Two, on March 22, fourth year in a row, Delhi was ranked the most polluted capital city in the world – in 2021 its PM 2.5 (96.4 μg per-cum) was 14.6 per cent more than 2020. It was only in 2005 when Delhi after retrofitting the entire bus fleet to CNG was lauded by the World Bank as the poster-boy of global pollution reduction. The new poster-boy in 2022 is Beijing, which was the pollution capital of the world in 2005. With massive push towards non-polluting public transport, Beijing is no longer in the top 200 polluted cities’ list. Three, On March 23 this year, the outcome budget placed by Delhi government before the Assembly said “29 per cent of city sewage untreated flowed into Yamuna” and just 6 of its 35 STPS met prescribed 10 mg per-litre wastewater standards for biological oxygen demand (BOD) and total dissolved solids (TDS). It further added that of the 438 samples collected for monitoring of STPs up to December, 48 per cent did not meet prescribed standards. Also, of the 206 samples tested from common effluent treatment plants (CETPs), around 63 per cent did not meet the norms. These two are the major reasons for growing pollution in Yamuna. PROMOTED CONTENT By Immersive Learning Like Never Before Immersive Learning Like Never Before Dell Born Between 1965-1990? Get 1.5 Cr Term Plan @ Rs 1013/month* Born Between 1965-1990? Get 1.5 Cr Term Plan @ Rs 1013/month* Best Term Life Insurance Four, a fire that started at Bhalswa landfill in North Delhi last week (April 26) has sparked global media outrage – nearby residents gasp for breath, school for ragpickers’ children is closed and fire-fighters fight for life. At the time of writing this article, the fire had yet to be doused completely. Meanwhile, the political slugfest started in no time. In all of this, everyone is missing the big picture: frequently flaring toxic landfills like Ghazipur, Bhalswa and Okhla are live chemical bombs, threatening to consume Delhi itself. Five, in April this year, the average Delhi temperature was highest in 72 years sending city’s peak power demand to a record level. CM Kejriwal fears disruption of power supply to hospitals and Delhi Metro. Neighbouring NCR cities are facing severe power outages too. Apart from Dadri II, Delhi’s power comes from far-off plants like Kahalgaon in Bihar and Farakka in Bengal. Six, on April 28, Delhi unveiled summer mega-plan to supply 1000 MGD (million gallons daily) drinking water, against earlier 935 MGD. Delhi Jal Board plans to deploy 1,198 tankers. This plan will fail if neighbouring states, facing extreme summer like last year, reduce water supply to Delhi. This will put strain on already overexploited, depleted and polluted Delhi groundwater. These situations are morale crushers. But, these are just the Delhi story, the situation is worse in NCR. THE TICKING BOMB First, as per the UN World Population Prospects, in 2028, Delhi (urban agglomeration) with 37.2 million-strong population will be the most populous city on Planet Earth. In 2030, its 39 million population will be far ahead of 37 million in graying Tokyo. Besides a fast-growing NCT, Noida, Ghaziabad, Greater Noida, Meerut, Gurugram, Bahadurpur, Kundli—Sonipat, Faridabad and Alwar make Delhi the most complex and disjointed urban space globally. The National Capital Region Planning Board (1985) set up by an act of Parliament to catalyse integrated NCR development has failed – in 2020 CAG pulled it up for not preventing haphazard growth in NCR. Urgent amends are needed to make NCR infrastructure future-ready, lest it gets crushed by a fast-ticking population bomb. CAPITAL SHOCK Two, in 2000, the Supreme Court made access to clean drinking water a Fundamental Right under Article 21 of the Constitution. But Delhi is parched. It also faces serious class and spatial water inequity. Lucky residents have piped water. But their luck is elusive; on most days, they receive 2-4 hours intermittent, low-pressure, poor-quality water. Getting 24X7 water is a distant dream. The poor without piped water must survive on irregular, insufficient and polluted tanker water. Seventeen per cent Delhi homes have no access to piped water and unauthorised colonies dare not dream of this luxury. Water wars and water deaths are not unknown. For water, Delhi survives on alms from neighbours: Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Himachal supply 90 per cent of its needs. Delhi’s woes worsen as DJB squanders 40 per cent water in distribution loss; in contrast, Jamshedpur loses 4 per cent. Further, DJB supplies impure water, to purify it residents use Reverse Osmosis (RO) which results in further loss of 40-60 per cent water. Delhi government had put the daily demand of water in 2021 at 1380 MGD, its current capacity of 937 MGD is a deficit of 34 per cent. This is the vacuum where water mafia steps in. Can groundwater meet the deficit? I am afraid not. With decades of unregulated over-extraction, depleted and polluted groundwater is not an option. The findings of the report ‘Tracking hidden crisis in India’s capital from space: implications of unsustainable groundwater use (2022)’ in peer-reviewed journal Nature are scary. How bad is the NCR story? The answer is far worse. Alarmed at the worsening water supply, vanishing groundwater and unsustainable construction works in Noida, Greater Noida, Ghaziabad, the Confederation of NCR Residents Welfare Association (CONRWA) in April wrote to Union Jal Shakti Minister and the Prime Minister seeking immediate intervention. MOUNT QUTUB-WAH TAJ As per a 2019 estimate, three Delhi landfills – at Ghazipur, Bhalswa and Okhla – sit atop 280 lakh tonnes of solid waste. The 70-acre Ghazipur, the biggest landfill, in 2019 was a 65-metre-high mound, its height may soon dwarf Taj Mahal (73 meter) and Qutub Minar (72.5 meter) if the flattening is not accelerated. Here in fits the collusive political economy of Delhi’s very own ‘Wah Taj’. Make no mistake, Delhi daily generates 11,400 tonnes of solid waste; of this, 6,200 enters the landfill. Solid waste management rules (2016) mandate at-source waste segregation so that only un-recyclable waste to goes to landfills. Rules disincentivise door-to-door collection concessionaire; they get more tipping on mixed garbage. No surprise then, daily thousands of trucks transport unsegregated waste – home garbage, medical waste, sewage dumps, plastics, and other combustible substances – to landfills. This has two-fold results. One, Ghazipur will soon be Delhi’s ‘Wah Taj’ and two, landfills will burn infrequently, every inferno turning worse than the previous one. The political rent-seeking of transporting solid waste to landfills precludes other options – like alternative and decentralised waste treatment, reduction, recycle and use, including vermiculture, fossilisation and composting. DILLI TERI YAMUNA MAILI Yamuna had a glorious past; its water was potable, its panoramic view was majestic, evening boat rides were picturesque, and it provided for the fishermen. It was a different era. Over decades, Yamuna became dirty due to onslaught of untreated human sewage, industrial effluents and trash from unauthorised colonies. In 2009, while presenting ‘New Industrial Policy for Delhi’ to then chief minister Sheila Dikshit, I wrote the preamble: “There will be no industry in Delhi – either there will be Delhi or industry in Delhi. Only industry which Delhi will have in future is knowledge industry”. The policy was approved, but industries continued to exist in Delhi. It is quite possible the entrenched industry lobby might have killed the policy at a nascent stage. Had the new industrial policy been implemented, Yamuna would have been somewhat cleaner. But it did not happen. And, despite thousands of crores of rupees spent since 1973, when Yamuna Action Plan-I was launched, Yamuna is no more a river, it is a dirty frothy nalla. Deadlines to clean Yamuna have come and gone. Latest is a six-point mantra by chief minister Kejriwal to make Yamuna clean by 2025. He believes that Yamuna polluted over 70 years cannot be cleaned in two days but come 2025 election and one can drink Yamuna water directly from the source. And why not, London has made Thames water potable and Dutch have made Amsterdam canal water potable. Best of luck Mr Kejriwal. DELHI: AUTOMOBILE CAPITAL OF INDIA As per government data, Delhi vehicular population in 2021 was 122.53 lakh; of these four-wheelers account for 28 per cent and two-wheelers 67 per cent. In 2000, the total number of vehicles was 31.64 lakh. Also, vehicles per thousand population is 655, up from 436, 252 and 192 in 2011, 2001 and 1991, respectively. More vehicles from NCR crowd Delhi roads daily. A Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) study says vehicles accounted for over 50 per cent particulate pollution in early 2021 winter (October 24-November 23). Other studies say 80 per cent of total carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide emissions are due to vehicular pollution. DEATH TRAP In mid-1990s Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee quipped – “Our roads don’t have a few potholes — our potholes have a few roads.” It is true for Delhi, which forced the Delhi CM take a vow this February to eliminate potholes from Delhi roads in a month. Potholes and damaged roads coupled with rash riving by DTC/cluster buses kill more than a thousand people every year. In 2019, 1,463 fatal road accidents caused 1,433 fatalities. In 2020, 1,197 deaths were caused by 1,163 road accidents; this is lower than the 2019 figure possibly because of prolonged lockdown, closure of establishments and work and study from home. Eighty-nine per cent of those killed in Delhi road accidents belong to vulnerable groups against national average of 57 per cent. IN CONTEMPT OF YOUR LORDSHIPS “We administer, a strong caution to all concerned, that the failure to abide by any of the directions here in above, would invite action under the Contempt of the Courts Act against the defaulters”. These forgotten words are the concluding paragraph of a historical three-page judgment of Supreme Court division bench of Justice A.S. Anand, B.N. Kripal and V.N. Khare in M.C. Mehta vs GoI & others, on July 28, 1998. The judgment should have transformed capital’s urban transport. It should also have given a body blow to Delhi pollution. Both did not happen. The apex court in 1998 judgment gave 17 directives, but two were considered game-changers: one, augmenting public transport buses (state carriers) to 10,000 and two, converting bus fleet (government and private) to single fuel mode CNG. The ‘fuel unification to CNG’ judgment lost sheen outside Delhi after GOI in 2003 accepting R.A. Mashelkar’s ‘auto fuel policy’ report asked for setting emission standards, leaving choice of technology and fuel to individuals. Cut to 2022, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s voluntary Glasgow pledge of net-zero emissions by 2070, the game-changer policy now means total war on fossil-fuel, CNG included. This explains country’s focus on metro rail, electric and hydrogen buses. While flagging the first electric bus in January, Delhi CM called it a “major step towards pollution control”. Ironically, Kejriwal had promised Delhi 1,000 electric buses by 2019, and when the first one arrived in Delhi, Pune was already running 300 electric buses. To set the record straight, in 2018, the Chinese city Shenzhen had converted entire 20,000 city bus-fleet to electric. After trailblazing progress with electric buses, Chinese cities are now fast moving to hydrogen powered buses, while Delhi wears the crown of the most polluted capital city. Worse, Delhi has disobeyed the Supreme Court’s 1998 directive to augment Delhi government public transport to 10,000 buses. The DTC fleet of 3,131 buses in 1998 dwindled to 2,000 in 2001. There was a brief blip in 2010 when Delhi had 6,400 buses, but it was a short term effect of Commonwealth Games. DTC last purchased buses in 2008; its fleet has since nosedived to 3,760, with mere 2,894 road-worthy buses. Today 99 per cent of DTC fleet is overaged, waiting to get scrapped. Its losses from Rs 1,215 crore in FY 2016 have soared to Rs 2,000 crore in FY 2019. Delhi’s killer blueline buses were totally phased out by 2012. Then arrived private cluster buses. Loss of DTC buses is good news for private buses. Their colour changed from blue to orange; their number stood at 3,191 in 2021. Since 2010, Delhi has acquired buses only under the cluster scheme. Compensated on km run daily – they carry no revenue risk – data from 2013-14 to 2020-21 shows high daily kilometre run but low load-factor and passenger ferried. Delhi FY2022 budget says: ‘Rs 1,500 crore allocated as compensation for meeting deficit of cluster buses.’ If it is not a typo, one tends to suspect – like PPP schemes in other sectors, rent-seeking might be the glue for cluster-bus model too. Also, killer bluelines have returned as killer orange buses – in the first half of 2021, they had killed 25 people against 12 by DTC buses. PARKING PROBLEMS In 2019, a bench of Justice Arun Mishra and Justice Deepak Gupta of Supreme Court observed that parking was amongst the most serious problems in Delhi leading to vehicles being parked on roads and footpaths. The number of vehicles has exploded ever since. The Delhi Maintenance and Management of Parking Places Rules 2019 is not worth the paper it is written and the apex court directive to the Delhi government that while granting permission to build any structure there must be proper assessment of parking needs for the next 25 years is violated with impunity. Pedestrians, cyclists and even vehicle owners are suffering immeasurably. The parking woes are the symptom of the disease: insufficient public transport in Delhi and NCR. With Delhi and the Union government developing cold feet on further massive expansion of Delhi Metro, DTC on the death bed, and cluster buses fast becoming killer blueline buses of yesteryear, only God can save Delhi. ALSO READ | Infra Vaani | Infra Woes are Chipping Away at India’s Silicon Valley, Bengaluru is Battling for Survival THE UNFINISHED AGENDA This brings to the last point – ‘nation’s pride, the Delhi Metro’. How does one describe Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), the harbinger of change which ushered in nationwide metro rail revolution? In two decades, it has operationalised 450-km metro-rail in NCT, NCR, Kochi and Jaipur and is constructing Delhi Metro Phase-IV and metro projects in Mumbai and Patna. Let me briefly describe the ‘The Delhi Metro Way’. Creating and nurturing India’s ‘Next Practices’ (borrowing it from Late C.K. Prahalad), a unique ethical compact, engineer-consultant-contractor partnership and virtuous collaboration, next generation contracting, construction and operational practices, empowering executives with accountability, nurturing home-grown leaders are only few of the aspects of the ‘Delhi Metro Way’. It is no surprise that Mangu Singh and Vikas Kumar, successors of Metro Man E. Sreedharan, are homegrown leaders who honed leadership skills at DMRC. Delhi Metro is also the mother amoeba that has supplied leadership team to metro rail organisations. Legendary is the DMRC practice to pay 80 per cent of contractor’s bills in 10 days; this trust creation overnight changed adversarial contractor-client relationship to symbiotic partnership. This practice through Union Budget of FY 2023 has been mainstreamed nationally. This system was crafted by yours truly in 1991, for implementation in the Konkan Railway under supervision of Sreedharan. But make no mistake, Delhi Metro is a work in progress, and an unfinished agenda. Its network cannot take the load of the most populous city in the world. It has to achieve the construction length of Shanghai first (1000 km) and then cross Beijing which will have more than 1500-km-long route in 2025. It must emulate Madrid and bring 100 per cent NCR population within one km of a metro station. It must be freed from debt service for completed and future projects. It is time to follow the Singapore model where the government funds construction and the operator is responsible for best practices services. Lastly, DMRC must be free from the compulsion of making even operational profit. Single-line responsibility of Delhi Metro must be to provide global best services at most affordable cost, operational subsidy should be offered by the government. Even the poorest pays GST, there need not be multiple layers of taxation. FROM HERE, WHERE? In 2031, Delhi urban agglomeration will be home to 40 million; by 2050, the population may cross 50 million. There is no global template. Delhi needs its own ‘Next Practices’. And, the time is now. For Delhi to avoid apocalyptic future and solve its multi-dimensional problems, the immediate requirement is a seamlessly integrated unified governance structure. It needs political sacrifices. Like Lord Shiva, political bigwigs need to drink the poison first – of ceding territory voluntarily – to protect the future of Delhi.

• Sustainable Food Systems

CSE REPORT FLAGS POOR STATE OF ORGANIC FERTILISERS, BIOFERTILISERS SECTOR IN INDIA

There is a widespread availability of inferior quality as well as spurious biofertiliser and organic fertiliser products across the country The availability, quality and uptake of biofertilisers and organic fertilisers in India is poor, flagged a new report. These non-chemical options are considered critical to the transition from chemical-based to sustainable farming practices like organic and natural farming. The availability of cost-effective quality biofertilisers and organic fertilisers is, therefore, of utmost importance. However, these sectors have been neglected over the years. Both the sectors have so far received limited attention and support by the central and most state governments, compared to the chemical fertiliser sector. The government subsidy received by the chemical fertiliser sector was to the tune of Rs 1.3 lakh crore in 2020-21, while the budget allocated to the entire organic fertiliser and biofertilisers sector was limited to a few hundred crores, the CSE report found. The State of Biofertilizers and Organic Fertilizers in India was released by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a Delhi-based think-tank at its recently concluded National Conclave on Sustainable Food Systems from April 19-21, 2022. Please click here to read more. Down to Earth, 2 May, 2022, https://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/agriculture/cse-report-flags-poor-state-of-organic-fertilisers-biofertilisers-sector-in-india-82647?utm_source=Mailer&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Down%20To%20Earth-5206

• Down To Earth

Weather Live Updates: Dust storm likely in Delhi; Odisha govt revises school timings amid heatwave

Weather Live Updates: The Odisha government has revised school timings amid the ongoing spell of heatwave in the state. The new timing is from 6:00 am to 9:00 am and comes into effect from today. Weather Live Updates: The minimum temperature in the national capital on Monday settled at 27.4 degrees Celsius, three notches above the season’s average. The weather office has forecast partly cloudy skies for the day with the possibility of dust and thunderstorm accompanied with gusty winds, according to news agency PTI. The maximum temperature is expected to touch 39 degrees Celsius. Heatwave conditions are expected to continue over Delhi and adjacent regions for the next three days, whereas dust storm or thunderstorms are expected in isolated places over Haryana, Chandigarh and the national capital between May 2 and May 4, according to the India Meteorological Department. The Odisha government has revised school timings amid the ongoing spell of heatwave in the state. The new timing is from 6:00 am to 9:00 am and comes into effect from today. After being parched by a searing heatwave for six successive days, overcast skies and a light breeze brought much-needed relief to the people of of the state on Sunday even as temperatures were high in the western region of the state, the India Meteorological Department said. The maximum temperature fell by around 2-4 degrees in a few places and was below normal in several towns, according to the Met office. Large parts of India have been recording higher than normal temperatures since the last week of March, with weather experts attributing it to the absence of periodic light rainfall and thundershowers, typical for this time of the year, due to the lack of active western disturbances. The IMD said the intense heat could lead to "moderate" health concerns for the vulnerable sections such as infants, the elderly and people with chronic diseases. "Hence people should avoid heat exposure, wear lightweight and light-coloured cotton clothes and cover their heads with a hat or an umbrella," it said. There is an increased likelihood of symptoms of heat illness in people who are either exposed to the sun for a prolonged period or doing heavy work, an IMD advisory read. A heatwave is declared when the maximum temperature is over 40 degrees Celsius and at least 4.5 notches above normal. A severe heatwave is declared if the departure from normal temperature is more than 6.4 notches, according to the IMD. Based on absolute recorded temperatures, a heatwave is declared when an area logs a maximum temperature of 45 degrees Celsius. A severe heatwave is declared if the maximum temperature crosses the 47-degree Celsius mark. Vidarbha in Maharashtra and west Rajasthan have consistently reported maximum temperatures in the range of 40 degrees Celsius to 45 degrees Celsius for the past two months. According to an analysis by green thinktank Centre for Science and Environment, the early heatwaves that began on March 11 have impacted 15 Indian states and union territories (as of April 24). India saw its warmest March this year since the IMD began keeping records 122 years ago, amid a 71 per cent rain deficit.

• Director General Office

Global disruptions and non-cooperation

The first problem has been the very premise of the globalisation project It seems that the entire edifice of an interdependent world is collapsing, and at a time when we need cooperation more than ever to address the existential crisis of climate change. Roughly 30 years ago, as our world embarked on the path to interdependency, it signed the free trade agreement and brought in rules on how it would operate commerce between nations. Then it brought in a slew of more agreements for everything from climate change to biodiversity to global trade in hazardous waste, to stitch together a framework for an ecologically interdependent world. The twin objectives were to spread prosperity by expanding the Western model of growth and then to manage its ecological fallout across national boundaries. The underlying belief was this would bring democracy to all. People would get richer; and they would in turn shun barbaric tendencies and embrace human rights and freedom. In the 1990s, when the Soviet Union collapsed and then in 2001, when autocratic communist China joined this democracy through the trade project, the world rejoiced at the growth through consumption moments. Today this project has come apart. And it is not just the horrific and inhuman invasion of Ukraine by Russia that has brought it to this head — insecurity in the supply of basic materials, from energy to food, is making countries shun global interdependence and shut the door. Argentina, which produces 10 times more food than what its population needs, has now put a hefty tax on the export of beef, corn, and soya from the country. Indonesia, the world’s top producer of palm oil — indicted for driving the destruction of its tropical forests — has now sent shock waves as it has banned exports of this cooking oil. Food security is suddenly about food sovereignty — something that all agribusiness-run countries and economies had dismissed. Then come the high energy costs — fuelled partly because of the sanctions on Russian oil and gas — that are driving the world to leapfrog to wind and solar. But it is a fact that much of the rare earth minerals that will be needed to power this new energy future — from petro to electro — are controlled by the same countries that are in the non-democracy camp, from China to Russia. We also know that unemployment is already pushing countries to manufacture at home. We are closing borders, shutting the door of global trade, and, worse, dividing and polarising the world into camps of good versus evil. This, please remember, is happening at a time when climate change needs us to come together to cooperate and act globally. So, as we move ahead, let’s not make light of the mistakes of the past three decades. Let’s take stock of the state of the world so that we can do better. The first problem has been the very premise of the globalisation project. It was not about building inclusive prosperity — it was about building commerce on the back of cheap goods and labour. Free trade economists — they are many and they are powerful — love to tell us how inefficient it is to grow wheat and rice where land is scarce or that without large holdings agribusinesses do not thrive. They tell us it is so much better to manufacture where the cost of labour is cheap and countries can avoid paying the price of environmental safeguards. This “cheapness” then means there are plentiful goods that feed our appetite for consumption. There is no doubt that this economic thinking has made some in the world very rich. There is also no doubt that this thinking has made all countries lock into the business of competing for markets — at the cost of their labour or environment. It has also meant that the world is today at the precipice of a climate emergency — because it has never really reduced emissions but has only exported them to countries where manufacturing has moved. The second, and most fatal of all mistakes, is that we have assumed the growth of social media as the growth of democracy. It is nothing less than hubris and greed to believe that governance and democracy can be substituted by loud and nasty voices of social media, which has now made all of us consumers not of news but of goods. It all started with the Arab Spring in 2010, when the power of social media was unleashed and it brought down those whom we called dictators and despots. The world tasted blood. Now, the democracy project had another bow in its armour — this one, we believed, was the voice of the people speaking out and driving change. Today, this same tool of democracy has become so twisted and tainted that it can be used to push virulent and vicious hatred and evil with the force that we imagined it would push good. This is also happening because we believed (naively) that markets could replace governments and that social media was synonymous with democracy. This cannot be the way to our common future. Let’s continue to discuss this.

• Clean Air & Sustainable Mobility

Landfill Sites: बिना आग के भी कूड़े के पहाड़ों से 5 किमी तक फैल रहा है प्रदूषण, जहरीली गैस कर रही है लोगों को बीमार

विशेष संवाददाता, नई दिल्लीः बीते छह दिनों से भलस्वा लैंडफिल साइट सुलग रही है, जिससे आसपास के लोग धुंए से परेशान हैं। वहीं एक्सपर्ट के अनुसार इन कूड़े के पहाड़ों पर आग न भी लगे तो भी यह अपने आसपास के पांच किलोमीटर दायरे में प्रदूषण बढ़ा रहे हैं। इसलिए इन्हें जल्द खत्म करना होगा। हालांकि जिस हिसाब से काम चल रहा है अगले कुछ सालों तक इससे छुटकारा नहीं मिलने वाला है। एक्सपर्ट के अनुसार तेज हवाओं के साथ इन लैंडफिल साइट से उठने वाली गैस पांच किलोमीटर के दायरे में असर डालती हैं। फिर चाहे आग लगे या न लगे। इन कूड़े के पहाड़ों से ग्रीन हाउस गैस का उत्सर्जन होता रहा है। इनसे कार्बन डायऑक्साइड, नाइट्रोजन ऑक्साइड जैसी गैस निकलती हैं, जो जलवायु परिवर्तन की वजह हैं। गौरतलब है कि मीथेन कार्बन डायऑक्साइड से भी अधिक खतरनाक है। यह सूर्य की किरणों को कार्बन डायऑक्साइड की तुलना में 84 प्रतिशत तक सोखकर गर्मी बढ़ाती है। प्रदूषण के हॉट स्पॉट में शामिल हैं ये साइटें: एक्सपर्ट के अनुसार इन लैंडफिल साइट के निकटवर्ती जगहों पर गौर करें तो यह राजधानी में प्रदूषण का हॉट स्पॉट हैं। राजधानी में इस समय 13 हॉट स्पॉट हैं। भलस्वा लैंडफिल साइट का निकटवर्ती स्टेशन जहांगीरपुरी, गाजीपुर लैंडफिल साइट का निकटर्ती स्टेशन आनंद विहार और ओखला लैंडफिल साइट का निकटवर्ती स्टेशन ओखला फेज-2 है। यह तीनों ही स्टेशन राजधानी के सबसे गंभीर हॉट स्पॉट में शामिल हैं। वैज्ञानिक आधार पर नहीं बनीं ये साइटें: सेंटर फॉर साइंस एंड एनवायरमेंट (सीएसई) की एग्जीक्यूटिव डायरेक्टर अनुमिता राय चौधरी के अनुसार इन साइटों के पास के एयर क्वालिटी स्टेशनों के आंकलन से यह साफ होता है कि इस प्रदूषण को कम करने के लिए वेस्ट मैनेजमेंट को दुरुस्त करना जरूरी है। सीएसई की वेस्ट मैनेजमेंट प्रोग्राम ऑफिसर रिचा सिंह के अनुसार राजधानी की तीनों लैंडफिल साइट वैज्ञानिक आधार पर बनी ही नहीं हैं। न ही यहां कोई प्रॉपर मैनेजमेंट सिस्टम या गैस सकिंग सिस्टम है। रिचा के अनुसार यहां छोटी मोटी आग पूरे साल में कई बार लगती हैं। साथ ही आसपास रहने वाले लोग स्वास्थ्य संबंधी खतरे की चपेट में रहते हैं। लोगों की हेल्थ पर हो रहा बुरा असर: ग्रीन पीस के कैंपेन मैनेजर अविनाश चंचल के अनुसार दिल्ली-एनसीआर में प्रदूषण की वजहों में लैंडफिल साइट पर लगने वाली आग का बड़ा योगदान है। इससे मीथेन का रिसाव भी होता है। इसका सीधा असर जलवायु परिवर्तन पर पड़ता है। कार्बन डायऑक्साइड का स्तर इस तरह की आग में काफी अधिक होता है। इससे न सिर्फ कार्बन डायऑक्साइड, कार्बन मोनोआक्साइड गैस निकलती हैं, बल्कि हाइड्रोजन सल्फाइड जैसी जहरीली गैसें भी निकलती हैं जो सालों तक हवा में बनी रहती हैं। लोगों के स्वास्थ्य पर भी इसका बुरा असर होता है। पूरे देश की है यह समस्या: सीपीसीबी के सेवानिवृत्त अधिकारी डॉ. डी. साहा ने बताया कि लैंडफिल साइट सामान्य की तुलना में कहीं अधिक गर्म होती हैं। प्रकृतिक तौर पर इन साइटों से कई तरह के रिएक्शन होते हैं और इनकी वजह से डाइऑक्साइन्स और फुरान निकलते हैं। ऐसे में लैंडफिल साइट की समस्या को सिर्फ क्षेत्रीय या एक शहर से जोड़कर नहीं देखा जा सकता, बल्कि यह पूरे देश की समस्या है।

• Down To Earth

भारत मौसम अपडेट, भारत हीट वेव समाचार

भारत के अधिकांश हिस्सों में मार्च के अंतिम सप्ताह से सामान्य से अधिक गर्म तापमान देखा जा रहा है, मौसम विशेषज्ञों ने इसे नियमित रूप से हल्की बारिश और गरज के अभाव के लिए जिम्मेदार ठहराया है, जो सक्रिय पश्चिमी दंगों की कमी के कारण वर्ष के इस समय की विशेषता है। आईएमडी ने कहा कि भीषण गर्मी शिशुओं, बुजुर्गों और पुरानी बीमारियों वाले लोगों जैसे कमजोर क्षेत्रों के लिए “मध्यम” स्वास्थ्य समस्याएं पैदा कर सकती है। “इसलिए, लोगों को गर्मी के संपर्क में आने से बचना चाहिए, हल्के रंग के, हल्के सूती कपड़े पहनने चाहिए, और अपने सिर को टोपी या छतरी से ढकना चाहिए,” उन्होंने कहा। आईएमडी की एक एडवाइजरी में कहा गया है कि लंबे समय तक धूप में रहने वाले या भारी काम करने वाले लोगों में गर्मी की बीमारी के लक्षणों की संभावना अधिक होती है। जब अधिकतम तापमान 40 डिग्री सेल्सियस से अधिक हो जाता है और सामान्य से कम से कम 4.5 डिग्री अधिक होता है तो लू की घोषणा की जाती है। आईएमडी के अनुसार, सामान्य तापमान से विचलन 6.4 डिग्री से अधिक होने पर भीषण गर्मी की लहर घोषित की जाती है। रिकॉर्ड किए गए पूर्ण तापमान के आधार पर, एक गर्मी की लहर घोषित की जाती है जब कोई क्षेत्र अधिकतम तापमान 45 डिग्री सेल्सियस दर्ज करता है। यदि अधिकतम तापमान 47 डिग्री सेल्सियस को पार कर जाता है तो भीषण गर्मी की लहर घोषित की जाती है। महाराष्ट्र और पश्चिमी राजस्थान के विदर्भ में पिछले दो महीनों से लगातार अधिकतम तापमान 40 डिग्री सेल्सियस से 45 डिग्री सेल्सियस के बीच दर्ज किया गया है। एक पारिस्थितिक थिंक टैंक सेंटर फॉर साइंस एंड एनवायरनमेंट के एक विश्लेषण के अनुसार, 11 मार्च को शुरू हुई पहली हीट वेव्स ने 15 भारतीय राज्यों और केंद्र शासित प्रदेशों (24 अप्रैल तक) को प्रभावित किया है। 71 प्रतिशत वर्षा की कमी के बीच आईएमडी ने 122 साल पहले रिकॉर्ड रखना शुरू करने के बाद से भारत ने इस साल अपना सबसे गर्म मार्च देखा।

• Climate Change and Green Economy

Explainer: What is a heatwave and why India is experiencing it so early this year?

The meteorological department defines a heatwave as a condition of air temperature that becomes fatal to the human body. India recorded its warmest March this year since the India Meteorological Department began keeping records 122 years ago. The recent heatwaves began on March 11 and have affected at least 15 Indian states and Union Territories, showed Centre for Science and Environment’s analysis of the meteorological department’s data. Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh have suffered the most with 25 days of heatwave and severe heatwave each during this period. The otherwise supposedly cold hilly state is the one that stands third on this with 21 heatwave days – Himachal Pradesh, followed by Gujarat (19) and Jammu and Kashmir (16). These states have recorded temperatures as high as 40 degrees Celsius-42 degrees Celsius and are expected to see a 2 degrees Celsius-3 degrees Celsius rise. India’s average annual temperature increased at a rate of 0.62 degrees Celsius in the 100 years between 1901 and 2020, according to the World Bank. Heatstroke has killed 11,571 people in the last decade (2011-2020) in India, showed an analysis of the Accidental Deaths & Suicides in India data, published annually by the National Crime Records Bureau. In fact, heatstroke claimed more lives than floods and cold in the past two decades (2000-2020) and became the second leading cause of death from a natural force in the country after lighting, showed the data. While 20,615 people died of a heat stroke, lightning claimed 49,679 lives in the 20 years. This phenomenon is not limited to India as across the world more than 1.66 lakh deaths occurred due to heatwaves between 1998 and 2017, according to the World Health Organization. What’s a heatwave? There is no universally accepted definition of a heatwave, rather it differs from region to region. In India, a heatwave is a condition of air temperature which becomes fatal to the human body when exposed, defines the India Meteorological Department. The weather agency declares a heatwave for a region when the temperature crosses 40 degrees Celsius in the plains, 37 degrees Celsius in coastal areas and 30 degrees Celsius in hilly regions. The weather agency has two more ways to keep a tab on heatwaves. One criterion is to declare a heatwave when a place clocks a temperature 4.5 degrees Celsius-6.4 degrees Celsius more than the normal temperature for the region on that day. If the temperature is over 6.4 degrees Celsius more than normal, the India Meteorological Department declares a “severe” heatwave. Another qualifier is when the temperature crosses the 45 degrees Celsius mark, the weather agency declares a heatwave and when it crosses 47 degrees Celsius, a severe heatwave. If the above criteria is met by at least two monitoring stations in a meteorological sub-division for at least two consecutive days, a heatwave is declared on the second day. Heatwave warnings Heatwaves generally develop over northwest India and spread gradually eastwards and southwards but not westwards (since the prevailing winds during the season are westerly to northwesterly). But on some occasions, a heatwave may also develop over any region in situ under favourable conditions, according to the India Meteorological Department. The meteorological department issues colour codes based on the degree of heat forecasted in a particular region. No cautionary action is required if the colour green is issued. A yellow alert is a heat alert but of moderate temperature. An orange alert falls in the severe heat alert category which can last up to two days. During this period, there is an increased likelihood of heat illness symptoms in people who are either exposed to sun for a prolonged period or do heavy work. A red alert signifies extreme heat. There is a high likelihood of developing heat illness and heat stroke in all ages during this period that can extend up to six days. March heatwave It is a combination of factors that have led to this anomaly. One of them is anticyclones, which, unlike cyclones, cause hot and dry weather by sinking winds around high-pressure systems in the atmosphere. Experts say that anticyclones over western parts of Rajasthan and the absence of rain-bearing western disturbances caused this early onset. “An anticyclone (high-pressure system) over the Indian landmass, drier than usual Western disturbances, a persistent La Niña pressure pattern and Arctic warming,” Avantika Goswami, Programme Manager, Climate Change, at CSE, told FactChecker. “These have led to high temperatures and dry conditions as opposed to storms that would typically occur in March.” Another climate scientist Raghu Murtugudde, from the University of Maryland, explained that a north-south pressure pattern, associated with the La Niña phenomenon in eastern and central India persisted longer than expected and interacted with warm waves coming in from a rapidly warming Arctic region, leading to heatwaves. While the India Meteorological Department has predicted heatwave conditions in parts of western Rajasthan till April 30 and a severe heatwave on May 1, Goswami said temperatures are expected to be high till June. “The last early heat wave occurred in 2019,” she said. “This particular heatwave is expected to see some relief around May 2, but it will pick up again from May 5, till June approximately.” Effect on health Heatwaves are an emerging public health concern. Extreme heat can lead to minor health issues such as rashes, cramps and oedema. But as the temperature soars, heat syncope (fainting occurring from low blood pressure), exhaustion and strokes can occur. Dr Dileep Mavalankar, Director of the Indian Institute of Public Health Gandhinagar, explained that there are two types of heat strokes caused due to exposure to direct sunlight: exertional or direct heat stroke. Direct heatstroke cases account for only 10% of heat strokes, said Dr Mavalankar. “Of the heatstroke cases, 90% are indirect or non-exertional.” “This generally affects people in old age and those with comorbidities,” he explained. “Heat causes further aggravation of their condition because of rapid circulation. To cool the body, the heart functions faster and circulation increases which could lead to the heart’s failure. This leads to an indirect heat stroke.” The body works best at a wet-bulb temperature of 35 degrees Celsius, found a 2020 study published in Science Advances journal. But it also boils down to humidity. Wet-bulb temperature is a measure of humidity in the air. It is measured by a thermometer covered in a water-soaked cloth, and it takes into account both heat and humidity. According to the Centre for Science and Environment, “Factoring in humidity along with the heat, called the heat index, helps determine what the temperature actually ‘feels like’.” Heat impacts much more than physical health. According to a study cited in a March 2022 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, “Mental health problems increased by 0.5% when average temperatures exceeded 30 degrees Celsius, compared to averages between 25 degrees Celsius-30 degrees Celsius. A 1 degree Celsius warming over five years was associated with a 2% increase in mental health problems.” Until 2015, India did not have a national-level strategy to combat heatwaves and all disaster-related responsibility rested on state governments. In 2016, the government’s National Disaster Management Authority chalked the first national guidelines for heat waves titled “Preparation of Action Plan-Prevention and Management of Heat Wave”. The guidelines aim to help stakeholders, such as state governments, district administrations, local self-governments, NGOs, civil society organisations, prepare a Heat Wave Management Plan by providing insight into heat-related illness and necessary mitigation measures.

• Clean Air & Sustainable Mobility

Why Guwahati should not depend on rain alone to tackle pollution

A direct consequence of this is an alarming increase in the air pollution levels, which is turning out to be a matter of major concern. For the past 22 years, every time I visited my hometown Guwahati, yearning for a respite from a heavily polluted Delhi, I always looked forward to the blue skies, clean air and freshness. Not so anymore. Now when I visit my hometown, the air is no longer fresh, the skies are grey and everything looks dusty a lot of the time as the vagaries of rapid expansion and growth have taken a toll on this once-beautiful and green city, which is no more than a cacophonic concrete jungle these days. Pristine places such as the Northeast have been always blessed to have favourable weather conditions such as plenty of rain and good wind speed, which help in the rapid dispersal of dust and pollutants — leading to clear, blue skies; often giving the impression that everything is hunky-dory on the pollution front. But that impression could be utterly wrong because pollution, a word once synonymous with Delhi-NCR and the northern plains, is not alien to the Northeast anymore, presumed to be a clean air hotspot. Not even Kashmir or South India. These cities show their true colours when the weather gods aren’t there to help — during winters and dry spells — to help them drive away from the lurking danger; hazardous and toxic pollutants that wreak havoc on our health. On December 22, 2020, a Lancet Planetary Health report attributed at least 1.7 million deaths in India to air pollution in 2019. ADVERTISEMENT CONTINUE READING BELOW Busy and growing cities such as Guwahati, and even small towns, especially, are bearing the brunt of unbridled growth, industrialisation, construction, an increase in the number of vehicles, etc. A direct consequence of this is an alarming increase in air pollution levels, which is turning out to be a matter of major concern. And there are studies to prove this. Research and advocacy group Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) in an analysis late last year pointed to the growing tentacles of air pollution in the Northeast. The CSE analysed the urban air quality status in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Nagaland, Mizoram, and Arunachal Pradesh, and assessed annual and seasonal trends in PM2.5 concentration for the period January 1, 2019, to December 7, 2021. Guwahati, the study said, had the most polluted air in Northeastern India, comparable to cities of north India.