• Clean Air & Sustainable Mobility

प्रदूषण पर बेअसर है इस बार का लॉकडाउन

सेंटर फॉर साइंस एंड एनवायरनमेंट के विवेक चट्टोपाध्याय के अनुसार, इस लॉकडाउन की विस्तार से स्टडी की जरूरत है। इसके बाद ही चीजें साफ हो पाएंगी। इस बार एक तो हवाएं नई दिल्ली: 2020 के लॉकडाउन में हर तरफ पर्यावरण पर पड़े अच्छे प्रभावों की बात हो रही थी। विजिबिलिटी सुधरने से लोगों को काफी दूर तक की चीजें नजर आ रही थीं। तारे अधिक नजर आ रहे थे। इस बार उस तरह का माहौल नहीं है। एक्सपर्ट का कहना है कि 2020 का लॉकडाउन राष्ट्रव्यापी था। इस वक्त दिल्ली में लॉकडाउन चार हफ्तों से है, लेकिन एनसीआर में यह काफी बाद में प्रभावी हुआ। सेंटर फॉर साइंस एंड एनवायरनमेंट के विवेक चट्टोपाध्याय के अनुसार, इस लॉकडाउन की विस्तार से स्टडी की जरूरत है। इसके बाद ही चीजें साफ हो पाएंगी। इस बार एक तो हवाएं दिल्ली का साथ नहीं दे रही हैं। राजस्थान की धूल लेकर हवाएं निरंतर पहुंच रही हैं। दूसरा प्रदूषण फैलाने वाला ईंधन भी दिल्ली-एनसीआर में काफी अधिक जल रहा है। अब दिल्ली-एनसीआर के काफी शहर में लॉकडाउन है, तो हो सकता है पर्यावरण के लिहाज से कुछ अच्छे नतीजे देखने को मिलें। दिल्ली में लॉकडाउन के बाद भी राजधानी को बेहद खराब दिनों का सामना करना पड़ा है। सफर के मुताबिक, इस समय भी पराली का धुआं, प्रदूषण फैलाने वाले ईंधन की वजह से राजधानी में कुछ दिन प्रदूषण काफी अधिक रहा। कई मौकों पर दूर से हवाओं के साथ आ रही धूल प्रदूषण की वजह बनी तो इन दिनों हर हफ्ते हवाएं और बूंदाबांदी की वजह से प्रदूषण सामान्य स्तर पर बना हुआ है।

• Sustainable Mobility

Autocar Pro’s May 15 edition is about ensuring business continuity, packs a Safety Special too

Autocar Pro’s May 15 edition is about ensuring business continuity, packs a Safety Special too This 56-pager is full of exclusive interviews, deep industry insight and trending stories. Plus, it incorporates the annual 'Safety Special', which comes just before World Road Safety Week (May 17-23) opens. All of this makes the latest edition a compelling read for the weekend and beyond. Let’s first look at what some leading component players are engaged in. Pricol in recast mode, Lumax revs up growth game-plan Coimbatore-based Pricol is headed for a possible recast of the business divisions which will help it to be better prepared to take on mobility challenges of the future. Managing director Vikram Mohan says he is, “keen to invest in technologies and stay ahead of the game.” Gurgaon-based Lumax Industries had hit the pause button on capacity expansion, greenfield site and engineering investments amid the pandemic last year. Now it’s investing Rs 250 crore in Haryana and Gujarat and is also setting up new design studios and Europe and America. Indian Oil expands its energy basket, BS VI-and-beyond virtual conference When the country’s largest oil marketing company makes moves to be future-ready, it will have an impact on the entire country. The keynote speaker at Autocar Professional’s recent BS VI virtual conference, IOCL chairman Shrikant M Vaidya says the company is readying itself to offer any type of fuel that the country may need. Apart from exploring the feasibility of aluminium-air systems for EVs, he feels hydrogen is the fuel of the future but it will take time to make it economically viable and, in this interim, hydrogen-spiked CNG may actually emerge as, “one big game-changer for the auto industry.” April 28-29 was when Autocar Professional held its mega emission virtual conference. Twenty industry stalwarts debated a host of critical issues – it’s all there in our comprehensive 11-page report including: Dr Pawan Goenka on the future growth mantra for India Auto Inc Why a stable long-term emission roadmap is vital EV range and charging infrastructure concerns in the race to zero mobility. Evaluation of BS VI Stage II norms and the role of CAFE norms. Meanwhile, as emission concerns gather steam the world over, Anumita Roychowdhury of the New Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment says stringent benchmark regulation will force improvement in automotive technology and promote greener mobility solutions.

• Sustainable Food Systems

India's infertility war: Exposure to chemicals lowers sperm count, egg quality

India's infertility war: Exposure to chemicals lowers sperm count, egg quality Until about a decade ago, weekdays at the Agatsya Sperm Bank in Rajkot saw men, aged between 20 to 30 years, queue up outside the facility. A quick screening, and the young, athletic, qualified, English-speaking men among them would be picked out. For, it would be certain that they would have sufficient volumes of “healthy swimmers”, enough to be transported to clinics across Gujarat for assisted reproduction. At the time, 70 per cent of the semen samples received were accepted and marked “ready for use”. But that was then, when the Indian sperm was healthy and in abundance. Today, it is the opposite. “Now, 70 per cent of the samples we receive are rejected,” said Dr Yogesh Choksi, a microbiologist who started the facility in 1997. His is the oldest registered cryobank in Gujarat. “Even as the number of donors has, by and large, remained steady, the quality and volume of semen has fallen down sharply,” he said. When Choksi started the bank, he recalls that any given semen sample would range between 3.5ml and 4ml with a sperm count of 80-100 million per millilitre, which was considered normal at the time. That way, it was possible to fill five vials with a single semen sample. But now, “a single semen sample measures between 1ml and 1.5ml and the sperm count remains as low as 15-20mpm,” he said. “We barely get one full vial from a single sample.” Shocking, right? But it is a reality that has been staring us in the face all along. And combined with a decline in testosterone levels in Indian men, it has consequently resulted in the rise in infertility cases. SWIMMERS TAKE A DIP In 2017, researchers in the US concluded that the sperm count of an average man in western countries had fallen by 59 per cent between 1973 and 2011. Next year, researchers at the CSIR-Central Drug Research Institute in Lucknow undertook a similar study, analysing just how steep and continuing the slump was among 6,000 fertile and 7,000 infertile Indian men from 1979 to 2016. The study found that semen parameters in Indian men—including the sperm count, volume and movement—had declined with time and the deterioration was quantitatively higher in the infertile group, with the mean semen volume as low as 0.77ml and the sperm count at 29mpm. Said Rajender Singh, principal scientist (endocrinology) at CSIR-CDRI: “In the same period of study, if we do not distinguish between fertile and infertile men and take them as one cohort, we, in India, have witnessed a decline of 26 per cent in the overall sperm count, from 87mpm in 1979 to 64mpm in 2016.” Yet, what is concerning is not just that the count and quality are declining, but that they are declining below the World Health Organization’s normal reference range of 15mpm. Any value beyond this renders a man infertile. And, clinicians in India are witnessing a large number of men coming to them with complaints of infertility due to a sperm count that “at times falls down to extremely low (oligospermia) or even zero (azoospermia),” said Dr Aditi Dani, fertility consultant at Mumbai’s Masina Hospital. ‘EGGS’ISTENTIAL CRISIS But it is not just men. The ability to conceive a child naturally has taken a hit in both men and women equally. “There is no doubt that an ever increasing number of girls in India are experiencing early puberty,” said Dani, “while women are losing good quality eggs at younger ages than their mothers or grandmothers did.” India, the second most populous country after China, finds itself at the centre of a paradoxical situation: an ever-mushrooming population on one hand and a dramatic year-on-year decline in its fertility rate on the other. A fertility rate of about 2.2—a couple having two children—is generally considered the replacement level, the rate at which the population would hold steady. When the fertility rate dips below this number, the population is expected to decline. As per the National Health Profile 2018, the total fertility rate fell below two children per woman in 12 states, and just about reached replacement levels in nine others. While there is no doubt that family planning has been the chief guiding force behind this, experts believe that the rising incidence of infertility is also to blame. “Infertility is on an alarming rise in India, with the country estimated to be contributing to nearly 25-30 per cent of all couples diagnosed with it the world over,” said Dr Neeta Singh, senior consultant and professor, division of reproductive medicine at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. According to the Indian Society of Assisted Reproduction, one in six couples suffers from infertility, amounting to 27.5 million infertile couples trying for conception. “You can gauge the magnitude of the problem from the patient load at the AIIMS ART Centre,” said Singh. “As per the medical records for 2018-2019, nearly 15 lakh patients consulted the outpatient department, of which 5,468 patients underwent ART (assisted reproductive technology) treatment.” ABC OF EDCs And while the reasons vary—age can be a contributing factor, as can lifestyle issues like stress and obesity—scientists and researchers are more worried about what are called endocrine disrupting chemicals. EDCs represent a broad class of chemicals such as organochlorinated and organophosphate pesticides—used in agriculture and mosquito control—and industrial chemicals, plastics and plasticisers (used to soften plastics) and fuels. They are ubiquitous; EDCs can be found in food wraps and plastic water bottles, even in the perfume you wear, the tap water you drink and cook with, and the air you breathe. And, it is their unrestricted use that is harming our ability to have natural pregnancies. “Their impact becomes even more magnified and frightening for India, as we are witnessing an ever-growing consumerist culture and have relatively easy regulations,” said Dr Kamlesh Sarkar, director, ICMR-National Institute of Occupational Health, Ahmedabad. EDCs essentially interfere with and disrupt the body’s endocrine system that monitors the hormonal balance across different glands. Sex hormones—oestrogen and progesterone in women and androgens including testosterone in men—are essential for reproduction, as are hormones secreted by the pituitary gland and hypothalamus in both men and women. EDCs either block the connection between these hormones and their receptors or increase or decrease their levels in blood. They also mimic the body’s natural hormonal activity and trick the body into blocking the natural hormones from doing their job. Any alteration in the amount or timing of the release of sex hormones in the body can alter a couple’s chances to conceive. That is because if these hormones do not get to the right place at the right time, sperm production or ovulation—both necessary for reproduction—can get hampered. And, infertility is not just an urban issue. In a 2018 paper, Dr Sonia Malik, director of Delhi’s Southend IVF, wrote that villages were reporting higher incidence of infertility owing to the “high use” of fertilisers and pesticides. In some ways, it is not surprising that EDCs cause unfortunate consequences. For instance, since human reproductive processes are similar to those of other species, many pest-control chemicals designed to harm pest reproductive systems also damage human reproductive systems. According to experts, health defects associated with EDCs include a range of reproductive problems, from declining sperm counts and reduced fertility to male and female reproductive tract abnormalities, reduction in the number of healthy eggs in ovarian reserves, loss of foetus, early puberty and menstrual problems. In 2014, professor Kaustubha Mohanty, department of chemical engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, carried out a research on the lingering effects of endosulfan, which was indiscriminately sprayed on cashew plantations in Kerala’s Kasaragod district and caused abnormalities and androgenic defects among children. Ten years after India banned it, it is still found to exist, said Mohanty. “Its residues were detected from air, water and soil. It is becoming increasingly difficult to get it out of the system because of its toxic properties,” he said. Such toxicity goes beyond state borders. In 2006, Rajvi Mehta from Hope Infertility Clinic and Research Foundation, Bengaluru, evaluated 16,714 semen samples from five different cities of India and found that 38.3 per cent men from Kurnool and 37.4 per cent men in Jodhpur showed complete absence of motile sperms. Fifty-one per cent of men in Kurnool suffered from an abnormally low sperm count—the highest reported prevalence in the world, said Mehta. As per the study, a possible link could be established between infertility and high use of pesticides in Kurnool, where cotton is grown as a cash crop. The study, published in the recent issue of the Asian Journal of Andrology, was initiated after the Hope clinic got an unusually high number of referrals for male infertility treatment from Kurnool. “In Jodhpur, there is high level of fluoride in groundwater, and exposure to high fluoride levels has a detrimental effect on the male reproductive system in animals and can also cause disruption of reproductive hormones in men,” the paper said. As per WHO, our exposure to EDCs has increased in the last two-and-a-half decades owing to their increased presence in our environment, be it food, water, air or everyday products. “Most of the EDCs are lipophilic (they can dissolve in fats and oils) and accumulate in the adipose tissue (body fat); thus they have a very long half-life in the body,” said Alka Dubey, programme coordinator, chemical and health, Toxics Link, an NGO that specialises in research on toxic chemicals in India. “Many of these substances either do not decay or decay slowly, while others may be metabolised to compounds that are more toxic than the parent chemicals.” POP GOES THE BUBBLE Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are an example of such chemicals; the name says it all. POPs, such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and organochlorinated pesticides (OCPs), are highly persistent, toxic, and accumulate in the body fat of humans and animals. Endocrine disruption is one of the recently considered consequences of POPs because of their hormone-altering capabilities. Studies have long established how DDT and PCBs (used in electrical equipment and coatings) can impact the growth and function of testicles, leading to abnormal sperm development and male infertility later in life. While the United States has banned DDT, it continues to be used in the fight against malaria and other diseases in India. However, following continuous use, insects have become resistant to it. It has left its footprints though; as early as 2001, Mumbai-based Bhabha Atomic Research Centre found residues of DDT and its metabolites in sediments and fish samples collected from the east and west coasts of India. Moreover, a 2018 report in the Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology said that POPs were found in human breast milk samples collected from Bhatinda and Ludhiana in Punjab. DROWNING IN PLASTIC According to the Endocrine Society, the annual global production of plastics—which is found in almost everything we use and which contains EDCs—has grown from 50 million tonnes to 300 million tonnes since the 1970s. Bisphenols and phthalates are two of the most common EDCs found in plastics; they mimic or interfere with reproduction regulated by oestrogens and androgens. Exposure to bisphenols and phthalates can lead to reduced fertility, pregnancy loss and infertility. Most people are exposed to bisphenol A through food and beverages into which BPA has leached from the container. BPA and its metabolites have been found in urine, blood, saliva, umbilical cord, placenta and amniotic fluid. In a 2018 study, Ruckmani A. from the department of pharmacology, Chettinad Hospital and Research Institute in Chennai, assessed BPA levels in urine samples. The levels were “very high” in the urine of those who consumed food and drink from plastic containers. “Maximum level was seen in those who reused plastics as well as worked with BPA containing materials (9.01ng/ml) and the average level found in this study was higher than the level reported earlier (1.71ng/ml) in the Indian population,” said Ruckmani. “This may be due to the change in food habits, like eating fast food that are served in plastic containers and changes in quality of life.” Dr Neeta Singh Dr Neeta Singh A clear evidence of BPA’s impact on fertility among Indian women was seen in a study carried out by Dr Firuza Parikh of FertilTree International Centre, Jaslok Hospital and Research Centre, Mumbai. Serum and follicular fluid samples were collected from 117 women in the median age of 34 who were seeking treatment for infertility and undergoing oocyte retrieval. The samples were collected during oocyte retrieval. “We found a clear correlation that was very disturbing. Given that in the past two decades, the number of couples coming to us for IVF has substantially increased, we can infer that EDCs have a definite role to play,” said Parikh. Likewise, phthalates are a family of high-volume chemicals added to plastics to increase their flexibility, transparency, elasticity, durability and pliability. There are various forms of phthalates in use; however, DEHP and DnBP are the most commonly used in consumables, be it household items, cosmetics, personal care products, sanitary napkins or plastic toys for children. Toxicological and epidemiological studies have found that some phthalates, especially DnBP and DEHP, have oestrogenic and/or anti-androgenic properties that can lead to reproductive defects. Phthalates are estimated to have a half-life of about 12 hours in the air, 10 to 20 days in the soil and days to weeks in water. Also, as these have relatively high vapour pressure, it can easily get trapped in cloud masses. Thereafter, with rainfall, these phthalates reach and add to the pollutant levels of surface water. In 2011, Ramakant Sahu of the Centre for Science and Environment and his team brought to the fore the chilling presence of phthalates in children’s toys in India. All toy samples showed the presence of one or more phthalates at a concentration ranging from 0.1 per cent to 16.2 per cent. Soft toys contain higher levels of phthalates compared to hard toys, as its primary function is to soften hard plastic. It was only in 2017 that the Bureau of Indian Standards restricted the use of certain phthalates in children’s toys and teethers. “Epidemiological studies have reported that exposure to phthalates leads to decline in male fertility, decreased anogenital distance and testicular dysgenesis (abnormal development) syndrome in male infants alongside other development- and behaviour-related issues,” stated a report by Toxics Link. Another report by the same NGO said that there was a high presence of phthalates in various samples of baby diapers, which, when dumped in garbage bins or landfills, can leach into the soil. A 2014 study published by Mihir Tanay Das (Fakir Mohan University, Odisha), Pooja Ghosh (IIT Delhi) and Indu Shekhar Thakur (Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi) measured the estimated exposure of South Delhi population to 15 different phthalates. It revealed high intake of DnBP and DEHP in the adult urban population in the JNU campus and Okhla. But it is the Thanjavur study that takes the cake. Consider this: something as simple as having hot idli sambar in takeaway polythene bags can pose a risk to your hormonal balance. In a 2016 study, samples of hot sambar and hot tea packed in plastic bags were collected from three major food and drink business centres around Thanjavur, including a tea shop and restaurant. Phthalate leachates were found in sambar, proving that they are highly soluble in oily food; none were found in the tea. Srinivasan K. Srinivasan K. “DEHP, a plasticiser, can migrate from packaging into fatty food, and leaching of plasticisers into food from packaging is the potential danger of this era,” wrote Srinivasan K. of department of food safety and quality testing, along with Singaravadivel K., at the Indian Institute of Food Processing Technology, Thanjavur. Fatty food such as milk, butter and meat are most susceptible to such leachates. “Literature review reveals that there is a correlation between phthalate metabolite concentrations in maternal breast milk and sex hormone concentration in male offspring,” said the researchers. The same year, another study by ICMR-National Institute for Research in Reproductive Health analysed the estimated levels of BPA and phthalates in the plasma of fertile and infertile, non-smoking and non-drinking, urban Indian women, aged 20 to 40 years. BPA was detected in 77 per cent of plasma samples of infertile women and 29 per cent of fertile women. An increasing number of epidemiological studies show a widespread exposure of these chemicals to the general population, including pregnant women, men, children as well as foetuses in India. “The presence of these contaminants in amniotic fluid and cord blood indicates that these may pass transplacentally to the foetus,” read the paper. ”The developing foetus is dependent on sex steroids and thyroid hormones for maturation. These chemicals not only affect the developing embryo, but also have been shown to alter adult ovarian function. Hence, these agents have the potential to disrupt reproductive cyclicity and may also cause trans-generational effects by targeting oocyte maturation and maternal sex chromosomes.” In the ICMR-NIRRH research, the infertile women who showed high levels of EDCs had been diagnosed with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) and endometriosis, two of the most widely reported causes of infertility among women in India. “Almost 30-35 per cent of my patients in the reproductive age group report PCOS, while 20 per cent suffer from the pain of living with endometriosis,” said Mumbai-based infertility specialist Dr Rishma Pai. In his 2015 study, ‘Endometriosis: the clinical experience of 500 patients from India’, Dr Rahul Gajbhiye, head, Clinical Research Lab & Andrology Clinic at ICMR-NIRRH in Mumbai, stated that 2.6 crore women in India suffer from endometriosis. “In the cohort of women with endometriosis, 66 per cent women either had primary or secondary infertility and 33 per cent had history of miscarriage,” stated the study. Is there a link between EDCs and endometriosis? In 2006, Dr B.S. Reddy, department of reproductive medicine, Bhagwan Mahavir Medical Research Centre in Hyderabad, evaluated the possible association between phthalate esters—EDCs used as plasticisers in nail polishes, hair sprays, solvents and perfumes—and the occurrence of endometriosis in Indian women. He collected blood samples from 49 infertile women with endometriosis and compared it with women free from the disease. The study clearly showed that “women with endometriosis showed significantly higher concentrations of phthalates, thereby suggesting that they may be causing endometriosis in Indian women”. It is similar with PCOS, too. “In humans, cross-sectional data suggests that BPA concentrations are higher in women with PCOS than in reproductively healthy women,” said Dubey of Toxic Links. BPA, she added, also disrupts normal metabolic activity, making the body prone to obesity. “In women undergoing IVF, those with the top 25 per cent body load of BPA levels were 211 per cent more likely to have implantation failure,” said Dr Pallavi Priyadarshini of Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani hospital, Mumbai. KEEP CALM AND ‘CARRY’ ON Long before EDCs gained attention, experts have been warning about the impact of a hectic lifestyle on libido and sex drive among young Indian couples. Chitramani Mukhopadhyay, a fashion designer from Kolkata, was frustrated at not being able to conceive after three years of marriage. All their tests were normal. It was the stress, they later figured. “But it is the chicken and egg situation. We are stressed, which is leading to infertility, which, in turn, is causing us more stress,” she said, almost laughing. A study by the department of clinical psychology at Manipal University in 2016 found that 80 per cent of women had infertility-specific stress. The level of cortisol and alpha-amylase in saliva can be considered as a major biomarker of stress and anxiety. A 2018 research conducted by Barnali Ray Basu from the department of physiology, Surendranath College in Kolkata found that “increased salivary cortisol levels were seen in the PCOS population, suggesting a sustained stress scenario in their system. Men, too, suffer from a ‘dip in the mood’ resulting from hectic work routines”. A 2020 report by ADP India, a global payroll and compliance expertise company, based on a survey of 1,908 workers in India, stated that stress levels among the Indian workforce were significantly higher than the Asia-Pacific average of 60 per cent. “I have clearly seen the change in the sperm count among our regular donors when they come to us after a vacation,” said Agatsya bank’s Choksi. “It is significantly higher and an indication of how everyday stress lowers the libido and sperm count in men. Curiously, most either do not believe it or simply brush it aside.” A case in point: Arnav Nawadh. Only after speaking to his andrologist did the 30-year-old realise that his sperm count and motility were dropping drastically because of regular hardcore gym workouts and sauna, along with holding up a stressful bank job. Dr Aditi Dani Dr Aditi Dani In the case of Simaira Vipuldas and her husband, stress was a major factor contributing to their inability to conceive naturally. So, Simaira quit her job as a customer relationship manager with a leading publishing company. “Throughout the years I worked, I gained close to 20kg due to the erratic lifestyle,” she said. “Work pressure and the accompanying exhaustion resulting from daily travel further added to the stress. I knew I had to prioritise having a child, else it won’t work out ever.” It took the couple six years to conceive after Simaira was diagnosed with PCOS. As per a study by the PCOS Society in India, one in every 10 women has PCOS and resulting infertility. “PCOS is undeniably a lifestyle-related problem and it is the number one reason for infertility among women,” said Dr Shashank Joshi, vice president, PCOS Society of India. In the past two-and-a-half decades, there has been a complete shift in the infertility picture in India, said Dani of Masina Hospital. “Back when I started my practice, India reported infertility cases that were direct, in the sense that they had a clear medical or biological cause,” she said. “But now, we are observing a very lifestyle-related infertility that stems from increasing age, late marriages due to career goals, putting family planning on the back burner and from the kind of chemicals and pollutants we are exposed to.” Women as young as 25 have very few good quality eggs left, she added. “The thing is that now in men and women, the ratio of hormones is itself being attacked. The ratios are being changed by the way the chemicals interact with the hormones in-utero,” said Dani. This has led to the coinage of ‘unexplained infertility’, an oft-used term these days. This happens when all other biological and medical parameters are normal, yet a couple cannot conceive even after a full year of trying. “In over 25 per cent of infertility cases, no detectable cause can be traced after routine tests, which leaves the case as unexplained infertility,” said Dr Naina Kumar, department of obstetrics and gynaecology, Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, Wardha, Maharashtra, in her research on trends in male factor infertility. After four miscarriages, Abha Devdutta was thrilled when her next pregnancy progressed easily to 12 weeks. She was 35 then. But when she went to get herself checked for any chromosomal abnormalities in the foetus, it was found that she had once again lost the baby. Devastated, the couple has since given up on parenthood. “It is bewildering, because each of our tests has come out normal and we have no medical or biological problems at all,” she said. She has now switched to a simple and healthy lifestyle—no more junk food, late night bingeing on food and flicks, no hoarding of plastics at home. “At present, we are taking each day as it comes,” she said. “Until we think of trying once again, we are enjoying the love of our nephews and nieces.” In India, about 10-20 per cent of known pregnancies end in miscarriage. “Yes, we are observing more miscarriages now than a decade or so ago,” said Parikh. “But it is not just related to women. Even if female fertility, as is common knowledge, has a best before date of 35, while the fertility shelf life for men extends to 45-50 years, we are now learning that as the semen quality is going down, the risk of miscarriages is going up because of bad sperm.” A lot of that has to do with smoking, said Dr Kshitiz Murdia, cofounder and CEO of Indira IVF. “Several studies have shown that in comparison to non-smokers, active smokers have 14 per cent more chances of suffering from infertility and 30 per cent more chances of early menopause,” he said. Puffs aside, another addiction that may impact our reproductive health is our device dependence. Radiations from cell phones, laptops, Wi-Fi or microwave ovens may affect sperm development and quality. “Studies reveal that exposure to cell phones, microwave ovens, laptops or Wi-Fi produces deleterious effects on the testes, which may affect sperm count, morphology, motility, an increased DNA damage…,” wrote Dr Ashok Agarwal, director of research at the American Centre for Reproductive Medicine at Cleveland Clinic, in his research on effects of non-ionising radiations that come from cell phones, laptops and microwaves. The next time someone chides you for propping the laptop on your lap, just heed their advice. For, Agarwal and his team have found that the exposure of sperms to a wireless internet-connected laptop decreased motility. “To our knowledge, this is the first study to evaluate the direct impact of laptop use on human spermatozoa,” he said. “Keeping a laptop connected wirelessly to the internet on the lap near the testes may result in decreased male fertility.” He rued the fact that there is limited research on protective measures. THE WAR WITHIN T. Velpandiyan, professor at AIIMS, is currently concluding a study where he and his team are trying to figure out which type of EDCs are present in excess in water resources in NCR and its impact on citizens, as when water gets contaminated, it can easily get into the food cycle. He revealed that soya milk contributes to infertility, too, as it contains a compound called genistein, which is a mimic of actual oestrogen hormone, and hence is also called as phytoestrogen. “If any male takes it then he will slowly have a lesser sperm count and reduced libido,” he said. Until a point, the chemicals, including bisphenols, get metabolised in the body as the body has a detoxifying mechanism. Beyond that, when the concentration of these chemicals exceeds the prescribed limits, problems come up. But these limits are set by European and WHO standards; India has no such prescribed limits. Velpandiyan and his team are trying to rectify that. But the problem is that many of these EDCs in India are non-degradable. With our tropical climate, any toxin is expected to degrade, said Pandiyan. “But shockingly, many get accumulated in groundwater and borewells and thereby enter the food chain,” he said. “While in China, they know the levels of each and every chemical and the contamination it causes, in India, we have not done such research. We do know that there is a large presence of EDCs but not exactly in what measurements do they contribute to human health damage. One reason for this is whenever we apply for such research, the funding agency seems uninterested.” Alka Dubey Alka Dubey Also, India has been dragging its feet on regulating the EDCs. It did so with regulations regarding pesticides in carbonated water. That was despite the Centre for Science and Environment twice finding high levels of pesticides and insecticides—high enough to cause birth defects, damage to reproductive systems and severe disruption of the immune system—in soft drinks sold in India, including market leaders Pepsi and Coca Cola. It was only three years after the second study in 2006 that the health ministry notified standards for pesticide levels in carbonated water. “In the past, we had found pesticides in bottled water and soft drinks, which meant that companies were not taking adequate measures to avoid their presence,” said Amit Khurana of CSE. “It also told us that pesticides are present in groundwater. We had also found pesticides in the blood of farmers, which means that pesticides can accumulate in our bodies.” He added that while it was clear that pesticide misuse is common in Indian agriculture, “even those pesticides that are considered hazardous are not regulated the way they should be”. The same is the case with phthalates. “As awareness regarding these among people grows, some cosmetic and children toy brands, for instance, are proactively mentioning their products as paraben- and phthalate-free,” said Das of Fakir Mohan University. “But there is no regulation mandating that products be phthalate-free or within certain limits.” But India is taking baby steps. Take, for instance, the perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAs), yet another group of EDCs that are used widely in industrial applications in India, from fire-fighting foams to non-stick pans and textile coatings. A 2008 study found significant PFAS levels in breast milk of women from Chidambaram, Kolkata and Chennai. Last September, BIS announced that it was developing a framework for regulating PFAS by adopting international standards. “We are controlling the use of EDCs by prescribing the limits specified in the relevant Indian standards that are referred to in various regulations,” said Nagamani T., head, petroleum, coal and related products department, BIS. “Toys (Quality Control) Order, 2020, is one of the best examples in this regard.” But do these regulations make real impact? Take, for instance, the Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016, which was passed the same year as the sambar study publication, increasing the minimum thickness of plastic bags from 40 to 50 microns. However, as Srinivasan said, “Only thing is that the possibility of leaching of phthalates will be less if the plastic bags are above 50 microns. But most of the plastic covers in which we get food, as per my observations, are well below this limit.” Infertility issues have always been there, but they were never this grave or alarming. While the food we eat, the water we drink, the air we breathe, the stress we take and our sleep patterns all contribute to infertility, the most crucial factor is the one that has penetrated every aspect of our lives—endocrine disrupting chemicals. Time for a pregnant pause?

• Water Programme

Centre for Science & Environment to organise online training on water audit and conservation in industries from July 19 - August 1

This training has been designed with an objective to provide a wider understanding on the aspects of water audit, advanced treatment technologies, wastewater management and recycling. ''Increasing industrial production especially in water intensive industries is already putting pressure on the limited freshwater resources in India as well as worldwide. This coupled with increased water demand from other sectors like infrastructure development, agriculture, domestic, etc. is leading to major conflicts over water availability. Sourcing water and managing wastewater is becoming increasingly difficult & expensive and hence is an important aspect for sustainability of any industry. Industries which are heavily dependent on water for their production have to cut down on their production at times due to scarcity of water. Therefore, it is very critical that industries use water judiciously and reduce its water footprint as much as possible in order to be sustainable in future,'' Centre for Science & Environment said in its brochure. It further said that water use optimization, improving water accounting systems, identifying water losses and opportunities for water savings can serve as an effective approach for reducing water consumption. Also, efficient wastewater treatment technologies and recycling and reuse practices can further bring down consumption and effluent generation. Further, substantial costs which are associated with water & wastewater management like water sourcing, cost of pumping (energy), cost of water treatment (chemicals), cost of effluent treatment & disposal, etc. can be effectively reduced through better water and wastewater management and through periodic conduction of water audits. ''Understanding the relevance of the subject, CSE has developed a two-week online course (12 hours per week) on water audit and conservation in industries. The online course is self-paced wherein pre-recorded video sessions from experts, presentations and other reading material will be uploaded on CSE’s online training platform on a daily basis. Additionally, 2-3 live online sessions will be organised with all the experts for taking up queries over the weekend,'' it added.

• Climate Change and Green Economy

Indian economists and activists talk climate change and India’s COVID-19 response

A panel of Indian economists and activists discussed India’s COVID-19 outbreak and environmental crises during a virtual event Wednesday. The panelists addressed health concerns India faces from climate change and the spread of the coronavirus, prompting solutions like governmental reform and improvements for sanitation infrastructure. The Institute for International Economic Policy and the Sigur Center for Asian Studies hosted the event – which was moderated by Jay Shambaugh, the co-director of the institute. Sunita Narain, the director general for the Centre for Science and Environment, said India is facing conditions similar to an “apocalypse” as devastating coronavirus outbreaks in the country have left at least a quarter of a million people dead. She said Indians need to understand why the country failed to effectively fight COVID-19 in order to ensure the country is ready for larger issues like climate change. “There’s a human tendency to say ‘let’s not discuss the causes, let’s not discuss the fundamental reasons right now – right now we just need to talk about how we move ahead,’” she said. “You can only move ahead when you understand the nature of the crisis that has brought you to this.” Narain said in addition to the pandemic, India is facing an imminent crisis in climate change due to its dependence on the monsoons, which have become increasingly inconsistent every year. The monsoon season, which runs from June to September, is vital for the growth of crops like rice and soybeans as a decrease in crop production harms India’s economy, she said. Laveesh Bhandari, a senior fellow at The Centre for Social and Economic Progress, said he fears the Indian government will be unable to respond to climate change issues as it failed to listen to experts during the COVID-19 outbreak. He said the government needs to be able to listen to both global experts and those in the Indian private sector in order to adequately solve large-scale climate issues. “What we did not do in the case of COVID, we haven’t been doing in the case of the environment,” he said. “That’s something that we know is a classic problem: we are unable to work with the private sector, we are unable to listen to expertise.” Bhandari said India’s ineffective response to the pandemic is partially to blame as too much power is centralized with the prime minister, complicating the country’s ability to address mass health emergencies like the COVID-19 outbreaks. He said India needs more local forms of government, like mayors in cities, that allow for a more specialized response to crises depending on the region. “Essentially, the Indian constitution still tends to follow a very basic, colonial style of power allocation,” he said. “I think we do need to get into a more disaggregated mode, and one important part of that is, for the cities at least, a mayoral form of government at the city level.” Muthukumara Mani, a lead economist for the World Bank, said water contamination and health problems caused by climate change may have directly affected India’s COVID-19 crisis by further weakening Indians’ health and worsening symptoms. He said environmental sanitation programs like Swachh Bharat, which aims to safely manage waste throughout India, are effective but not enough to handle India’s environmental problems. “Air pollution continues to be a major challenge in the country and may have even exaggerated the COVID impacts,” he said. “Although we have made some progress in sanitation through the Swachh Bharat campaign, water quality continues to be of major concern and so is water security.” Mani said resources in India should be used to assist in decreasing COVID-19 cases and to ensure vaccination availability for all Indians before taking on climate change issues and rebuilding its economy. “The priority right now in India should be on health and health alone,” he said.

• Solid Waste Management and Circular Economy

Branded Content: Hyundai Creta - Paws and effect

A hospitality industry professional, along with Panaji’s Civic Commissioner, is making the city a model worthy of emulating in animal welfare. We drive down to Goa in the All New Hyundai Creta to learn more about their work. Ventilated seats are a wonderful thing, especially when you are on a long drive at the height of the Indian summer. The large, ‘air conditioned’ seats are not the only features you appreciate in the All New Hyundai Creta. There is also the full-length panoramic sunroof, the premium Bose sound system and the slick 10.25-inch touchscreen; the airy cabin that has been created out of tastefully chosen material; and the legroom at the rear. All of these come together to provide an experience unlike any other when you are out on the road as we are right now. And each passing kilometre is evidence of Hyundai’s ability to set the bar ever higher. The subjects of this story are also high achievers – one is the Commissioner of the Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) and the other, a hospitality industry professional. The two have come together to make Goa’s capital worthy of emulating when it comes to animal welfare. The journey of Sanjit Rodrigues and Sanchita Banerjee-Rodrigues, too, began, about decades ago, and our destination is the Panjim Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) where we expect to learn more about it. Sanjit Rodrigues describes PAWS as a movement that came through because of cooperation between citizens and the government. “I’d term it as a C to G and G to C initiative — citizens to government and government to citizens. It represents a partnership between animal welfare organisations, animal lovers and citizens who can donate,” says Rodrigues. PAWS existed as an informal animal shelter in the late 1990s, but it all really started coming together over a decade and a half ago during Rodrigues’ earlier stint as CCP Commissioner. Rodrigues was the spearhead of Bin Free 2003, a city revitalisation and solid waste management programme that focused on behavioural change among its residents, community engagement, and door-to-door waste collection and waste segregation at source. The campaign steadily built up momentum, and within a decade, Panjim became a zero-landfill, bin-free city. In 2016, it bagged the Centre for Science and Environment’s Clean City Award. But, in its early days, it threw up a concomitant problem — dog bites. “With their major source of food gone, street dogs started getting aggressive and there were several reports of dog bites. That’s how initiatives such as PAWS came into the picture,” says Rodrigues. Sanchita Banerjee-Rodrigues is the beating heart of PAWS, and it is apparent the moment she drives into the dog shelter that is located on Avenido Teofilo Braga. She soaks in the affection of the dogs at the centre and reciprocates it in equal measure. Running a dog shelter involves more than just loving dogs to bits. One doesn’t just take care of abandoned dogs — there are also injured dogs, dogs with skin infections, blind dogs, old dogs and pups. Dogs have to sterilised and treated and spayed and fed, and there has to be constant communication with a network of volunteers. It requires both, patience and an ability to manage people and time, and her experience as a former bureaucrat probably comes in handy. About a decade ago, Sanchita, a hospitality industry professional, took a break from her job to join the then Goa Chief Minister, the late Manohar Parikkar’s office as a press liaison officer, and continued to work with him when he became defence minister. She also served as an Officer on Special Duty to the Minister of Textiles, Smriti Irani, before heading back to Goa to resume her job with a luxury hotel chain. “Running a dog shelter is like solving a jigsaw puzzle every day. It is also a community effort. Everyone chips in — the land belongs to the government, restaurants supply us with food waste, vets donate their time, and we have volunteers who feed stray dogs across the city. We cook food for over 200 dogs here, both, at the centre which are yet to be adopted or cured, and for many other street dogs in Panjim,” says Sanchita, who, at times, drives off late at night to rescue dogs injured in accidents. Sanchita, whose long association with PAWS has seen her graduate from volunteer to trustee, says that efforts such as thorough documentation and constant follow-ups have paid rich dividends. “For the last three years, no rabies cases have been reported in Panjim,” she says. Panjim is mostly a nice city to drive in. It has wide boulevards lined with acacia and Gulmohar trees; the Latin Quarter of Fontainhas with its narrow lanes and colourful homes; and brightly lit cafes with a view of the ocean. The All New Hyundai is equally at home in Panjim, as it is on the highways that brought it here, and all it takes is a quick drive in the Creta to understand why it has been the ultimate SUV for over half a decade. The SUV’s refined 115hp, 1,493cc BS6 diesel engine has a broad spread of torque available across the rev range, which helps it swallow highways as well as adapt to city traffic. The All New Hyundai Creta’s ride is composed and well-planted, irrespective of the kind of terrain you are on. A special mention must be made here about the clutch and gear-shift action that is possibly amongst the smoothest around, and the Blue Link connected car system, which, with over 50 connectivity features, integrates technology seamlessly into the time consumers spend on the road.

• Down To Earth

India and the elusive demographic dividend

As this ‘pandemic generation’ joins the workforce in an economy that is failing to provide adequate employment opportunities to its current strength, India’s chances of levering upon its demographic dividend are soon becoming obscure. There is little to no hope that things will be any different moving forward. India has long been touted as the next big economic growth story after China. One of the primary reasons for that has been its young population. The hope has remained that as the young Indian population enters the working age, it will lead to higher economic growth – a demographic dividend. The window began in 2018 when the working age population began to grow larger than its dependent population – children aged 14 years or below and people above 65 years of age. It is expected to last for 37 years until 2055. But will India manage to gain through this bulging working population? The link between population changes and economic growth has been a long-standing curiosity. It can be traced back to Thomas Malthus’ infamous treatise from 1798 where he argued that human population had a tendency to outstrip all possible means of subsistence, which keeps the world eternally trapped in poverty. Thus, human population and economic growth were tied in a zero-sum game limited by the availability of food. This observation was true in the world around Malthus as it was constrained by the fixed resources for growing food and slow technological progress. But recent history has proved Malthus wrong. Since the end of the Second World War, global population has more than doubled and the per capita GDP of the world has risen by over five times. The rapid technological progress in the post-Malthusian world has made population an asset rather than a burden. Many Asian economies — including Japan, South Korea, and China — were able to benefit from the rise in their working population. This has been possible in the modern world due to fall in fertility rates through contraceptive usage and increase in life expectancy through scientific advancements in modern medicine. And these Asian economies managed to engage their population in productive employment, which enabled sustained periods of high growth. So, the expectations from India have been immense to reap similar demographic dividends. But the mere existence of technology in the modern world is not sufficient to overcome the Malthusian trap. There are two further prerequisites: ample availability of productive employment and the capability to make use of available technologies. India is lacking on both fronts. Even before the Covid-19 pandemic hit, unemployment levels in India had hit a 45-year high. As of 2017-18, only half of the people in the working age were actually working. In 2004-05, the same proportion was 63.7 per cent. Moreover, the troubled scenario of education and skills is evident from the Pratham surveys that are released each year. In 2018, it showed that just half of the children in the 5th standard could read a text from the 2nd standard. The pandemic has worsened the situation. The latest State of India’s Environment report released by the Centre for Science and Environment finds that an astounding 375 million children may suffer long-lasting impacts due to the pandemic including being underweight and stunted, which will lead to losses in education and economic productivity. Government programmes like mid-day meal schemes, which encouraged school enrolment have taken a hit during the pandemic. Even those students who managed to remain enrolled have face difficulties in accessing education due to the vast digital divides across income groups. As this ‘pandemic generation’ joins the workforce in an economy that is failing to provide adequate employment opportunities to its current strength, India’s chances of levering upon its demographic dividend are soon becoming obscure. There is little to no hope that things will be any different moving forward. The possibility of India falling into a ‘middle-income trap’ are higher than the chances of reaping a demographic dividend. Countries fall into a ‘middle-income trap’ because they easily escape abject poverty in early stages of development through simple mobilization of labour and capital. But once these gains are made, a different level of institutional quality is required. As the economy matures, the need for complex contracts, smooth enforcement, and effective regulation are needed. If institutional capacity is weak to enable these processes, growth stalls. India has failed to strengthen the foundations of state institutions. In 2017, Lant Pritchett and other researchers at the Harvard Kennedy School made an assessment of state capability from 1996 to 2012 for 102 countries. They found that the state capability in India had worsened over that period. Their study implied that countries like India are stuck in a “capability trap” where they know the destination and the route needed to be taken but lack the ability to implement the strategy to do so. The repercussions of the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic showcase this inability in the most unfortunate manner. Pages after pages have been filled on what India needs to do over the last few decades in the hope of benefiting from its demographic dividend when the moment arrives. The moment is here, and the country is nowhere near shifting its economic trajectory. Malthus’ pessimism with population seems to be more appropriate today than any demographic optimism.

• Clean Air & Sustainable Mobility

Koronawirus w Indiach: smog przyspiesza rozwój katastrofy

Za kryzys w Indiach odpowiadają nie tylko błędy polityczne i przedwczesne ogłoszenie wygranej z wirusem. Wg badań za 15% zgonów związanych z Covid-19 odpowiada pył zawieszony. Według danych Światowej Organizacji Zdrowia niemal połowa wszystkich przypadków i jedna czwarta wszystkich zgonów spowodowanych przez COVID-19 zgłoszonych na całym świecie w zeszłym tygodni dotyczyła Indii. Pandemia sieje spustoszenie na całym świecie, nie ulega jednak wątpliwości, że to właśnie Indie zmagają się z poważnym kryzysem humanitarnym. Anumita Roychowdhury, dyrektor wykonawczy ds. badań i rzecznictwa w Centrum Nauki i Środowiska w Delhi uważa, że indyjskie miasta są wyjątkowo narażone na zarażenia koronawirusem z powodu ogromnego zanieczyszczenia powietrza. „Rozumiemy, że wpływ pandemii może być większy w zanieczyszczonych regionach, gdzie płuca ludzi zostały już osłabione z powodu długotrwałego narażenia” – powiedziała Roychowdhury. Skala zanieczyszczeń jest potężna, co udowadniają statystyki: w 2019 roku aż 1,67 milionów zgonów w Indiach było wynikiem zanieczyszczenia powietrza, co stanowiło niemal 20% wszystkich zgonów. Jeden z artykułów opublikowanych w grudniu w czasopiśmie naukowym Cardiovascular Research wykazał, że chroniczne narażenie na pył zawieszony, będącego rodzajem zanieczyszczenia, które stanowi wynik mieszanki chemikaliów pochodzących ze źródeł takich jak kominy i pożary, z dużą dozą prawdopodobieństwa jest powiązane z około 15% globalnych zgonów na COVID-19. Pył zawieszony pochodzi z różnych źródeł, ale według autorów badania spalanie paliw kopalnych odpowiada za ponad 50% zgonów spowodowanych COVID-19 związanych z zanieczyszczeniem powietrza. Czytaj też: Dlaczego koronawirus jest groźniejszy w zanieczyszczonych miastach? Wstępne badanie przeprowadzone przez Malaviya National Institute of Technology w Jaipur w Indiach wykazało korelację między przypadkami COVID-19 a zanieczyszczeniem powietrza oraz warunkami klimatycznymi, takimi jak wiatr i wilgotność, w Delhi. Z kolei jak wynika z artykułu Banku Światowego, opracowanego na bazie danych z Indii, „1-procentowy wzrost długoterminowego narażenia na pyły zawieszone prowadzi do wzrostu liczby zgonów z powodu COVID-19 o 5,7 punktu procentowego”. Autorzy artykułu uważają, że poprawa jakości powietrza jest kluczowym czynnikiem w walce z pandemią. W konkluzji zalecono szereg rozwiązań, również środowiskowych, takich jak promocja czystszych źródeł energii i zmniejszenie zanieczyszczenia pochodzącego z transportu, obok dość oczywistych porad, dotyczących szczepień i noszenia masek. Premier Wielkiej Brytanii Boris Johnson i premier Indii Narendra Modi podczas niedawnego wirtualnego spotkania zadeklarowali pogłębienie łączących oba państwa relacji w zakresie działań klimatycznych. Efektem spotkania ma być wspólny plan działania, obejmujący środki mające na celu ograniczenie globalnego wzrostu temperatury, ochrony lasów oraz wsparcie społeczności najbardziej narażonych na wpływ zmiany klimatu. Listopadowy szczyt COP26, czyli tegoroczna Konferencja Narodów Zjednoczonych w sprawie zmian klimatu, jest odległy, a konieczność podjęcia natychmiastowych działań środowiskowych w Indiach – paląca, nie tylko z uwagi na klimat, ale również pandemię.

• Industrial Pollution

In Odisha, funds meant for mining-affected communities are being diverted to urban areas

Those living in mining areas have been seeking assistance for basic amenities for decades. During the latest budget Session of Odisha’s Legislative Assembly, the Odisha government’s Cabinet in March approved several proposals but the one that raised eyebrows was to use the District Mineral Foundation funds, meant for the mining-affected community in the Sundergarh district, for construction of an international stadium in Rourkela town. The proposed international stadium has been envisioned to host the Men’s Hockey World Cup 2023. This misuse of the funds is not a one-off incident, but there have been many similar trends over the years. In 2017, in the Jharsuguda district, the district administration sanctioned works related to the power supply to the Jharsuguda airport with an investment of more than Rs 20 crore squeezed from the District Mineral Foundation funds. In another mining district of Keonjhar, the district administration in 2019-’20 sanctioned works for a handball stadium, and invested around Rs 5,00,000 for a patient facilitation centre for Cuttack-based medical college which is around 200-km away from Keonjhar. In January 2020, the administration of the Sundergarh district bought 25 cars with the District Mineral Foundation funds for them to be used as patrolling vans by the police in Rourkela city, a non-mining affected area. Earlier, even integrated traffic management was sponsored with the funds. In the same district, the funds were also used to construct the boundary walls of the Circuit House. The list of instances where the funds were used for works that had nothing to do with the welfare of the mining-affected communities goes on. This, experts warn, is worrisome because this comes at a time when the state’s own people living in the mining-affected areas are crying for attention and seeking help for basic amenities in their areas after living in poor and vulnerable conditions for decades. This is important because according to the Union Coal and Mines Minister Pralhad Joshi, Odisha has seen the highest collection of Rs 11,984 crore as District Mineral Foundation collections from the miners operating in the state since the inception of funds in 2015. Advertisement The Odisha government recently told the state Assembly that the District Mineral Foundation collections in the state are rising in the state. While it was Rs. 395.44 crore in 2015-2019, in 2019-’20 the total annual collections stood at Rs 3,079.20 crore. Though Odisha has a significant amount of the funds what is probably lacking is the provision of transparency related to their use. For instance, Rule 16 of the Odisha DMF Rules talks about sharing the annual report of the District Mineral Foundation trust on its website but hardly any annual reports have been uploaded online for several years. Odisha’s DMF Rules mandates the usage of 60% of the funds in priority areas while 40% of them could be used in non-priority areas. The non-priority areas included investments in physical infrastructure, irrigation, energy and watershed development, afforestation and others. Queries sent to PK Jena, who is the Odisha government’s secretary for the planning and convergence department, regarding the diversion of DMF funds for other purposes remained unanswered. A coal-mined area in the Talcher region. Photo credit: Pramit Karmakar Pranav Sachdeva, a lawyer with the Supreme Court who has handled many mining cases in the apex court emphasised that Odisha and many states have attempted to dilute the very concept of the funds by diverting it to areas other than the mining-affected areas. “As mining firms grow, the local community impacted by mining does not get any benefit from the money collected … in fact the local environment is impacted too,” he said. “But the governments often diverts these important resources away from the vulnerable community. They try to use the funds for works where ideally budgetary allocations should have been used. These funds were planned for the upliftment of the affected community for their health, education, livelihood and others and many portions land in urban areas.” Pollution mess According to the 2011 Census, about 1.62 million people (50 percent) in the Sundergarh district belong to Scheduled Tribes and many live in rural areas. This area is adjacent to the Chhattisgarh border and known for coal mining and other minerals for decades. But what is consistently ignored is the plight of the communities impacted by mining. For instance, Naresh Meher, a resident of Ratanpur village in Gopalpur panchayat in Sundergarh district, said that people in his village are living in pathetic conditions due to mining taking place about 10-km away. He said that the levels of air pollution, water pollution and sound pollution have taken a huge toll on his village. “Around 3,000 trucks cross our village every day,” said Meher, who himself is a tuberculosis patient. “Thick levels of dust often engulf our standing crops while polluted water is discharged from the handpumps. Several of the citizens here live with skin diseases, cancer and other diseases triggered by mining activities.” Advertisement But this is not the end of their poor fate as his village is now listed to be taken away for mining. Social activist Suru Mishra from Sundergarh said that in the Hemgiri block in the district, a stretch of 25 km of road connects the mining centres of Sundergarh with Chhattisgarh and passes through several villages but even then the roads are in extremely bad shape. “You cannot walk on that road,” Mishra told Mongabay-India. “Only trucks and heavy vehicles run on that road. There are very big potholes and the whole stretch gets waterlogged making it very difficult for the local communities to commute or for kids to use that to go to schools.” Both, Meher and Mishra, said that these areas and many other mining-affected areas need government attention to improve their standards of lives. They also said that the Hemgiri Community Health Centre is still deprived of a digital X-ray facility and ultrasound facility and other medical facilities but the government has spent several portions of the DMF funds in boosting the District Headquarter Hospital, which is in an urban area. The provision of District Mineral Foundation funds – to be collected from miners – were introduced in January 2015 by the government of India through an amendment in the country’s mining laws for all districts affected by mining-related operations. In the Talcher region of the Angul district, the villagers living in areas close to the coal mining and coal washery units are left to suffer from the discharge of untreated water directly into the farmlands of the village. Similarly, in the Bansapal and Joda blocks of the Keonjhar district, the villagers are facing the crisis of polluted groundwater, a result of mining activities. This has also forced many women to walk for miles every day to fetch drinking water. Funds diverted Experts working on the issue of mining in Odisha and other states claim that the funds are now easily diverted for other priority areas and urban areas despite it being illegal and mining-affected communities crying for help. Sankar Prasad Pani, a lawyer with the National Green Tribunal said, “In districts like Keonjhar, the salaries of doctors are now being paid through the funds which should ideally be coming from the state’s budgetary allocations.” “Collectors find the funds sometimes hard to dispense and thus divert it for numerous urban-centric works,” he said. “But they are not annual budget funds, they can be accumulated and do not lapse. They can be used when needed. The need is to make priority-based plans to aid the mining-affected people.” Ramesh Agarwal, a leading Indian environmentalist based in Raigarh in Chhattisgarh said, “The rules of funds have been framed in such a way that the district collector gets the power to sanction the funds with the approval of the local District Mineral Foundation committee. In many states, we have seen diversion of the funds to other areas which is not going to affect the mining hit communities.” A woman finds it tough to walk on a dilapidated road in the Hemgir block of Sundergarh district in Odisha. Photo credit: Special arrangement A study conducted by the New Delhi-based think tank Centre for Science and Environment on the usage of the District Mineral Foundation funds in different mining districts of Odisha found that despite lower social and health indicators the allocation of the funds on the issue of livelihood and other areas had not been much, say for example in Sundergarh district. “In Sundergarh, one of Odisha’s top mining districts, a negligible Rs 3 crore has been provided for child development out of the district’s Rs 745 crore sanctions. This is at a time when the under-five mortality rate in rural areas of the district is as high as 67, and nearly 50% of the children below this age are victims of stunted growth,” the report said. Advertisement Srestha Banerjee, Programme Head, International Forum for Environment, Sustainability & Technology, who played a key role in producing the Centre for Science and Environment report, said the constitution of the District Mineral Foundation committee in the districts is one of the main problems. “The District Mineral Foundation Committee in the districts have been formed in such a way that the local politicians including the parliamentarians and legislators exert more power in the decision making on the spending of the funds in their areas,” Banerjee told Mongabay-India. “The mining laws permit the administration to use part of the funds for administration works, but when the mining hit communities need attention for their upliftment and diversion of these funds to urban areas and for other similar works sounds less logical.” She said that livelihood and income generation of the rural poor population living in the mining-affected areas need to get a priority under the District Mineral Foundation fund allocations. She also demanded that the funds should be spent based on priority areas rather than in a haphazard manner as it is happening presently in many mining districts of Odisha.

• Down To Earth

View: India and the elusive demographic dividend

India has long been touted as the next big economic growth story after China. One of the primary reasons for that has been its young population. The hope has remained that as the young Indian population enters the working age, it will lead to higher economic growth demographic dividend. The window began in 2018 when the working age population began to grow larger than its dependent population – children aged 14 years or below and people above 65 years of age. It is expected to last for 37 years until 2055. But will India manage to gain through this bulging working population? The link between population changes and economic growth has been a long-standing curiosity. It can be traced back to Thomas Malthus’ infamous treatise from 1798 where he argued that human population had a tendency to outstrip all possible means of subsistence, which keeps the world eternally trapped in poverty. Thus, human population and economic growth were tied in a zero-sum game limited by the availability of food. This observation was true in the world around Malthus as it was constrained by the fixed resources for growing food and slow technological progress. But recent history has proved Malthus wrong. Since the end of the Second World War, global population has more than doubled and the per capita GDP of the world has risen by over five times. The rapid technological progress in the post-Malthusian world has made population an asset rather than a burden. Many Asian economies — including Japan, South Korea, and China — were able to benefit from the rise in their working population. This has been possible in the modern world due to fall in fertility rates through contraceptive usage and increase in life expectancy through scientific advancements in modern medicine. And these Asian economies managed to engage their population in productive employment, which enabled sustained periods of high growth. So, the expectations from India have been immense to reap similar demographic dividends. But the mere existence of technology in the modern world is not sufficient to overcome the Malthusian trap. There are two further prerequisites: ample availability of productive employment and the capability to make use of available technologies. India is lacking on both fronts. Even before the Covid-19 pandemic hit, unemployment levels in India had hit a 45-year high. As of 2017-18, only half of the people in the working age were actually working. In 2004-05, the same proportion was 63.7 per cent. Moreover, the troubled scenario of education and skills is evident from the Pratham surveys that are released each year. In 2018, it showed that just half of the children in the 5th standard could read a text from the 2nd standard. The pandemic has worsened the situation. The latest State of India’s Environment report released by the Centre for Science and Environment finds that an astounding 375 million children may suffer long-lasting impacts due to the pandemic including being underweight and stunted, which will lead to losses in education and economic productivity. Government programmes like mid-day meal schemes, which encouraged school enrolment have taken a hit during the pandemic. Even those students who managed to remain enrolled have face difficulties in accessing education due to the vast digital divides across income groups. As this ‘pandemic generation’ joins the workforce in an economy that is failing to provide adequate employment opportunities to its current strength, India’s chances of levering upon its demographic dividend are soon becoming obscure. There is little to no hope that things will be any different moving forward. The possibility of India falling into a ‘middle-income trap’ are higher than the chances of reaping a demographic dividend. Countries fall into a ‘middle-income trap’ because they easily escape abject poverty in early stages of development through simple mobilization of labour and capital. But once these gains are made, a different level of institutional quality is required. As the economy matures, the need for complex contracts, smooth enforcement, and effective regulation are needed. If institutional capacity is weak to enable these processes, growth stalls.

• Clean Air & Sustainable Mobility

Is there a link between Covid-19 and climate change?

Dear Editor, The recent Covid-19 surge in India intrigued me to think if climate change contributed to the pandemic. To concur with my curious mind, Time magazine published an article on the same subject. Anumita Roychowdhury, Executive Director of Research and Advocacy at Centre for Science and Environment in Delhi expressed that impact of the pandemic can be higher in polluted regions where peoples’ lungs have already been weakened due to long term exposure to polluted air, hence making major Indian cities vulnerable. Another paper published in the journal, Cardiovascular Research, found that chronic exposure to particulate matter – a type of pollution that results from a mix of chemicals from sources like smokestacks and fires – is likely linked to some 15% of global COVID-19 deaths. Although particulate matter does not just come from fossil fuels, the study’s authors found that more than 50% of air pollution-linked COVID-19 deaths are specifically connected to fossil-fuel use. Therefore, metropolises experienced rapid spread of virus than suburbs of India. Nature is an integral facet of the human body and has everything to contribute to our wellbeing. People in cities crave for the fresh breath of the countryside. This might sound like nature excursion but there is much truth that the human body is connected to nature. The air and food that we consume determine our health as well. As we thank nature for the fresh air from Guyana’s rich oxygen-laden rainforest, we must make every effort to preserve and protect same to continue to breathe and eat healthy.

• Clean Air & Sustainable Mobility

India's capital chokes on 'severe' smog

New Delhi was blanketed in noxious haze Friday as air pollution levels in parts of the city soared to "severe" levels, hours after US President Donald Trump described the air in the vast nation as "filthy". Smoke from agricultural burning, vehicle fumes and industrial emissions -- combined with cooler temperatures and slow-moving winds that trap pollutants over the city -- turns air in the Indian capital into a toxic soup every winter. The air quality index at Delhi's 36 pollution monitoring sites -- which monitors tiny PM2.5 and PM10 particles that get into the bloodstream and vital organs -- was between 282 and 446, pushing levels into the "severe" category, the Central Pollution Control Board said. The "good" category is between 0-50, the government's environmental watchdog added. A "significant increase in stubble fire count" to 1,213 in Haryana and Punjab states was the highest of this season and made up 17 percent of Delhi's PM2.5 levels, the state-run System of Air Quality Weather Forecasting and Research added Friday. "Further deterioration of (air quality) is expected for the two days," SAFAR said. This season's burning started earlier because of advanced sowing and harvesting by farmers amid fears of labour shortages during the coronavirus pandemic, officials said. The worsening conditions came as Trump complained that action on climate change was unfair to the US. "Look at China, how filthy it is. Look at Russia, look at India -- it's filthy. The air is filthy," Trump said at his presidential debate with Democratic rival Joe Biden. Scientists warned this year's pollution season would make Delhi's 20 million residents more vulnerable to the coronavirus. "Air pollution increases the risk of noncommunicable diseases -- the same underlying conditions that make people more likely to experience severe illness or death from Covid-19," epidemiologist Sumi Mehta from global non-profit Vital Strategies told AFP. Healthcare systems, stretched by the pandemic, could be further stressed by more hospitalisations from pollution-related illnesses, researchers added. "There are serious worries that during winter when higher air pollution levels in any case worsens respiratory illness and increases hospitalisation, the vulnerability to Covid-19 may be further enhanced," Anumita Roy Chowdhury of the Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment told AFP. The chief medical officer of Gurugram city near New Delhi, Virender Yadav, told The Times of India Thursday some recovering Covid-19 patients were experiencing a reoccurence of respiratory conditions triggered by the heightened air pollution.

• Clean Air & Sustainable Mobility

Fossil Fuels, Climate Change and India's COVID-19 Crisis

The surge of COVID-19 cases and the humanitarian crisis now unfolding in India has shocked the world and led to a search for an explanation of how the situation got so bad so fast. Scientists are investigating several factors including new variants and public health officials have pointed to underinvestment in the country’s health system. Undoubtedly, the causes are varied, and as I watched the numbers surge, I began to wonder whether it’s worth considering the role air pollution may be playing. Since the early days of the pandemic, researchers have understood that exposure to polluted air makes people more vulnerable to COVID-19, and India’s megalopolises are among the most polluted in the world. “We understand that the impact of pandemic can be higher in polluted regions where people’s lungs have already been weakened due to long term exposures,” says Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director of research and advocacy at Centre for Science and Environment in Delhi. “That makes Indian cities vulnerable.” There’s been some research on air pollution and COVID-19 in India specifically, but it’s probably first worth looking at the bigger picture. A slew of studies have shown direct links between exposure to air pollution and vulnerability to COVID-19. One paper published in December in the journal Cardiovascular Research found that chronic exposure to particulate matter—a type of pollution that results from a mix of chemicals that come from sources like smokestacks and fires—is likely linked to some 15% of global COVID-19 deaths. Particulate matter doesn’t just come from fossil fuels, but the study’s authors found that more than 50% of air pollution-linked COVID-19 deaths are specifically connected to fossil-fuel use. A seemingly endless stack of studies has shown the causal links that explain this: extended exposure to air pollution contributes to a range of ailments—from asthma to diabetes—that are risk factors for COVID-19. The research in India is still in early stages, but scientists have already begun to evaluate the local connection. A preliminary study out of Malaviya National Institute of Technology in Jaipur, India found a correlation between COVID-19 cases and air pollution and climatic conditions—like wind and humidity—in Delhi. Another preliminary paper from the World Bank relying on data from India found that a “1 percent increase in long-term exposure to [particulate matter] leads to an increase in COVID-19 deaths by 5.7 percentage points.” The study suggested a range of “urgent” interventions from promoting cleaner fuel sources to reducing pollution in the transportation system that would complement more obvious public health measures like vaccination and mask wearing. “A scientific consensus seems to be emerging that improving air quality may play an important role in overcoming or at least reducing the impacts of the pandemic,” the authors of the World Bank paper wrote. “Research implies that pollution must be limited as much as possible when lockdowns are lifted.” This dynamic is important to understand not only because it helps explain one factor that has worsened the pandemic, but also because it offers a lens into so-called “climate co-benefits”—a key consideration that helps make the case for urgent action on climate change. That term refers to the positive effects beyond carbon dioxide emissions reduction that result from tackling climate change. Co-benefits range from improved soil health (resulting from agricultural practices that reduce carbon emissions) to improved energy security (as a positive outcome of expanding renewable energy sources and reducing reliance on fossil fuel imports). But perhaps no co-benefit is more significant—and more urgent—on a global level than the clean air that results from nixing fossil fuels. In India, for example, chronic exposure to air pollution causes the premature death of more than a million people each year. Hundreds of thousands more are similarly affected in China. Even in the U.S., which has relatively strict environmental standards, more than 100,000 people have been estimated to die prematurely due to particulate matter air pollution every year, according to research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. And, in the U.S. and around the world, the burden falls disproportionately on low-income communities of color. Policymakers and scientists have had many a thorny debate about the best ways to account for those co-benefits, but on a purely human level it’s another example of how tackling climate change would save lives—not just 30 years in the future but right now.

• Industrial Pollution

Odisha diverts DMF funds to urban areas as mining-affected communities suffer

Odisha is one of the mineral-rich states and has billions of rupees collected under the District Mineral Foundation (DMF) funds which according to the law are to be used for the welfare of the mining-affected communities. -- Instead, the DMF funds are either being used for works that have nothing to do with the welfare of mining-affected communities like the creation of a stadium or diverted for urban areas. -- Experts note that Odisha has more than Rs. 110 billion under the DMF funds but they are yet to find their way to the mining-affected communities. During the latest budget Session of Odisha’s Legislative Assembly, the Odisha government’s Cabinet in March 2021 approved several proposals but the one that raised eyebrows was to use the District Mineral Foundation (DMF) funds, meant for the mining-affected community in the Sundergarh district, for construction of an international stadium in Rourkela town. The proposed international stadium has been envisioned to host the Men’s Hockey World Cup 2023. This misuse of the DMF funds is not a one-off incident, but there have been many similar trends over the years. In 2017, in the Jharsuguda district, the district administration sanctioned works related to the power supply to the Jharsuguda airport with an investment of more than Rs. 20 crore (Rs. 200 million) squeezed from the DMF funds. In another mining district of Keonjhar, the district administration in 2019-20 sanctioned works for a handball stadium, and invested around Rs 500,000 for a patient facilitation centre for Cuttack-based medical college which is around 200 kilometres away from Keonjhar. In January 2020, the administration of the Sundergarh district bought 25 cars with the DMF funds for them to be used as patrolling vans by the police in Rourkela city, a non-mining affected area. Earlier, even integrated traffic management was sponsored with the DMF funds. In the same district, the DMF funds were also used to construct the boundary walls of the Circuit House. The list of instances where the DMF funds were used for works that had nothing to do with the welfare of the mining-affected communities goes on. This, experts warn, is worrisome because this comes at a time when the state’s own people living in the mining-affected areas are crying for attention and seeking help for basic amenities in their areas after living in poor and vulnerable conditions for decades. This is important because according to the Union Coal and Mines Minister Pralhad Joshi, Odisha has seen the highest collection of Rs. 11,984 crore (RS. 119.84 billion) as DMF collections from the miners operating in the state since the inception of funds in 2015. The Odisha government recently told the state Assembly that the DMF collections in the state are rising in the state. While it was Rs. 395.44 crore (Rs. 3.95 billion) in 2015-2019, in 2019-20 the total annual collections stood at Rs. 3,079.20 crore (Rs. 30.79 billion). Though Odisha has a significant amount of the DMF funds what is probably lacking is the provision of transparency related to their use. For instance, Rule 16 of the Odisha DMF Rules talks about sharing the annual report of the DMF trust on its website but hardly any annual reports have been uploaded online for several years. Odisha’s DMF Rules mandates the usage of 60 percent of the funds in priority areas while 40 percent of them could be used in non-priority areas. The non-priority areas included investments in physical infrastructure, irrigation, energy and watershed development, afforestation and others. Queries sent to P.K. Jena, who is the Odisha government’s secretary for the planning and convergence department, regarding the diversion of DMF funds for other purposes remained unanswered. Pranav Sachdeva, a lawyer with the Supreme Court who has handled many mining cases in the apex court emphasised that Odisha and many states have attempted to dilute the very concept of the DMF funds by diverting it to areas other than the mining-affected areas. “As mining firms grow, the local community impacted by mining does not get any benefit from the money collected … in fact the local environment is impacted too. But the governments often diverts these important resources away from the vulnerable community. They try to use the DMF funds for works where ideally budgetary allocations should have been used. These funds were planned for the upliftment of the affected community for their health, education, livelihood and others and many portions land in urban areas,” he said. The pollution mess in the mining-affected areas of Odisha According to the 2011 Census, about 1.62 million people (50 percent) in the Sundergarh district belong to Scheduled Tribes and many live in rural areas. This area is adjacent to the Chhattisgarh border and known for coal mining and other minerals for decades. But what is consistently ignored is the plight of the communities impacted by mining. For instance, Naresh Meher, a resident of Ratanpur village in Gopalpur panchayat in Sundergarh district, said that people in his village are living in pathetic conditions due to mining taking place about 10 kilometres away. He said that the levels of air pollution, water pollution and sound pollution have taken a huge toll on his village. “Around 3,000 trucks cross our village every day. Thick levels of dust often engulf our standing crops while polluted water is discharged from the handpumps. Several of the citizens here live with skin diseases, cancer and other diseases triggered by mining activities,” said Meher, who himself is tuberculosis (TB) patient. But this is not the end of their poor fate as his village is now listed to be taken away for mining. Social activist Suru Mishra from Sundergarh said that in the Hemgiri block in the district, a stretch of 25 kilometres of road connects the mining centres of Sundergarh with Chhattisgarh and passes through several villages but even then the roads are in extremely bad shape. “You cannot walk on that road. Only trucks and heavy vehicles run on that road. There are very big potholes and the whole stretch gets waterlogged making it very difficult for the local communities to commute or for kids to use that to go to schools,” Mishra told Mongabay-India. Both, Meher and Mishra, said that these areas and many other mining-affected areas need government attention to improve their standards of lives. They also said that the Hemgiri Community Health Centre (CHC) is still deprived of a digital X-ray facility and ultrasound facility and other medical facilities but the government has spent several portions of the DMF funds in boosting the District Headquarter Hospital (DHH), which is in an urban area. The provision of DMF funds – to be collected from miners – were introduced in January 2015 by the government of India through an amendment in the country’s mining laws for all districts affected by mining-related operations. In the Talcher region of the Angul district, the villagers living in areas close to the coal mining and coal washery units are left to suffer from the discharge of untreated water directly into the farmlands of the village. Similarly, in the Bansapal and Joda blocks of the Keonjhar district, the villagers are facing the crisis of polluted groundwater, a result of mining activities. This has also forced many women to walk for miles every day to fetch drinking water. How Odisha’s DMF funds are being diverted for other purposes? Experts working on the issue of mining in Odisha and other states claim that the DMF funds are now easily diverted for other priority areas and urban areas despite it being illegal and mining-affected communities crying for help. Sankar Prasad Pani, a lawyer with the National Green Tribunal (NGT) said, “In districts like Keonjhar, the salaries of doctors are now being paid through the DMF funds which should ideally be coming from the state’s budgetary allocations.” “Collectors find the DMF funds sometimes hard to dispense and thus divert it for numerous urban-centric works. But they are not annual budget funds, they can be accumulated and do not lapse. They can be used when needed. The need is to make priority-based plans to aid the mining-affected people,” he said. Ramesh Agarwal, a leading Indian environmentalist based in Raigarh in Chhattisgarh said, “The rules of DMF have been framed in such a way that the district collector gets the power to sanction the DMF funds with the approval of the local DMF committee. In many states, we have seen diversion of the funds to other areas which is not going to affect the mining hit communities,” A study conducted by the New Delhi-based think tank Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) on the usage of DMF funds in different mining districts of Odisha found that despite lower social and health indicators the allocation of DMF funds on the issue of livelihood and other areas had not been much, say for example in Sundergarh district. “In Sundergarh, one of Odisha’s top mining districts, a negligible Rs. 3 crore (Rs. 30 million) has been provided for child development out of the district’s Rs. 745 crore (Rs. 7.45 billion) sanctions. This is at a time when under five Mortality Rate in rural areas of the district is as high as 67, and nearly 50 percent of the children below this age are victims of stunted growth,” the report said. Srestha Banerjee, Programme Head, International Forum for Environment, Sustainability & Technology (iFOREST), who played a key role in producing the CSE report, said the constitution of the DMF committee in the districts is one of the main problems. “The DMF Committee in the districts have been formed in such a way that the local politicians including the parliamentarians and legislators exert more power in the decision making on the spending of the DMF funds in their areas. The mining laws permit the administration to use part of the DMF funds for administration works, but when the mining hit communities need attention for their upliftment and diversion of these funds to urban areas and for other similar works sounds less logical,” Banerjee told Mongabay-India. She said that livelihood and income generation of the rural poor population living in the mining-affected areas need to get a priority under the DMF fund allocations. She also demanded that the DMF funds should be spent based on priority areas rather than in a haphazard manner as it is happening presently in many mining districts of Odisha.

• Clean Air & Sustainable Mobility

Fossil Fuels, Climate Change and India’s COVID-19 Crisis

The surge of COVID-19 cases and the humanitarian disaster now unfolding in India has shocked the world and led to a seek for an evidence of how the state of affairs acquired so dangerous so quick. Scientists are investigating a number of components together with new variants and public well being officers have pointed to underinvestment within the nation’s well being system. Undoubtedly, the causes are assorted, and as I watched the numbers surge, I started to wonder if it’s price contemplating the function air air pollution could also be taking part in. Since the early days of the pandemic, researchers have understood that publicity to polluted air makes individuals extra susceptible to COVID-19, and India’s megalopolises are among the many most polluted on this planet. “We perceive that the affect of pandemic might be increased in polluted areas the place individuals’s lungs have already been weakened on account of long run exposures,” says Anumita Roychowdhury, govt director of analysis and advocacy at Centre for Science and Environment in Delhi. “That makes Indian cities susceptible.” There’s been some analysis on air air pollution and COVID-19 in India particularly, however it’s in all probability first price wanting on the larger image. A slew of research have proven direct hyperlinks between publicity to air air pollution and vulnerability to COVID-19. One paper printed in December within the journal Cardiovascular Research discovered that persistent publicity to particulate matter—a kind of air pollution that outcomes from a mixture of chemical compounds that come from sources like smokestacks and fires—is probably going linked to some 15% of world COVID-19 deaths. Particulate matter doesn’t simply come from fossil fuels, however the examine’s authors discovered that greater than 50% of air pollution-linked COVID-19 deaths are particularly related to fossil-fuel use. A seemingly infinite stack of research has proven the causal hyperlinks that designate this: prolonged publicity to air air pollution contributes to a variety of illnesses—from bronchial asthma to diabetes—which can be danger components for COVID-19. The analysis in India remains to be in early levels, however scientists have already begun to judge the native connection. A preliminary study out of Malaviya National Institute of Technology in Jaipur, India discovered a correlation between COVID-19 circumstances and air air pollution and weather conditions—like wind and humidity—in Delhi. Another preliminary paper from the World Bank counting on information from India discovered {that a} “1 p.c enhance in long-term publicity to [particulate matter] results in a rise in COVID-19 deaths by 5.7 share factors.” The examine prompt a variety of “urgent” interventions from selling cleaner gas sources to lowering air pollution within the transportation system that will complement extra apparent public well being measures like vaccination and masks sporting. “A scientific consensus appears to be rising that enhancing air high quality might play an essential function in overcoming or at the least lowering the impacts of the pandemic,” the authors of the World Bank paper wrote. “Research implies that air pollution have to be restricted as a lot as attainable when lockdowns are lifted.” This dynamic is essential to know not solely as a result of it helps clarify one issue that has worsened the pandemic, but in addition as a result of it gives a lens into so-called “local weather co-benefits”—a key consideration that helps make the case for pressing motion on local weather change. That time period refers back to the constructive results past carbon dioxide emissions discount that consequence from tackling local weather change. Co-benefits vary from improved soil well being (ensuing from agricultural practices that scale back carbon emissions) to improved vitality safety (as a constructive consequence of increasing renewable vitality sources and lowering reliance on fossil gas imports). But maybe no co-benefit is extra vital—and extra pressing—on a world degree than the clear air that outcomes from nixing fossil fuels. In India, for instance, persistent publicity to air air pollution causes the untimely dying of greater than one million individuals annually. Hundreds of hundreds extra are equally affected in China. Even within the U.S., which has comparatively strict environmental requirements, greater than 100,000 individuals have been estimated to die prematurely on account of particulate matter air air pollution yearly, in accordance with research printed within the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. And, within the U.S. and all over the world, the burden falls disproportionately on low-income communities of coloration. Policymakers and scientists have had many a thorny debate about one of the best methods to account for these co-benefits, however on a purely human degree it’s one other instance of how tackling local weather change would save lives—not simply 30 years sooner or later however proper now.

• Media

राष्ट्रीय स्तरीय ग्रामीण पत्रकारिता प्रशिक्षण में बिकास ने लिया भाग

रायपुर (वीएनएस)। युवा पत्रकार बिकास के शर्मा ने भारत सरकार के ग्रामीण विकास मंत्रालय के अधीन शोध और शैक्षणिक संस्था नेशनल इंस्टिट्यूट ऑफ़ रूरल डेवलपमेंट एंड पंचायती राज हैदराबाद से आयोजित ‘ग्रामीण विकास के मुद्दे और पत्रकारिता’ विषय पर सप्ताहव्यापी प्रशिक्षण कार्यशाला में भाग लिया। कार्यक्रम संयोजक डॉ आकांक्षा शुक्ला ने बताया कि 26 अप्रैल से 2 मई तक आयोजित उक्त कार्यक्रम का आयोजन संस्थान के हैदराबाद स्थित कैंपस में होना था। किन्तु कोरोना महामारी की दूसरी लहर को देखते हुए विडियो कॉन्फ़्रेंसिंग से प्रशिक्षण सफलतापूर्वक संपन्न हुआ। श्री शर्मा के अलावा देशभर से आई 480 प्रविष्टियों में से कुल 23 प्रतिभागियों का चयन किया गया। जिसमें पत्रकार, सामाजिक कार्यकर्ता, मीडिया और ग्रामीण विकास के मुद्दों पर काम कर रहे शोधार्थियों ने भाग लिया और ग्रामीण विकास के मुद्दे जैसे कि डिजिटल इंडिया, मनरेगा, पंचायती राज संस्थाओं एवं स्थानीय निकायों की कार्यशैलियों, महिला शिशु स्वास्थ्य सहित कोरोना काल के दौर में पत्रकारों के समक्ष चुनौतियां सहित दो दर्जन विषयों पर विशेषज्ञों ने और प्रतिभागियों ने अपनी राय रखी। कोरोना की लहर ख़त्म होते ही सभी प्रतिभागियों को हैदराबाद बुलाकर प्रमाणपत्र और स्मृति चिन्ह सम्मान स्वरूप भेंट किया जायेगा। गौरतलब हो कि माखनलाल चतुर्वेदी राष्ट्रीय पत्रकारिता विश्वविद्यालय भोपाल से जनसंचार में स्नातकोत्तर श्री शर्मा को पूर्व में इंटरनेशनल सेंटर फॉर जर्नलिस्ट अमरीका, सेंटर फॉर साइंस एंड एनवायरनमेंट नई दिल्ली की फ़ेलोशिप सहित अन्य उपलब्धियां मिल चुकी हैं।