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स्वच्छ पवन..नील गगन ऑनलाईन कार्यशाला का आयोजन, 100 प्रतिभागियों ने लिया भाग

राजस्थान राज्य प्रदूषण नियंत्रण मंडल एवं सेंटर फॉर साइंस एंड एण्डवायरमेंट की ओर से राष्ट्रीय स्वच्छ वायु कार्यक्रम जुड़े सभी विभागों को शामिल करते हुए राजस्थान के कई शहरों में मंगलवार को ऑनलाईन कार्यशाला का आयोजन किया। प्रदेश के जयपुर, जोधपुर, कोटा, अलवर और उदयपुर को सूची में शामिल किया। कार्यशाला में मानव स्वास्थ्य की रक्षा एवं वायु गुणवत्ता सुधार के प्रयासों को बढावा देने के लिए संयुक्त राष्ट्र महासभा द्वारा स्वच्छ पवन-नील गगन को अन्तर्राष्ट्रीय दिवस के रूप में मनाया गया। कार्यक्रम में साल का विषय ‘‘स्वस्थ वायु, स्वस्थ ग्रह’’ रखा गया। वहीं कोविड-19 महामारी के दौरान वायु प्रदूषण के स्वास्थ्य पर पड़ने वाले विपरीत प्रभावों पर जोर देता है। इसका उद्देश्य सभी के लिए स्वस्थ हवा की आवश्यकता को प्राथमिकता देना है। इस कार्यक्रम को स्वास्थ्य, उत्पादकता, अर्थव्यवस्था और पर्यावरण के लिए स्वच्छ हवा के महत्व के बारे में व्यक्तियों, समुदायों, कॉर्पोरेट्स और सरकार के बीच जागरूकता पैदा करने के लिए संरेखित किया गया था। इस सभा में आईएएस वीना गुप्ता, सदस्य सचिव आनंद मोहन, मुख्य पर्यावरण अभियंता डॉ विजय सिंघल, कार्यकारी निदेशक अनुमिता रॉयचौधरी, कार्यकारी निदेशक, सीएसई, अतिन विश्वास एवं पार्थ कुमार, सीएसई, ने अपने क्षेत्र के मुद्दों पर अपनी विस्तार से जानकारी साझा की। इस कार्यशाला ने शहरी स्थानीय निकायों, उद्योग संघ, शिक्षाविदों और बड़ी संख्या में विद्यालयों, नागरिक समाज समूहों और मीडिया प्रतिनिधियों के साथ-साथ अन्य लोगों के एक विविध समूह को भी एक मंच पर साझा किया। इस आयोजन में राजस्थान के लगभग 287 स्कूलों को आमंत्रित किया गया था। कार्यक्रम की शुरुआत में, डॉ विजय कुमार सिंघल, सीईई, रा.प्र.नि.मं. ने वायु गुणवत्ता में सुधार के लिए किए गए प्रयासों के बारे में बताया। इन प्रयासों का असर अब दिखने लगा है। एक छोटा सा प्रयास बड़ा बदलाव ला सकता है। साथ ही आनंद मोहन, सदस्य सचिव, आरएसपीसीबी ने राष्ट्रीय स्वच्छ वायु कार्यक्रम और राजस्थान के पांच गैर-प्राप्ति शहरों का एक सिंहावलोकन पेश किया और सीएसई और हितधारक एजेंसियों के साथ अपनी उल्लेखनीय टिप्पणियों को साझा किया। अनुमिता रॉयचौधरी, कार्यकारी निदेशक, सीएसई, ने राजस्थान के वायु प्रदूषण एवं सम्बन्धित विषय पर किए गए विभिन्न अध्ययनों के आकडे साझा कर अपने विचार व्यक्त किए। कार्यशाला में पार्थ कुमार, डिप्टी प्रोग्रामर, सीएसई, ने राजस्थान के विभिन्न शहरों में आ़ैद्योगिक प्रदूषण के सम्बन्ध में अपने विचार व्यक्त किये। इसके साथ अतिन विश्वास, सीएसई, ने कचरा प्रबंधन और कचरे से संसाधन विषय पर अपने विचार व्यक्त किए। वेबिनार के अंत में कई प्रतिभागियों/विषय विषेषज्ञों ने अपने विचार एवं सुझाव प्रस्तुत किये। इस वेबिनार में लगभग 100 प्रतिभागियों ने भाग लिया। कार्यशाला के दौरान कई मुद्दों पर हुई चर्चा लॉकडाउन और साफ नीला आकाशः कार्यशाला में, वायु प्रदूषण और कोविड -19 के बीच एक कड़ी दिखाने वाले वैज्ञानिक प्रमाण और अधिक प्रदूषित क्षेत्रों में भेद्यता कैसे बढ़ती है, इस पर चर्चा की गई। कार्यशाला में कैसे 2020 में लॉकडाउन चरणों के दौरान अर्थव्यवस्था को बंद करने से सभी क्षेत्रों में प्रदूषण में सफाई /कटौती हुई। स्वास्थ्य जोखिमों को संबोधित करनाः स्वच्छ वायु कार्यवाही से शहर में वायु प्रदूषण के स्वास्थ्य जोखिम को दूर करने की उम्मीद है। 2016 के राज्य स्तरीय रोग भार अनुमान के अनुसार, वायु प्रदूषण राजस्थान में अकाल मृत्यु के लिए दूसरा सबसे बड़ा जोखिम कारक है। राजस्थान में वायु प्रदूषण के कारण प्रति 100,000 जनसंख्या पर मृत्यु दर 112.5 भारत में सबसे अधिक थी। यह अनुमान लगाया गया था कि यदि वायु प्रदूषण की सघनता को कम किया जा सकता है।

Northeastern states witness highest rates of desertification

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) recently reported that six states in northeastern India were among the top 10 places in the country with the highest desertification rates between 2003 and 2018. These states are Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya. In northern India, Punjab, Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, and Uttarakhand have seen some of the highest rates of desertification. Mizoram has been desertifying at the fastest rate among the northeastern states in the country, with a degradation of 0.18 million hectares (mha) over a 15-year period. Desertification is the process by which a relatively dry region becomes increasingly arid. Deforestation and loss of cover primarily cause desertification. (Down to Earth) Number of disasters increased over the past 50 years but mortality reduced, thanks to early warnings: WMO Report WMO's Atlas of Mortality and Economic Losses from Weather, Climate and Water Extremes (1970-2019) indicates that a significant increase in extreme weather conditions has led to a fivefold increase in the number of disasters since 1970. Nevertheless, the number of deaths has decreased by almost threefold, thanks to enhanced early warnings and disaster management, according to this report by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO). Globally, there have been over 11,000 disasters caused by these hazards, causing just over 2 million deaths and $3.64 trillion in losses. The majority of these disasters were caused by floods and storms. More than 91 percent of these deaths occurred in developing countries, and the hazards causing the most deaths in this period were droughts, storms, floods, and extreme temperatures. (The Weather Channel) 2200 water testing labs are operational across the country 2,200 water testing labs are functioning in the country as part of the Jal Jeevan Mission. These labs are equipped with an app-based digitised platform for testing water quality for standard safety parameters. Public health officials say the new facility will improve health outcomes, especially for children, and will make it easier for private individuals, public health engineering authorities, and panchayats where piped drinking water is available to monitor water quality. In areas with high levels of contamination, the new platform would prove invaluable because anyone can submit a sample and source coordinates of piped water supply. These water-quality testing reports will be delivered online to the person giving the sample and also feed a central database for continual monitoring. (Hindustan Times) Odisha's Bhitarkanika Wildlife Sanctuary is under threat from industrial pollution and freshwater extraction An increasing load of pollution from industries, mining and human activities threatens the existence of Bhitarkanika Wildlife Sanctuary, the mangrove ecosystem that is vital to Odisha's identity and existence. Raw water for these activities, estimated at 86.26 million cubic meters (MCM) per year, is drawn from the Brahmani river, from which the mangrove forest gets its freshwater. The existence of the second-largest mangrove forest in India is further threatened by the upcoming irrigation canals from the Rengali reservoir that will divert more water, leaving almost no fresh water for downstream areas. Along with this, an additional 414 mcum shall be drawn from the Kharasrota, a tributary of the Brahmani river at the Jokadia barrage, to meet water needs of the Kalinga Nagar industrial complex. (The New Indian Express, Down to Earth) Centre's micro-irrigation scheme makes drought-prone Maharashtra districts more water efficient The central government’s ambitious micro irrigation scheme – Per Drop More Crop component of Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY-PDMC) has covered 6.55 lakh hectares in the state, since 2015-16. Out of this 6.55 lakh hectares, about 60 per cent of the area that is over 3.90 lakh hectares, is from 19 districts in the drought-prone Marathwada and Vidarbha regions. According to a study conducted by NITI Aayog to evaluate the PMKSY-PDMC scheme in 2020, the scheme is relevant in achieving national priorities such as substantially improving on-farm water use efficiency, enhancing crop productivity, generating employment opportunities etc. Furthermore, drought-prone districts are responding to micro-irrigation schemes since big dams have failed to resolve the state's water crisis. (The Hindu)

Delhi govt in talks with Centre to ease restrictions on induction of e-buses

Jasmine Shah, vice-chairperson of the Delhi Dialogue and Development Commission said that the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) has already floated a tender for 300 e-buses and as a large part of its fleet is going to retire in the next couple of years, there is an opportunity to scale up the number of e-buses. New Delhi: Delhi government is in talks with the Centre to ease restrictions on the number of electric buses that can be inducted under the FAME (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles) scheme so that up to 5,000 electric buses can be added in Delhi’s in the city’s public transport fleet in the next five years. Jasmine Shah, vice-chairperson of the Delhi Dialogue and Development Commission said that the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) has already floated a tender for 300 e-buses and as a large part of its fleet is going to retire in the next couple of years, there is an opportunity to scale up the number of e-buses. Shah was speaking at a webinar organised by the Centre for Science and Environment to discuss ways to build scale and speed up zero-emission mobility. “This is where the alignment with FAME needs to be improved. The upfront subsidy that FAME gives drives down the cost per km and a state like Delhi can easily absorb three or five thousand e-buses in the next five years,” Shah said. He said that there are restrictions on how many e-buses can be subsidised under FAME, but that doesn’t work for a city of the scale of Delhi, Mumbai or Bengaluru. He said Delhi has the know-how, backend support and infrastructure and everything is all set but for this small hitch. Sunita Narain, director-general of CSE said that if there is no transformation of scale in the adoption of electric mobility, the benefits will not add up. Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director, research and advocacy, CSE said that a ‘zero-emission mandate’ is required in the country, along with other accelerators like charging and battery ecosystem, fuel economy regulations, financing strategies, etc. Roychowdhury said incentives provided by Delhi government can also reduce the on-road price of electric two-wheelers by 57% on average. Shah added that Delhi’s EV policy gives generous incentives and the two-wheelers and three-wheelers are going to be the game changers when it comes to scale and volume. “Delhi government is giving the remaining permits for autorickshaws only to e-autos and there would be more than 4,000 e-autos in the city soon,” he said.

The impact of climate change is now visible at the door of Northern world – Expert

Head of Climate Change and Renewable Energy at Centre for Science & Environment has said the impact of climate change is now visible to the northern world that’s why scientists conclude greenhouse gas emissions are choking our planet and placing billions of people in danger. “It is due to the fact that the last couple of years, in the last decade, the impact is visible to the Northern World,” said Samrat Sengupta. According to the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report, scientists are observing changes in the Earth’s climate in every region and throughout the climate system. It says many of the changes observed in the climate are unprecedented in thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of years. Adding that, some of the changes already set in motion such as continued sea-level rise are irreversible over hundreds to thousands of years. But Samrat stated that, in the initial phase, communities on the north thought that, due to the availability of their affluent resources, they will be able to share themselves out of the impact. “….but now they have understood in the last few years, we have seen that the devastating impact as climate change and global warming impacting north America, Europe, probably seem to be much more vulnerable than the south,” he told JoyNews‘ Mahmud Mohammed-Nurudeen via Zoom interview. He said the south, somehow, has integrated into its lifestyle the adaptive that global north has lost with its affluent. IPCC Working Group I Co-Chair Valérie Masson-Delmotte says, “This report is a reality check. We now have a much clearer picture of the past, present, and future climate, which is essential for understanding where we are headed, what can be done, and how we can prepare.” But again, Samrat said nothing has changed in the last decade, that IPCC talks with 100 percent certainty that it is due to human activity only. “It is well known. Only political diversion of that taking because the framework was in place.” He indicated. He however expressed worry the world still depends on nature to absorb some portion of the carbon dioxide. The IPCC’s report also shows that human actions can still determine future climate development. It provides clear evidence that carbon dioxide (CO2) is the primary driver of climate change, even as other greenhouse gases and air pollutants also influence climate. Many experts have said that stabilizing the climate will require strong, rapid, and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and net-zero reduction in CO2 emissions. For the first time, the Sixth Assessment Report provides a more detailed regional assessment of climate change. It also provides a focus on useful information that can inform risk assessment, adaptation, and other decision-making, and a new framework that helps translate physical changes in the climate.

Central, south Mumbai more polluted than western suburbs

The M East ward that houses small scale factories, the city’s biggest open landfill and refineries as well as power plants, consistently recorded the highest level of pollution – nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide emissions – during the same period. Higher concentration of Particulate Matter 2.5 (PM2.5) has been found in central and south Mumbai in comparison to western suburbs between June 2019 and May 2020. The M East ward that houses small scale factories, the city’s biggest open landfill and refineries as well as power plants, consistently recorded the highest level of pollution – nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide emissions – during the same period. The findings were shared by the World Resource Institute (WRI) in a public consultation webinar held on Monday on air pollution as part of the Mumbai Climate Action Plan (MCAP). The WRI is assisting BMC in the preparation of the action plan ahead of the 2021 United Nations climate change conference. Monday’s webinar is a part of a six-part public consultation. The data has revealed that while PM2.5 and PM10 levels have reduced since 2015, the levels have remained above the standard limit. It showed that PM10 levels dropped from 118 µg/m3 to 101 µg/m3 in 2018-19 and 91 µg/m3 in 2020-21 when lockdown was in place. However, the levels were at least 1.5 times above the standard limit. The standard annual limit for the Respirable Suspended Particulate Matter (RSPM) or PM10 concentration is 60 µg/m3. PM2.5 – airborne particles with less than 2.5 microns in diameter – levels dropped from 81 µg/m3 to 60 µg/m3 in 2018-19 and 46 µg/m3 in 2020-21. The standard annual limit for PM2.5 concentration is 40 µg/m3. A draft interim report on Emission Inventory and Source Apportionment Study for Mumbai, submitted by the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) in January, had stated that paved and unpaved road dust is responsible for 71 per cent of the emission load of particulate matter in Mumbai. In the webinar, WRI suggested identifying local air quality issues and critical and vulnerable administrative wards in the city, health risk assessment and creation of a ward-level planning map. The experts with various government sectors and organisations working in the field of air pollution suggested a multi-pollutant and multi-sector approach in combating pollution levels. Dr Gufran Beig, senior scientist and founder project director of the System of Air Quality Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR), an initiative of Union Ministry of Earth Sciences, said ozone pollutant is the big threat in Mumbai. “First, we should update the emission inventory, which was last conducted in 2015. The emission inventory, along with weather forecasts of every one square km area in the region, will give us a forecast for hotspots every three days that remains valid for almost a week. It can be further improved to 400mX400m resolution. This will be actionable data and weekly hotspots and mitigation measures can be taken accordingly in these areas. A similar project is already underway in Delhi,” he added. Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director at Centre for Science and Environment, suggested measures to control construction and demolition waste. “First, we need to quantify the waste and maximise recycling, which will help in reducing carbon emissions. All construction activities in the city, including buildings, roads and Metro, should have a comprehensive waste management plan.” Over the next three days, the BMC will host similar online consultations in the sectors of energy efficiency in buildings, sustainable mobility, urban greening and biodiversity as well as urban flooding and water resources management. People can also send their suggestions, objections and recommendations on the portal mcap.mcgm.gov.in till September 20.

Delhi civic bodies dispose waste at landfills, get more than they bargained for

Civic bodies have deployed trommel machines at the three landfills in Delhi to segregate the waste and decrease pressure on the sites The three municipal corporations working on reducing the garbage at the three landfills in Delhi --- Okhla, Bhalswa and Ghazipur -- have a new problem at hand. The civic bodies are looking at ways to dispose of at least 1.8 million metric tonnes of inert waste that the processing of waste at the landfills has generated. The civic bodies have deployed trommel machines at these landfills to segregate the waste and decrease pressure on the sites. A trommel machine is a huge mechanical sieve that separates the landfill waste into three components -- municipal solid waste, construction and demolition waste or debris and soil or sand. According to the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC), which manages the Okhla landfill site, at least 625,000 metric tonnes of inert waste was piling up at the site, leaving little space for moving of machines and handling the legacy waste. To find a way to dispose of this residue, the SDMC standing committee on August 31 approved the proposal to shift the inert waste to two sites, NTPC Eco Park and Tajpur Pahadi (both near Badarpur) at an estimated cost of ₹19.50 crore. “A tender for the same will be floated this month. The two sites together can accommodate 690,000 metric tonnes of waste. An administrative approval has been given. This will help in fast-tracking the bio-mining process,” said Colonel (retd) B K Oberoi, chairperson, SDMC standing committee. ince last year, the civic body, under a temporary arrangement, has been sending some of the inert material at these two sites. Some of this waste was also being used for making temporary roads at the landfill site. “Already 350,000 metric tonnes of inert waste has been removed from the landfill,” he said. Oberoi said the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), which had earlier agreed to use inert waste for building of roads, has refused to use it after testing material. “The NHAI told us that the material could not be used for base-filling, as the road may sink. We are now looking for alternative ways to dump it,” he said. NHAI officials did not comment on the issue. The Okhla landfill is spread over an area of 46 acres. Currently, areas under SDMC generate approximately 3,600 metric tonnes of waste every day, almost 50% of which is dumped at Okhla landfill. North and east Delhi municipal bodies also said that piling up of inert waste was hindering their plans to deploy more trommel machines to expedite the processing of waste at the Bhalswa and Ghazipur landfill sites. According to the officials of the civic bodies, mining of the waste at the three landfills has led to significant reduction in their heights. The height of garbage dump at Bhalswa has come down from 65 metres to 54 metres, from 65 metres to 50 metres at Ghazipur, and from 55 metres to 38 metres at Okhla, officials of the three bodies said. “At the Bhalswa landfill, we plan to increase the number of trommel machines from 24 to 60 by next month. We have been using the inert waste in filling up low-lying areas such as streets of unauthorised colonies and vacant spaces in areas such as Narela, Rohini, Rani Khera, among others,” said a senior North corporation official, who asked not to be named. At least 2,500 metric tonnes of solid waste is dumped at the Bhalswa landfill daily. East Delhi Municipal Corporation officials said they were going to hire an agency to handle both processing of waste and dumping of the resultant inert waste. “We plan to increase the number of machines at the site from 20 to 30. Currently, dumping of inert material is too much to handle, and it will be more organised once a single agency is handling the entire work,” said a senior EDMC official. Experts said mining of waste has to be done in a structured manner. Atin Biswas, programme director, solid waste management project, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), said a single agency should handle the processing of waste and dumping of resultant inert waste. “The cost of transporting waste is huge. While the civic bodies are employing trommel machines, they also need to get the same agency to dump the inert waste as well so that the space reclaimed from the landfill is not lost to another pile of waste. Simultaneously, the civic bodies should take steps to reduce the amount of waste is dumped daily at the landfills, and focus on segregation of waste is done at source,” said Biswas.

Covid-19 aftermath: Longer traffic jams, newer choke points in Delhi

An analysis by the Delhi traffic police shows that between March and June 2020, the travel time in the city reduced by 40-60%, depending on the location. The Covid lockdowns have had a major impact on traffic and mobility patterns in the Capital -- jams are continuing beyond peak hours, new chaos hot spots are emerging, and fewer rides are being made to public transport hubs once restrictions have been lifted, according to assessments by the traffic police and data from Google Mobility Trends. During the first lockdown imposed in March 2020 to curb spread of Covid-19, the city of cars – as Delhi is often referred to since it has over 10 million vehicles, the maximum in the country -- fell silent with its chock-a-block abruptly empty. An analysis by the Delhi traffic police shows that between March and June 2020, the travel time in the city reduced by 40-60%, depending on the location. For instance, travelling from residential localities in east Delhi to west Delhi took around 40 minutes as opposed to over an hour in the pre-pandemic days. The situation, however, changed quickly after June 2020, as people started resuming travel to workplaces, recreational spots, and to supermarkets and malls, with the government relaxing curbs as part of its unlock guidelines. New choke points The return of vehicles led to new traffic patterns emerging. Senior traffic police officials said that over the last year, at least 20 arterial stretches where traffic was not heavy have become new congestion points. “By November last year, we started noticing increased traffic jams. In fact, over the last year, there is a change in traffic patterns. We are seeing more roads turning into congestion points in addition to the existing choke points,” said a senior traffic official, who asked not to be named. Traffic police records show that stretches such as the Ring Road near Safdarjung Hospital, Sri Aurobindo Marg near Hauz Khas, Rajouri Garden (Najafgarh Road), Ajmal Khan Road (near Karol Bagh), Pankha Road (near Hari Nagar) are some of the stretches where heavy traffic jams are being reported more frequently. “A stretch emerges on our radar if there are recurrent traffic jams being reported from there over a significant period of time. The criteria is that the traffic on these roads are not caused by a temporary reason such as a vehicle breakdown or an accident, but because of high traffic volume,” the traffic official added. Heavier traffic at regular trouble spots As new traffic choke points were emerging, snarls on the regular chaos hot spots was getting denser too, said traffic police. Estimates show that on the busiest stretches of the city, including ITO junction, Ashram Chowk, Britannia Chowk, Mukarba Chowk, Delhi-Noida Direct Flyway, and Dhaula Kuan crossing, the traffic volume during peak rush hours increased by 10-12% over the last year compared to the pre-lockdown period. Some of these stretches are also breaking away from the original patterns of “peak hour traffic”— which was categorised by the traffic police as 8am to 12pm and 4pm to 8pm, when the traffic picked up on roads. Complaints received by the traffic department’s control room between June 1 and July 20 this year show that stretches such as the ITO intersection, Mukarba Chowk, Ring Road (from Hyatt Hotel to AIIMS flyover), Ashram intersection, Britannia Chowk, Kashmere Gate (near ISBT), Rajouri Garden crossing (Najafgarh Road), Dwarka Road (near the Palam flyover) and Outer Ring Road (near Hauz Khas metro station) are now reporting traffic jams beyond peak hours. To be sure, some of these stretches -- such as Ashram -- have peculiar problems such as haphazard construction work. At the ITO intersection, which is categorised as one of the busiest stretches in the Capital, traffic volume during the pre-pandemic days was around 250,000 to 300,000 vehicles (during peak hours). In September 2020, the traffic volume increased marginally to around 325,000 to 340,000, but jams were still limited to the four hours in the morning and four hours in the evening with relatively smooth flow during the rest of the day. Since June 10 this year, when traffic movement resumed after the second lockdown imposed in April this year, the traffic volume has been high through the day. A short-period estimate shows that the intersection has been recording around 400,000 vehicles during peak hours, and jams now continue on the stretch for almost the entire day. Mobility trends According to Google’s mobility trends the city’s traffic pattern was changed by the pandemic. The tool tracks the number and length of visits people make to certain kinds of places compared to a baseline – in this case, a five-week period between January 3 and February 6 this year. After the lockdown was announced last year, Delhi saw a drop of nearly 80% in people’s trips to retail and recreational places, parks, supermarkets, pharmacies and workplaces, the trends show. Public transit, which includes places such as bus and train stations, saw the highest drop in people’s mobility in a week after the lockdown was announced, as much as 88%. This, however, has been gradually changing with the Capital easing lockdown measures over time. For example, on April 1 last year there was a 73% drop in visits to supermarkets and pharmacies compared to the baseline, but the drop was 64% on May 1, 27% on June 1, 26% on July 1 and 20% on August 1 last year. The most recent mobility trends, of July 26 this year, show that the drop in visits to retail and recreational spots such as cafes, shopping centres cinemas and libraries has reduced to 29% and to workplaces has dropped to 30%. Movement around residential areas across the city has seen an upward swing, with a 9% increase. Fewer trips to public transport hubs The most worrying trend, according to experts, is that fewer trips are being made to public transport hubs such as Metro stations and bus stands. The mobility trends show that even after the public transport modes resumed services, there was a drop of 24% in mobility around these spots as compared to the baseline. To be sure, curbs were imposed on seating capacity in public buses and the Metro in accordance with the Covid protocols. Though 100% seating has now been allowed in DTC buses and the Metro, standing is not allowed to discourage crowding. Experts say that besides the curbs on seating capacity, the concern over health and safety in public transport also discourage people from using them. This, they said, means that even those who used their private vehicles only for shorter commutes have started using private vehicles more often, leading to a more vehicles on city roads than during the pre-pandemic days. An analysis by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), an organisation focusing on public interest research and advocacy, showed that the mean travel speed on 12 major stretches in Delhi increased from 24 kmph pre-lockdown to 46 kmph during the lockdown. This again reduced again to 29 kmph after the lockdown between October and November 2020 as the government announced phased reopening of activities. Delhi Metro Rail Corporation said even after full seating capacity has been allowed inside the trains, the network is running at 20% of its capacity. This is also resulting in long queues outside stations. “Even though the public transport modes are now operational there is a fear among people that travelling in such close proximity with others might increase the chances of infection. This could undo the years of work that has been done in getting people to ditch their private cars and use public transport modes,” Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director research and advocacy, CSE, said. She added, “People who owned a private vehicle, but chose to travel in metros and buses, now prefer to travel via their own cars, because of safety and convenience.” This, however, is not a trend unique to Delhi. Researchers at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, predicted in June last year the possibility of a sweeping switch to “single-occupancy vehicle” dominating the roads of at least 16 US cities, resulting in the risk of extreme traffic post pandemic. Focus on congestion management Traffic police and experts said that, in a post-pandemic world, the focus will have to be on congestion management and on coming up with innovative measures to control dependence on private vehicles. “Policing will have to focus on congestion management. As enforcers of traffic rules, it is certainly our job to ensure that traffic rules are followed and if not people are penalised, but the focus should be to manage congestion and along with it create awareness of best practices,” said Muktesh Chander, special commissioner of police (traffic). Chander said that he wrote to his colleagues in July, asking them to shift their focus on congestion management on arterial roads, as opposed to penalty-based policing. Sewa Ram, professor of transport planning at the School of Planning and Architecture (SPA), said that the new commuting patterns of the city will have to be studied thoroughly so that a holistic plan can be made around it. “This is a scenario that no one in the world has seen before. The increase in congestion could be a temporary impact of the pandemic, but we must prepare for the worst and plan on how the city’s infrastructure needs to be prepared to handle this new load,” Ram said.

Air pollution is now a matter of life and death

Until adequate measures for transformative change to prevent air pollution at source are firmly in place, Indian cities will remain highly polluted, causing illness and death, and adversely affecting our GDP and climate In a dharna (agitation) which began two years ago, Anita Dhole, a resident of Mahul in Mumbai’s Chembur, continued her protest against air pollution during the coronavirus lockdown in Mumbai while most people experienced blue skies, distant, scenic views and wildlife sightings in cities all over the world, and the United Nations (UN) announced its first Clean Air for Blue Skies Day. The UN has emphasised the need to “build back better” to avoid future shocks to our planet and has described air pollution as a leading health hazard and contributor to climate change. It has also drawn attention to the special burden of climate change, including indoor and outdoor air pollution on women. Apart from suffering from health effects themselves, women face the brunt of childcare and household responsibilities, which increase disproportionately when a family member becomes ill. Unsurprisingly, women are also at the forefront of researching data, finding solutions and creating awareness, interacting with authorities and influencing policy change. Dhole’s 600-day dharna on the footpath from October 28, 2018, was to highlight the predicament of nearly 30,000 people, including herself, resettled next to a refinery and an industrial complex in a Slum Rehabilitation Authority project. She tells those who will listen of heartbreak and misery where children who do not meet developmental milestones because of exposure to air pollution struggle to breathe. “People are dumped next to industrial effluents and air pollution from chemicals like benzene which measure dangerously high levels and make us ill, but we feel nobody cares,” she says. ENT surgeon Dr Sarika Verma was moved to become a clean air activist when she observed that one in four children in Gurugram near Delhi (periodically the most air-polluted city in the world) has been on nebulisers and the air quality regularly crossed into hazardous levels in the winter months. “In India, 4.6 lakh people died of Covid-19 in the past 16 months, but 1.2 million people die annually from air pollution. Unlike Covid, air pollution is not treated as a health emergency to rectify a preventable cause of death,” she says. Verma goes on to explain that unborn children face low birth weight and premature delivery, and there is now evidence to suggest a mother’s placenta contains breathable particulate matter of 2.5 micrometre diameter (PM 2.5). PM 2.5 are very fine particles, a mixture of solid and liquid droplets of 2.5 diameter or smaller, 30 times thinner than a human hair. They are inhaled deeply into the lungs, causing respiratory and other disease. In Maharashtra, an Indian Medical Council Report quantifies premature air pollution deaths as 1.4 lakh people in 2019, the second highest in any state in India. Eighteen of the non-attainment air quality cities in India are in Maharashtra. Placed within Mumbai city limits, the Deonar open landfill has been key in the recognition of the city’s air pollution problem. It contains mixed garbage unscientifically dumped to a height of 100 feet; in 2016, more than 70 schools shut down for days in a blaze that could be seen on NASA images from space. People experienced the equalising nature of air pollution across socioeconomic sections as most of Mumbai was blanketed by smog and Deonar became a rallying point for air pollution-related discourse. Burning garbage dumps is ubiquitous in areas surrounding Mumbai in the absence of an effective garbage management policy and government air pollution monitoring networks do not cover them. I realised the near-complete lack of accessible data from source when I began documenting other informal garbage dumps soon afterwards. I imagined the people living alongside severely polluted air as I saw them walk alongside, white smoke billow into and around their homes. In 2020, I measured air pollution on the roadaside in Bhiwandi with a hand-held meter next to kilometres-long burning garbage. The smell was noxious as plastic crumpled to white smoke and black shreds. The meter recorded 612µg/m3 breathable particulate matter of 2.5 diameter (PM2.5) at one-minute intervals, though the safe limit is only 20 µg/m3 in a 24-hour period. Unsurprisingly, the winter cough I already had inflamed my chest and I couldn’t speak for days. My meter, while not as accurate as the expensive air quality index stations installed by Pollution Control Boards, is highly indicative of high levels of individual exposure. At Gurugram in 2014, software engineer and founder of Airveda, Namita Gupta, realised the lack of usable data as a mother concerned about the air her children were breathing at home. She experimented with manufacture of monitoring meters and networks meters “I set up a system to monitor air quality at home, so that I would know when I could send my children down to play, expanded it to cover their school and now supply meters to augment the government’s formal AQI monitoring network. There is no way to measure air pollution in the coverage gaps without using low-cost meters,” she says. Recently, she supplied her meters to the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board when they placed indigenously developed meters from four startups next to their stationery measuring points to evaluate accuracy of the data. Anumita Roychowdhury and her colleagues at the Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi, have even carried hand-held meters into the High Court and Supreme Court in 2015 to demonstrate air quality to judges. Prior to the Deonar fire, air pollution had been popularly understood as a ‘Delhi issue’ because of constant reports quantifying Delhi’s poor air quality. After Roychowdhury stumbled upon the issue of air pollution in the 1980s as a young researcher, she has been at the forefront of creating data and awareness and advocating policy change. Her successes include conversion of public transport vehicles from diesel to CNG, a ban on air-polluting construction activities on bad air quality days and proposal of a clean fuel strategy for industry. “Delhi is the first Indian city where the issue of air pollution was categorised into its components. Over the years, Delhi is the only city to shut down all coal power plants and the first one to ban constructions on bad air quality days. We have expanded our work to many other Indian cities too now,” she says. Following Roychowdhury’s lead, some sources have been identified and tackled in other Indian cities too. However, despite her successes, power plants in other parts of India have been granted several extensions of the deadline for clean air emissions and new coal-based power plants are still being sanctioned this year. At a launch of the Mumbai Climate Action Plan (MCAP) in August, the energy sector (which still relies on coal fired power plants) was quantified as the largest emitter of carbon dioxide in Mumbai. In contradiction, other government agencies have categorised leading emission sources differently. Recent studies of NEERI in March 2021 and SAFAR (of the Ministry of Earth Sciences) in June 2021 point to road dust and vehicular traffic as the highest emitters respectively, with power plants, industries, open garbage burning, crematoria etc contributing significantly. While it isn’t clear which one is worst, it is certainly clear that all of these emissions require serious and sustained effort and that action is urgent. Hema Ramani, a lawyer associated with the Bombay Environmental Action Group, has advocated for clean fuel use of the hundreds of licenced and unlicenced bakeries scattered in the residential areas of Mumbai. Her research shows that most bakeries are wood-fired. She approached MCGM to licence and regulate all bakeries within a time-bound programme for effective implementation of cleaner fuel conversions. “Unfortunately, the bakers are reluctant as there is very little interest and no incentive is being offered to them to switch to cleaner fuels by any regulatory authority,” she says. It is apt that the Clean Air for Blue Skies Day falls just before the Indian festive season and reminds us that air pollution needs to be controlled before reaching hazardous levels by taking preventive action now. The festival season worsens air quality immediately before winter, when weather conditions ensure that polluted smog hangs thickly, blanketing our cities. Air pollution not only impacts health and climate, but the economy as well. By 2030, it is estimated that a population of more than 10 million will live in seven Indian mega cities like Mumbai, Delhi and Gurugram where air pollution is highest. GDP loss from air pollution has been quantified by the Indian Medical Council at a stunning figure of Rs7,182 crore in Maharashtra and Rs58,560 crore in India. The National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) was launched in September 2020 as a “Long-Term, Time-Bound, National Level Strategy”. It is supported by budgetary allocations of Rs4,400 crore in 2020 and Rs2,217 crore in 2021 when Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget speech acknowledged the need to“tackle the burgeoning problem of air pollution”. Despite the budgetary allocation for 2020 being delayed by the pandemic and the allocation for 2021 cut by nearly half, the NCAP has given fresh impetus to action. Citizens’ experiences with clean air during the lockdown has accelerated and resulted in much greater engagement and a renewed push for transformative change. Nevertheless, real change remains elusive. Adding to more than three million existing vehicles in Mumbai, 495 more were registered within a 24-hour period in June 2021. Stubble burning in Haryana impacts air quality of Delhi and Gurugram. Due to a rise in LPG price, poor women have returned to choolhas, burning firewood and cow dung for cooking. Wood burning crematoria, often situated in residential areas, burnt continuously and required additional firewood during the second wave of the coronavirus crisis in April-June, increasing air pollution during lockdown. Mumbai, which recently became one of ‘Climate 40’ cities worldwide, is committed to reduce emissions by 2030 and Maharashtra will be the first state to develop a detailed climate action plan. The MCAP identifies tackling air pollution as a priority. The plan will be reviewed internally and externally through these two months (September and October), scheduled for public launch by November 2021. Over five years after the garbage dump at Deonar burnt, we continue our struggle to identify air pollution sources. To alleviate the suffering of people like Dhole, the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board has tendered for 15 mobile air pollution vans which will identify problems and measure air pollution on the spot. In Delhi, giant smog towers are being installed in an attempt to reduce the immediate effects of highly polluted air. However, a new IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report clarifies what is actually required as “limiting cumulative CO2 emissions”. Measures such as smog towers are a palliative effort and measurement of air quality a very initial part of the long road ahead to better air quality, one which requires hard decisions. Back at Deonar, in addition to an existing plant to incinerate medical waste, new waste-to-energy plants are proposed. Jyoti Mhapsekar, president of the Stree Mukti Sanghatana, an NGO working with women waste pickers for decades, says many of the waste pickers they work with and the other eight lakh people who live in the neighbourhood, even people working in her office, are sufferers of air pollution. “We are apprehensive that the new incinerators for waste-to energy plants added to the already-existing medical waste plant will only increase air pollution,” she says. It’s now one year since the first UN Clean Air for Blue Skies Day. Its theme Healthy Air, Healthy Planet “emphasises the health effects of air pollution, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic”. While we quantify sources and draw up plans, we continue to encourage and promote activities which worsen air quality. Until adequate measures for transformative change to prevent air pollution at source are firmly in place, Indian cities remain among the most air polluted in the world, causing illness and death, adversely affecting our GDP and climate. “Air pollution is a life-and-death issue for too many people,” says UNEP Executive Director Inger Anderson. Dhole’s voice is strong and clear as she tells of her harrowing experiences while distributing aid during Covid-19 to people who are already sufferers of respiratory disease caused by air pollution. “From my footpath at Mahul to thousands of people, from March 27, 2020, till today, even during the Covid wave of May-June,” she says. Women are disproportionately affected by air pollution, individually and by their burden of household responsibility. It is apt that women lead positive action too: Citizens’ science and data generation; awareness campaigns, research, policy changes and startups. Inspired by them, rapidly urbanising India has the opportunity to make the air pollution story a pan-India success story. Will we step up?

Water for fruit

The scale of the transformation is huge and the potential for change is massive The pear tree I am looking at is nearly bent to the ground under the weight of fruit — 50-100 kg grows on each tree in this 50-year-old orchard. Then my gaze shifts to guava, plum, peach, and miles of kinnow and other citruses. And, of course, there was date palm. No, I did not visit Israel last month. I was in Abohar in Fazilka district of Punjab, at the border of Pakistan, and then crossed over to Sri Ganganagar district in Rajasthan. This is the region of the Rajasthan Canal, also known as the Indira Gandhi Nahar. It was incredible to see how water can transform land; and also to learn of the initiative and the scientific knowledge and the risk that the pioneers took to make the desert green. The Indira Gandhi Nahar extends almost 400 km, bringing water of the Sutlej-Beas up to Bikaner and Jaisalmer. But as the journey of water lengthens, the demand goes up. Along with prosperity, the canal brings conflict and competition over the increasingly scarce water. But instead of working to build a water-prudent economy, water-guzzling paddy is now being grown where the canal reaches. All the talk about diversification of agriculture, breaking away from the paddy-wheat cycle, and moving to crops that will be water-prudent is just not happening on the ground. How can this precious water be used optimally? It is here that agroforestry with fruit trees — horticulture — can play a critical role. It provides high-value agriculture; water usage is less with efficient use of drip irrigation. More importantly, it could be the basis of economic growth and jobs — fruit trees have huge potential not just for nutrition-providing juice but also for their use in pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. Then there is the date palm — it grows in saline groundwater, so it does not even need the precious canal water. But my visit tells me that the fruit revolution is still a story in the making. My first stop was at the Punjab Agricultural University’s Dr J C Bakhshi Regional Research Station in Abohar, where scientists are working painstakingly to improve the productivity of fruit trees; they are using tissue culture to find salinity- and pest-tolerant species. This is where I saw the mind-boggling vision of fruit-laden pear trees growing in the desert. I also saw the date palm, grown from tissue culture, which is so profitable that every sapling costs Rs 4,500, and yet there is a two-year waiting period for farmers to get one. The demand is so high in Rajasthan that the state government has had to restrict the number of saplings a farmer can buy. The sheer hunger and potential of the change became apparent. Then I visited the farm of the late Kartar Singh Narula, who brought kinnow to this dry region of Sri Ganganagar way back in the 1960s, when the canal waters had just reached. It is said that Jawaharlal Nehru was so taken by this idea that he was keen to visit Narula’s Lyallpur farm but had to cut short his journey because of the death of Rajendra Prasad. Today, run by Narula’s family, the farm is full of every species of citrus that you can think of. It’s the proverbial oasis in the desert. It was also in this period that Balram Jakhar — who we all know as a stalwart politician — started his kin now farms in Abohar. These men had the vision to think, not of rice that would guzzle the water, but of this high-value crop of citrus. They wanted sustainable productivity. They understood the advantages of water-prudent, high-value production. Today, the Jakhar farms are run by his grandson Ajay Jakhar, a farmer leader. Here I saw incredible technological interventions to grow good-quality citrus plants at scale — the Jakhar nursery alone produces over 100,000 citrus saplings a year. And there is demand for more. The scale of the transformation is huge and the potential for change is massive: We know the world needs to move towards nature-based solutions; we need to build wealth from sustainable use of natural resources, including water; we need to grow trees to sequester carbon dioxide; and we need to build livelihoods. But I came back with unanswered questions — the spirit of the fruit revolution seems to have got lost along the way. We saw fruit trees, but no efforts to add value from the produce; not even through juice production at scale. We saw no signs of any other efforts to build the fruit economy. Instead, we saw and heard of the still growing popularity of paddy cultivation in this dry region. Then there is the question of sustainability. We know that fruit trees are grown with massive inputs of chemical fertilisers and pesticides — all fruit-growing regions of the world have problems of toxins. So, what can be done and done differently? Questions aside, my visit to the farms of Abohar and Sri Ganganagar filled me with excitement of the possibility of future changes. For this is where the new economy must go — it is about nature, nutrition, and farmers first. The writer is at the Centre for Science and Environment sunita@cseindia.org Twitter: @sunitanar

Cycling ban runs contrary to pollution mitigation efforts in India

The eastern Indian city of Kolkata, once a capital under British rule, has a rich tradition of cycling and was home to the country's first bicycle club set up by the British in 1897. Now a campaign is gathering steam to remove a ban on cycling on 64 roads at a time when the city authorities are coming up with a cycling masterplan, which includes creating 120km of cycling tracks as part of a clean air action plan. The plan, which identifies strategies to reduce pollution from every source, is part of the National Clean Air Programme, a federal initiative. Authors Ruskin Bond and Amitav Ghosh, film-maker Aparna Sen and singer Usha Uthup are among dozens of prominent citizens who have now backed the campaign #BringBackCycles to fight the ban. The campaign has been initiated by non-governmental organisation SwitchON Foundation, which in an open letter to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee urged the removal of the ban, arguing that bicycles are zero-emission transportation that enables livelihoods and reduces congestion as they take up approximately five times less space than cars on the roads. "Every city is moving in the direction of non-motorised transport for congestion and pollution. The other angle is of livelihood. Lots of people cycle to work. This cycle ban is unusual in a country where the poor widely use cycles to get around," said Mr Vinay Jaju, managing director and co-founder of SwitchON Foundation. I feel the system is so car-centric. Kolkata has been designed in a way to encourage cycling or walking. It is sad that cities like London and Paris are trying hard to include more cycling and we have a ban," he added. Cities across India are coming up with ways to mitigate pollution by creating infrastructure for bicycles. The Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority has drafted the cycle masterplan that seeks to create 120km of cycle tracks. But it has yet to start implementation amid contradictions like the cycle ban. In Kolkata, the traffic ban dates back to 2008, when the traffic police, trying to rein in unruly traffic, prohibited cycling on 38 roads. By 2013, the ban had expanded to include 162 roads, resulting in protests. It was then reduced to 64 roads. On some roads, cycling is totally banned, but on other roads, it is prohibited between 7am and 11pm. Over the years, the Kolkata police have explained that the ban was put in place to better manage chaotic traffic. The Kolkata traffic police told the Kolkata High Court in 2014 that the cycle ban was there "because cycles and other forms of non-motorised transport have been running indiscriminately through the roads". But pollution in Kolkata, like other large congested metros, remains a big problem. Last winter, pollution touched the very severe category. According to a 2019 study by the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, cars contribute 20 per cent to 25 per cent of air pollution. A recent study, titled Evaluation Of The Impact Of Ambient Air Pollution On Respiratory Health Of Traffic Police In Kolkata, found that traffic constables were among a higher risk group and likely to develop respiratory dysfunctions due to pollution. Ms Anumita Roy Chowdhury, executive director for research and advocacy at the Centre for Science and Environment, said cities needed to understand the importance of making cycling a priority. "Things are moving (in Kolkata) with the bicycle masterplan. Especially in the context of Kolkata, cities really need to understand the opportunity they have. Not just that more people are cycling. In terms of compactness, Kolkata has a huge advantage (to reduce pollution) and it is very conducive to promote non-motorised transport," she said. "Cycling is a very important mobility option. A lot of leveraging is possible today with petrol prices (going up). If you increase the glamour quotient, not just for the poor, it should be seen as a mode of choice for the rich and middle class." The coronavirus pandemic has also seen more people taking to cycling. Cinematographer Satanjib Gupta uses his bicycle as his main mode of transportation now. "It's the most convenient vehicle for me. The street length is very short - 5km to 6km. Whenever I choose a destination, it is less than 10km. After Covid-19, I never use any other kind of vehicle. I have avoided public transport," said Mr Gupta, who is a member of BYCS, an Amsterdam-based social enterprise promoting cycling. "After Covid-19, cycles are getting more attention. Many people cycle to the city centre to earn money. It's the poor who suffer the most. And if you see a 'no cycling' board everywhere in the city, you feel discouraged."

50% coal-fired plants flouting water norms

BATHINDA: Advocacy group Centre for Science and Environment has claimed that half of country’s fresh water based coal-fired power plants fail to meet the 2015 water-use standards. Citing its study titled ‘Water Inefficient Power’, the CSE claims that even six years after these norms came into force, the thermal-power industry continues to guzzle water. In support of its theory that the sector was adding to water stress in the country, CSE says it found 48% of coalpower fleet to be in waterscarce districts like Barmer and Baran in Rajasthan. “Counted among the most waterintensive industries, the coalpower sector is responsible for about 70% of the total freshwater withdrawal by all industries. Indian power plants with cooling towers consume twice as much water as their global counterparts,” reads the report. The 2015 norms (re-revised in 2018) requried the plants installed before January 1, 2017, to meet a water consumption limit of 3.5 cubic metres per megawatt hour of power produced. For the plants installed after January 1, 2017, this limit is 3 cubic metres per MWh, apart from adopting zero liquid discharge. Additionally, all freshwater-based plants must install cooling towers and meet the 3.5 cubic metres limit. The seawater-based plants were exempt from meeting this limit. The compliance deadline of December 2017 has long passed. The water standards for thermal power plants were introduced in 2015 along with the emission norms. Though emission norms timelines were revised twice (2017 and 2021), while the water norms were overlooked. CSE industrial pollution unit programme director Nivit Kumar Yadav said: “Many power producing regions of the country have water crisis and water pollution because of the discharge from these plants.” CSE surveyed plants of more than 154 gigawatt capacity and found 50% non-complying, most of these state-owned. The CSE claims that some of the old plants operate without the cooling towers, indicating a flouting of not only the water norms but also the emission standards. These pre-1999 units were identified for retirement but neither retired yet nor upgraded, says CSE deputy programme manager Sugandha Arora. The survey found loopholes in the self-reported data and variance in formats across states. Yadav said: “This sector should reduce its massive water footprint, report data accurately, and ensure zero discharge in newer plants.”

Delhi’s PM2.5 levels fell 48% during 2020 lockdown, finds study

Among other cities in India, Chennai and Amritsar recorded even higher improvements in air quality -- with 62% and 51% reductions in PM 2.5 concentrations, respectively Delhi recorded a 48% reduction in PM 2.5 concentrations during the nationwide hard lockdown from March 25 to May 31 last year compared to the same time span in the years between 2015 and 2019, a study has found. This improvement, however, was not visible before or after the lockdown period, underscoring the need for long-term measures to battle air pollution across cities. Particulate Matter 2.5 -- or PM 2.5 -- are extremely tiny pollutants (2.5 microns in diameter or smaller) that can be inhaled and dissolve into the blood stream. High exposure to them is known to cause respiratory and heart issues. Indian and some Chinese cities recorded some of the highest improvements in PM 2.5 concentrations globally during the complete lockdown period, but not so much during pre- or post-lockdown periods, the study by the World Meteorological Organisation and the Global Atmosphere Watch said. For example in contrast, during the pre-lockdown period Paris recorded 58% reduction but only 9.5% reduction during lockdown; Augsburg recorded a 70% reduction in PM 2.5 levels during pre-lockdown but only 6.8% during lockdown period. Munich recorded only 5.3% reduction during lockdown; New York 27%; Sao Paolo 17% and Madrid saw an increase by 17% which may be linked to meteorological factors the study said. Among other cities in India, Chennai and Amritsar recorded even higher improvements in air quality -- with 62% and 51% reductions in PM 2.5 concentrations, respectively. Scientists also found that levels of Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) -- another prominent air pollutant -- reduced by 55% during the lockdown period in Delhi, compared to only 4.3% in pre-lockdown and 32% reduction during partial relaxation of lockdown curbs. “For India, a noticeable reduction was observed during the partial lockdown despite lesser restrictions on mobility…During the full lockdown, reductions in PM2.5 concentrations were observed in both northern and southern hemisphere cities, more notably in India, a few Chinese cities (Chengdu, Guangzhou, Wuhan), Tartu, Seville, Moscow, Montreal, Mexico City, Quito and Lima,” the study titled “A global observational analysis to understand changes in air quality during exceptionally low anthropogenic emission conditions” said. India went into a 68-day lockdown from March 25, 2020 to stem the spread of Covid-19 pandemic. All economic activities and businesses came to a standstill, factories and shops shuttered down and offices shifted to a work-from-home mode. Since then, there have been several regional lockdowns depending on the severity of an outbreak in an area, but the country as a whole has not implemented nationwide restrictions to the same degree. Lockdown periods varied from region to region. The specific dates were provided by the city data providers and validated with other data sources. From this information, lockdown stages were defined to ensure a consistent comparison for the same city, across cities and regions. Still, New Delhi ranked the world’s most polluted capital for the third straight year in 2020, according to IQAir, a Swiss group that measures air quality levels based on PM2.5 concentrations. Last year, Delhi’s 20 million residents breathed some of the cleanest air on record in the summer because of coronavirus lockdown curbs, but battled toxic air in the winter months largely due to a sharp increase in farm residue burning in neighbouring states. “Covid-19 proved to be an unplanned air-quality experiment, and it did lead to temporary localised improvements. But a pandemic is not a substitute for sustained and systematic action to tackle major drivers of both pollution and climate change and so safeguard the health of both people and planet,” said WMO secretary-general Petteri Taalas said in a statement on Friday. The study, published in the National Library of Medicine on August 20, looked at the data from in situ ground-based air-quality observations from over 540 traffic, background and rural stations spanning across 63 cities from 25 countries in the world. Globally, it observed decreases of up to about 70% in mean nitrogen dioxide (NO2), another pollutant, and between 30% and 40% in mean PM2.5 concentrations over the 2020 full lockdown compared to the same period in 2015–2019. There were also some “complex signals” retrieved from the data studied. For instance, Spanish cities Madrid and Valencia saw an increase in PM 2.5 levels during their lockdown period mainly due to transport of pollutants from Africa. Similarly Beijing, Shenyang and Xi’an also showed similar spikes because of secondary formation of particulate matter, the WMO study led by Centre for Atmospheric and Climate Physics (CACP) and Centre for Climate Change Research (C3R), University of Hertfordshire and other institutions said. Scientists said these deviations in results prove that governments need long-term measures to battle air pollution, high exposure to which is linked to not just health issues but also lower life expectancy. “This unplanned air-quality experiment can serve as a benchmark for policymakers to understand whether existing air-quality regulations would protect public health. While lockdowns had a clear impact on air quality in urban areas, the spatial and temporal extent of that impact, the specific role of meteorology and of episodic contributions (e.g. from dust, domestic and agricultural biomass burning and crop fertilisation), and the cascade responses from indirect and non-linear effects are far from being fully understood,” WMO said in its firstAir Quality and Climate Bulletin on Friday. “I think the message is very clear. Overall emissions levels from local pollution sources had reduced but more importantly, there was a reduction in emissions from the entire airshed, so even transport of pollution was addressed. We need a similar strategy for the entire Indo-Gangetic plains now,” said Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director of the Centre for Science and Environment.

How Assam’s cow protection law could devastate the state’s already-stressed rural economy

In a state where more than 70% of its population is still dependent on agriculture for livelihood, the new rules will make cattle trading virtually impossible. Barely three months after the Bharatiya Janata Party was reelected in Assam, the state government moved the Assam Cattle Preservation Bill 2021 to protect cows, a sacred animal for most Hindus. On July 12, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma introduced the Bill to replace the Assam Cattle Preservation Act 1950, claiming that the older legislation does not have sufficient safeguards to regulate the slaughter, consumption and transportation of cattle. The Bill was passed on August 13, the last day of the Budget session. Advertisement The new legislation prohibits the sale and purchase of beef in areas inhabited by non-beef eating communities and within a 5-km radius of a temple or a satra (as Vaishnavite monasteries are called). The legislation further specifies a ban on interstate transport of cattle to and from Assam, without valid documents, ostensibly to stem smuggling of cattle to neighbouring Bangladesh. The newly passed legislation has also banned the slaughter of cows of any age, as opposed to the age of 14 years specified in the earlier law. Declining livestock sector Many fear that the passage of the legislation will make cattle trading virtually impossible because law-enforcement agencies are likely to interpret it arbitrarily and that ambiguities in the clauses will encourage vigilantism. With the passage of new legislation, Assam became the latest entrant to the growing list of states to amend or introduce laws to protect cows since the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government came to power in 2014. Between 2001-2013-’14, the livestock sector was a major driver in the growth of farmers’ income, registering an annual growth of 4.5% over the period. However, the fortunes of the sector have taken a nosedive since the mid-2010s. IndiaSpend detailed the adverse effects of such laws on the livestock economy. Advertisement The growth of beef and leather exports has come to a halt since 2014. The growth in beef exports fell from 35.93% in 2013-’14 to 3.06% in 2017-’18. India is responsible for 13% of the world’s leather production, but the growth in the export of leather and leather products declined from 18% in 2013-’14 to 1.4% in 2017-’18. As more than 70% of the state’s population is still dependent on the agriculture sector for livelihood, compared to less than 50% for all of India, the new law could have a particularly adverse effect on Assam’s rural economy. The latest round of National Sample Survey data shows that the state has experienced negative growth in overall farmer income (-0.34%). The livestock sector is one of the few bright spots in the state that has registered a growth rate of 9.47% in income. The sector’s contribution to the rural income is 12%, next to agriculture (63%) and wage/salary (21%). ‘Demonetisation of assets’ The new legislation is set to change the role that the livestock sector plays in Assam’s beleaguered rural economy. In the state, more than 97% of livestock is in the unorganised sector. Most farmers in the state report that though the cattle they own are of indigenous breeds that have low milk yields, they rely on the additional income they obtain from selling the cattle after they become fallow and stop producing milk, typically after 10 years-12 years of a cow’s life. Advertisement As per the 19th round of Livestock Census conducted in 2012, the state has a cattle population of 1,03,07,700, of which only 3.84% is exotic or crossbreed. The figure at the national level is 20.81%. However, indigenous cattle still account for 54.41% of total milk production in the state. A recent study by Go Anusandhan Sanstha, a cow research institute in Mathura, reported that a milch cow yields an economic return of Rs 85 per day. Unproductive cattle, on the other hand, yield a loss of Rs 60 per day. Unable to dispose of such cattle after the expiry of their productive period, farmers are left with no option but to abandon the cattle. Such disruption, in the words of environmentalist Sunita Narain, amounts to “demonetisation of farm assets as farmers cannot sell the livestock to traders, causing severe loss to his income from such endowment”. The economic burden of fallout from such laws will fall disproportionately on smallholders, many of whom belong to disadvantaged communities. In the state, small and marginal farmers together account for 93.62% of households reporting major sources of income from self-employment in the livestock sector. Many of them belong to disadvantaged communities such as the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes. In Assam, these communities account for 22.73% of households compared with 4.42% at the national level. Shift towards buffaloes The evidence from the latest livestock census shows that the new legislation in Assam is also unlikely to achieve its much-avowed goal of protecting sacred cows as the states with more stringent laws against cow trading and slaughter have witnessed a sharp decline in their cattle populations. Advertisement Stuck with cattle that cannot be disposed of, farmers are increasingly moving towards buffaloes, which is, as in other states, kept outside the ambit of The Assam Cattle Preservation Bill 2021. However, such a shift towards more expensive livestock such as buffaloes and hybrid breeds would more likely get concentrated among relatively better endowed rural households, leading to increased rural inequality. The shock to the livestock sector in the state has come at a most inopportune time. A recent World Bank Document titled “Assam: Poverty, Growth and Inequality” prepared for the state notes that rural poverty is stubbornly high in the state at 34%, which changed little from 36% in the previous decade. The state has also recently secured the ignominy of one of the worst-performing states along with Bihar and Jharkhand in the third edition of Niti Aayog’s Sustainable Development Goals that was unveiled in June. Most rural areas in the state under duress have increasingly witnessed resource-poor rural households undertaking seasonal migration from rural to urban centres, many even outside the state to support their fragile livelihoods. Advertisement If shock from the Covid-induced lockdown is not enough, the new legislation on cow protection could deal a final nail in the coffin of the already-battered rural economy in the state.

A matter of life

Air pollution, a silent killer, eats away almost nine years of a person’s life in north India The people of Delhi in particular and north India in general wake up to a dangerous reality. Air pollution is turning from bad to worse and is making them die early. An American research institute has said the average Indian in this region is going to lose over nine years of his or her life if air pollution remains at the 2019 levels. The worst-polluted region is the Indo-Gangetic plain, including Delhi. About 40 per cent of the population lives here. Delhi is the most polluted where air pollution is shortening life by nearly a decade. Uttar Pradesh is a close second at 9.5 years. Air pollution is enveloping this region like a coffin cloth. The WHO guidelines say that PM 2.5 (particulate matter less than 2.5 microns in diameter) should not go beyond 10 microns per cubic metre. In 2019, the average concentration of PM 2.5 in India was 70 microns per cubic metre — the highest in the world. If these levels continue to hold, they will eat away people’s lives. These particles are ultra-fine and pass through the lungs and, carried by the bloodstream, expose nearly all cells in the body. A Centre for Science and Environment report quoted research papers that these particles cause “head-to-toe harm”, from heart and lung disease to diabetes and dementia and cancer to brittle bones, damaged skin and fertility. Air pollution is said to have caused 1.8 million deaths in 2015, averaging about the same since then. Three factors — garbage burning, construction and transportation — cause air pollution in India. Biomass burning pollutes the air in the rural areas along with seasonal stubble burning. Experts have suggested that garbage burning be tackled first and in the short term. In most Indian cities, over three-fourths of garbage is collected daily. If municipal efficiency is increased to lift the remaining garbage, burning would be avoided and that can reduce air pollution to some extent. Measures are being taken by the Government to check pollution on account of transportation and construction. The National Clean Air Programme is aimed at cutting particulate pollution by at least a third at the 2017 levels by 2024. If that is achieved, national life expectancy may increase by about two years and 3.5 years for residents of the northern region. However, these are massive exercises as the number of vehicles continues to zoom and construction activity sees no contraction at all. On top of it, violation of environmental rules is rampant. It is now imperative to reduce traffic-based air pollution by carpooling and sharing taxis, using bicycles and public transport, owning CNG and electric vehicles, improving road signages for easier driving, lane driving and better roads to avoid jams, and shifting to solar energy. Western countries also faced air pollution in the past but they made progress in the last decades not by chance but as a result of policy choices. That is what every Indian has to make because it is a life-and-death question.

TV namigi: Podnebne spremembe, Dvanajsti mož in Džungla

Dokumentarec o vplivih na podnebne spremembe, zgodba iz II. sv. vojne o porazu, ki je postal simbol junaštva in dogodivščina četverice popotnikov v Boliviji. Podnebne spremembe: Dejstva: TV SLO 2 ob 20.00 Climate Change: The Facts. 2019. 1/2. Režija: Serena Davies. Glavne osebe: David Attenborough, Greta Thunberg, Michael E. Mann, Sunita Narain, Naomi Oreskes. Dok. odd. 60 min. Podnebne spremembe so bile dolgo stvar prihodnosti, toda zdaj podnebje spreminjamo tako hitro, da prvič v zgodovini vidimo tudi posledice. Silovitejše nevihte in poplave, izrazitejši vročinski valovi, naraščanje morske gladine, suše, požari v naravi, tajanje ledenikov...