We do not have the luxury of words anymore we need action and we need it now,” stressed Sunita Narain, director general of Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), at the conclusion of a three-day virtual workshop
In 2013 India started using Neonicotinoid pesticides in order to protect a crop that Monsanto had promised the Indian farmer he would not have to use pesticides on. These are the worst pesticides in the world and they have been indicted for having killed billions of bees on the planet. I called a meeting of ICAR in 2014 to ask for the ban of these pesticides. ICAR refused, even though they admitted that the bee population has gone down sharply. They said cotton was more important than fruit, grain, and flowers which are dependent on bee pollination! If the bees have gone down in number drastically, how has the honey production tripled? Till 2013 the yearly growth rate was only 0-4.8%. From 2013-14 the growth rate rocketed from 5.3 to 11.1 %. This could not have happened naturally. How have hundreds of honey companies come into the market? This question has always troubled me. I don’t eat honey. Last month the environment magazine, Down to Earth, answered this question in a deeply detailed investigation that they took months over. You should read it. We do not take food adulteration seriously and yet it is the highest form of corruption and should have the death penalty on it.I will attempt to encapsulate what they have discovered, but again, I repeat, go onto their website and read the expose. Let’s start with the basics: Honey is eaten because it is known to be an antioxidant and has anti-microbial (killing germs) properties. It is expensive to create because thousands of bees have to be maintained and fed a steady diet of flowers. Sugar has no nutrient value and is known to add weight and cause chronic disease. It is cheap. The FSSAI is the government organisation in charge of food standards. In 2017 the FSSAI ordered that honey should be tested for adulteration with corn, sugarcane, rice, and beetroot syrups. The test was called C3 and C4. The tests were isotope tests, SMR, TMR, foreign oligosaccharides tests, and pollen counts. In 2019, FSSAI mysteriously issued a directive revising, and downgrading, the parameters and allowing the adulteration to go undetected. The Director of the National Bee Board told Down to Earth that he had written a letter to the government saying that by reducing pollen count FSSAI has legalized the practice of adulterating and selling rice syrup and corn syrup as honey. The cheating of the consumer, by honey processors, has been legalized “You can understand why”.By now the companies selling honey have increased massively and become very powerful. Baba Ramdev had jumped in as well. But strangely enough, the honey farmers were all going bankrupt because these companies had stopped buying their honey. So, we have a huge honey industry that uses no honey?So, what do the “honey” bottles contain? Sugar syrup imports into India from China have increased steadily. Fructose and glucose syrup was being imported from China to India in bulk amounts. In 2014, 10,000 MT came in. By 2017 it was more than 4,300 MT. These syrups are imported under the names of “Fructose syrup (F55/F42)”, “Honey blend syrup”, “Tapioca fructose syrup”, “Golden fructose glucose syrup”, even “Fructose Rice Syrup for Honey”. Anyone from India can look up the marketing portals like Alibaba, Okchem, and Tradewheel, and order from a host of Chinese companies. The FSSAI issued directives to sugar importers saying they had evidence that this Chinese import was being used to adulterate honey. The FSSAI announced in 2020 that the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (NMR) was now mandatory for any company exporting honey (the Indian consumer is expendable, of course, so the standards for detecting adulteration in honey remained the low ones revised in 2019.) Did the fructose syrup import stop? No. It simply changed its name. The Chinese were not hiding their product. On all the large Chinese portals they were advertising a sugar syrup called the All-Pass Syrup. The advertisements claim that the chemical mixture, called syrup, can pass the honey adulteration tests – C 3, C4, TMR, SMT, Oligosaccharides, and even NMR!! Companies in India are importing this chemical mixture, which was being sent to India in some cases as “industrial raw material”, and even “paint mixture”, from China. 11,000 tonnes of this mixture have come in annually. Nasik, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, and Punjab. The factories that make this syrup are all “legitimate food processing businesses.” The FSSAI chooses to look the other way. Down to Earth ordered samples online from two Chinese suppliers called Wuhu Foods and CNN Foods. In their order, they specifically stated that they wanted this syrup to pass all the government tests. Both companies wrote that their product could pass any Indian tests, even if the adulteration was up to 80%, and added that their Indian clients used this percentage in their so-called honey bottles. The samples that FedEx brought in simply said “syrup” and “paint pigment emulsion.” Down to Earth took pure raw honey and mixed it themselves with the Chinese and Indian adulterants (from a company in Jaspur) in different proportions – from 25% to 75% – and sent these to the Gujarat based lab Centre for Analysis and Learning in Livestock and Food (CALF) of the National DairyDevelopment Board. The samples passed all the tests up to 75% adulteration! In August 2020, Down to Earth bought honey marketed by 13 companies and sent them to the same Gujarati Laboratory. All the large companies passed the tests except for Apis Himalaya Honey (they probably put more than 75%!) Three of the smaller brands: Dadev, Hi Honey, and Societe Naturelle, failed and even the C 3 test showed that they had more than 20-27% cane sugar. All these three are labelled as Raw Unprocessed Natural Honey! But Down to Earth did not stop there. They sent all the brands for the gold standard test – the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Test (NMR). Dabur and Saffola have put it on their bottles that their honey has passed the NMR test. There is only one testing point in India – the Export Inspection Council (EIC) in Mumbai. They refused to do the tests. So, Down to Earth contacted a well-known German Lab, which specializes only in honey adulteration tests including the NMR, and sent the samples – from the same batch that had passed the tests in Gujarat. They sent 17 samples from these 13 companies: Patanjali, Baidyanatha, Zandu, Saffola, Markfed Sohna, Nature’s Nectar, Dabur, Apis Himalaya, Hitkari, Dadev, Indigenous, Hi Honey, Societe Naturelle. Only three companies passed the tests: Saffola, Markfed Sohna, and Nature’s Nectar. All the others FAILED – including Dabur and Saffola, who put it on their labels that their honey has passed the NMR Tests. This means only these three companies are selling us, pure honey. The rest are all massively adulterated with chemical sugar syrup. In any other country, these people would be in jail and the company would be shut down. The Down to Earth article is meticulous in its exposure. But FSSAI has ignored the expose. FSSAI is implicated in the scandal – after all, they agreed to previous attempts at adulteration by deliberately lowering the standards for the large honey companies. These honey companies have even failed the lowered standards of adulteration – with no action being taken against them. During the COVID lockdown, people went all out to improve their health. Honey sales from March 2020 went up by 35%. But instead of making their bodies healthier, people were starting the day with shots of sugar syrup, which is just poison. Sugar increases the inflammation in the body, suppresses immunity, and makes the body vulnerable to diseases, including diabetes, and Corona.
Nine of the world’s top 10 most polluted cities are in India. Seven are in the world’s largest subnational entity and the hotbed of Indian politics – Uttar Pradesh. Both these details are according to a new report by IQAir. Another study, presented through the Air Quality Life Index report, has found that Uttar Pradesh’s air is so bad that residents of the state capital, Lucknow, could lose 10.3 years of their life expectancy on average if the pollution persists. Lucknow has the highest level of pollution in the country, fully 11-times more than WHO limits. The IQAir report’s findings are based on concentrations of PM2.5 particles, considered to be most harmful to human health. It’s also notable that the data they analysed was from 2020, when pollution levels dropped to varying degrees around the country thanks to the COVID-19 lockdown. Vinod Pandey, a middle-aged government official in Lucknow, said it’s hard for him to digest the findings because “I don’t really feel anything as such. The air seems the usual.” But S.N. Tripathi, a professor at IIT Kanpur and member of the steering committee, National Clean Air Programme, called the city’s air “absolutely bad”. And for the world’s first female amputee mountaineer, Arunima Sinha, the statistic is appalling. “Who better than me can understand the importance of clean air? I almost died from lack of oxygen while climbing Mount Everest,” she said.” And when I get to know how bad the air quality is in my native state and the city where I live, I feel deeply disturbed. Anumita Roy Chowdhury, executive director of research and advocacy at the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), New Delhi, wasn’t surprised, however. “Uttar Pradesh is vulnerable to elevated pollution levels because it lies in the land-locked Indo-Gangetic plain,” she said. “There’s a general lack of awareness and apathy about the implications of poor air quality among the public and policymakers,” Dr Surya Kant, the national president of the Indian Chest Society and head of the department of respiratory medicine at King George Medical University, Lucknow, said. “Is it not sad to see people finding the mask to be a ‘necessary evil’? Apart from protecting from the virus, a mask also protects from the harmful health effects of air pollution. The case is not so with the helmet or the seat belt because there’s a law around it.” Obstetrician, gynaecologist and former director-general (medical and health) of the state Dr Vijaylaxmi said Uttar Pradesh’s air quality isn’t improving despite some government efforts because the issue isn’t yet a “political priority”. CSE’s Chowdhury also said, “Political support is critical to build scale and speed of solutions.” However, “to ensure sustained improvement, the entire region requires time-bound implementation of stringent multi-sector clean air action plans with a strong compliance and monitoring strategy at a scale and speed.” Ashish Tiwari, member secretary of the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB), refused to comment. However, the regional officer of UPPCB for Lucknow Ram Karan went on the defensive when asked about the new reports, and insisted that “the air quality improved by 20-30% last year” and that the government is making all efforts to improve Lucknow’s air. Tripathi, of IIT Kanpur, has been conducting a Lucknow-centric real-time source apportionment study of air pollution. He couldn’t share data because the study was ongoing but said the numbers suggest that inefficient combustion is a major source of the problem. He also said there will have to be more studies like his before scientists can be sure – following which “scientific evidence-based policymaking” would be “the need of the hour”. “We need more studies, more data, and more monitoring to improve things because air pollution has a direct bearing on human health,” he added. To this end, Tripathi said he had high hopes from the National Knowledge Network, an alliance of experts in support of the National Clean Air Programme. Taken together, Uttar Pradesh can breathe easier if there is more scientific clarity on and political weight attached to the issue. Does this weight exist? Ahead of the state polls in February 2022, many of the bigger parties in the fray seem to think so. Azad Arimardan, the Bahujan Samaj Party legislator from Azamgarh who recently raised the issue in the state assembly, said the state “has some of the most polluted cities in the world and it’s a matter of grave political concern.” Samajwadi Party spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) “government should be ashamed of [IQAir’s] findings” and that it had “defamed the state globally”. Party chief Akhilesh Yadav studied as an environmental engineer, and Chaudhary added, “Environment and better air quality will certainly be an issue this time in the upcoming elections.” “Better air quality, apart from conservation of environment and climate change mitigation, is something that should be of immediate priority for political parties,” Rashtriya Lok Dal party national spokesperson Anupam Mishra said. “Because if not now, then when? For us, it is very much a political issue.” The Indian National Congress struck a similar note, with spokesperson Akhilesh Pratap Singh asking: “Is it not a matter of shame for the Uttar Pradesh government to see ten cities from the state figuring in the world’s top 20 most polluted cities?” The ruling BJP had some reservations about the report, however. Spokesperson Naveen Srivastava said, “We first need to know the authenticity and validity of this report and the claim it has made regarding these cities.” But he also added that “clean air and safe drinking water are not just a political priority for us, they are in fact our commitment to the people of this state.”
Due to antimicrobial resistance (AMR),” said Centre for Science and Environment ... “The way the scientific community has risen up to the challenge of COVID-19 ...
The US, Brazil, Russia, and Japan, among other countries, had raised objections to the regulation, contending that it would create a trade barrier and add to the cost borne by exporters Several countries have started issuing genetically modified (GM)-free certificates for imported food crop consignments, after initial resistance to India’s regulation seeking such certificates that became effective on 1 March. The US, Brazil, Russia, and Japan, among other countries, had raised objections to the regulation, contending that it would create a trade barrier and add to the cost borne by exporters. On 21 August 2020, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) issued an order requiring a “non-GM origin and GM-free certificate", issued by the competent national authority of the exporting country, to accompany all imports of 24 listed food products to India, to become effective beginning 1 January. The date was later revised to 1 March. The tolerance limit for accidental presence of GM is 1% of the imported food crop consignments. The regulation does not apply to processed food at present. Countries such as Chile, New Zealand, South Africa, and Italy have started issuing non-GM certificates, while Turkey, Poland, Iran, Serbia, and Brazil have also agreed to comply with the regulation, according to an FSSAI official who spoke under condition of anonymity. “The US and Argentina have proposed some models for the certification, which we are studying," the official said. A study conducted by the Centre for Science and Environment in 2018 on the prevalence of GM food in India formed the basis of the latest regulations. As much as 32% of the samples tested positive for genetic modification, with 80% of it being imported products, according to the study conducted on both domestic and imported food items. “We are a country with zero tolerance for GM products. We cannot not have regulations on GM prevalence in food items. While other countries complain about our regulations, Indian authorities issued 7,660 non-GM certificates to 98 countries in 2019 on products ranging from sweet corn, soya, and basmati rice," the official said. During India’s latest trade policy review, Japan held that the measure is “unnecessarily trade restrictive" in the light of the policy objective as there is currently no globally available detection method for proving whether a crop is GM or not and virtually no certificate can be provided by the exporting country. Japan even questioned FSSAI’s legal authority to regulate the import of these products. India in its reply to most countries said the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, empowers the central government to formulate regulations concerning genetically modified articles of food. A query sent to the commerce ministry did not elicit any response till the time of going to the press.
Since 2006, more than 30 million water conservation-related ecological assets have been created; this totals to some 50 water structures in every village of India. These structures have potentially conserved roughly 29,000 million cubic meters of water in this period and have the potential to irrigate some 19 million hectares.“By putting water conservation at its core, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is transforming India’s rural landscape and changing the lives of the country’s poor," said Sunita Narain, Director General, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) and Editor of Down To Earth, inaugurating a webinar. The webinar featured the highlights of the report on villages that have made the transformation from drought to prosperity. It brought together the Jal Yodhas, the representatives of the villages who have made this possible. “Fourteen reporters of Down To Earth have travelled across the length and breadth of the country at a time when a pandemic was raging, reporting on what this Act has meant for India’s rural hinterland. They have covered 16 villages in 15 districts of as many states, and brought back incredible stories from the ground,” says Down To Earth Managing Editor Richard Mahapatra.Villages in two districts from India’s eastern States were visited by the reporters. They included Bhuanpanda and Mandekhela in Balangir district (Odisha) and Birbandh and Kawatanga in Bankura district (West Bengal). In villages like Bhuanpada and Mandekhela in Balangir district, residents are intelligently reaping the twin benefits of employment available due to MGNREGA and improved agricultural production due to water-focused works under the programme. This has made it financially viable for marginal farmers to stay in their villages. Likely, Birbandh and Kawatanga villagers of Bankura district started managing their watershed areas under MGNREGA in 2017-18. Today, the villages, prone to distress migration, have improved groundwater levels significantly, which has allowed them to cultivate two crops in a year. Mahapatra says that finding the villages which had successfully executed MGNREGA was difficult as no records are kept of the sustainability of the works that have been undertaken under this programme. Narain says, “Water is a determinant of our present and future. With climate change, we will see more rain and more heat; and in this, the management of water will be our make or break. Water security is also crucial for livelihood security. It builds resilience and the ability to cope with weather adversities. The MGNREGA is the world’s largest social security and climate risk management programme.”
Kohima: The Deputy Commissioner (DC) Kohima, Gregory Thejawelie NCS today informed the public that number of complaints and reports have been received relating to rampant selling and encroachment of government land that is public land having projects installations for public service delivery, which is viewed seriously by the government. The DC Kohima in the public notice stated that the Government’s endeavour is to provide all requisite support to safeguard the rights of the genuine landowners but at the same time illegal activities of encroachment on government land/government quarters will be dealt with sternly as per the provisions contained in Section 5 (1) and 6 (1) of the Nagaland Eviction of Persons in Unauthorised Occupation of Public Land Act 1971, which entails issuing notice, eviction etc and in case of illegal occupation may invite imprisonment and fine. Further, in the matter of sale and purchase of land within the Government Acquired Area and Land coming under the 1934-35 Map of British conquered area, both the buyer and the seller will be liable for action as this is tantamount to illegal transaction and will attract penalty under appropriate section of law. Therefore, should any private person or group desiring to purchase land in and around Kohima town and other Government acquired areas particularly New Secretariat/Thizama and Lerie area should first obtain necessary clearance from the DC’s Office without which the seller as well as the buyer would be doing so at their own risk and necessary penal action will be initiated as per the relevant provisions of law. ‘This public notice has been issued in the interest of the public and compliance by all concerned,’ the DC stated. Off-loading of construction materials on road in Kohima banned The Deputy Commissioner’s (DC) office Kohima has taken note that there has been random dumping of construction materials on the road thereby causing blockage of drainages and waterways, creating traffic congestions, affecting pedestrian movement and causing general pollution to the air and environment. In this connection, the DC Kohima, Gregory Thejawelie NCS, in the interest of the public safety and property has issued an order stating that dumping/off-loading of construction materials on the road has been banned within Kohima town with immediate effect. It also stated that all such materials have to be immediately removed by the concerned owners. In the exigent case whereby off-loading of such materials is inevitable, concerned owner should ensure that such off-loading and removal be made between 8:00 pm to 7:00 am and not prior or after the scheduled time. The order further stated that failure to adhere to the directive will be penalized as per provisions of the law. Notification on food safety Deputy Commissioner Kohima Gregory Thejawelie has informed the Food Safety Officer in the office of the Chief Medical Officer, Kohima to initiate further necessary action on the matters relating to taking steps or making arrangements to ensure appropriate or authentic brands of honey in the Indian markets and ban or restraining from selling in the market against the adulterated honey sellers companies, shops, malls etc. till investigation or test report of honey is concluded and satisfied Test Report for the human consumption filed by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) and other Government Agency.
Parking spaces to be determined by distance from Metro stations: DDA According the dynamic parking rules, approved by the DDA in a meeting last Thursday, parking space for new buildings will be defined by not only the use of the premises but also access to public transport and parking lots. The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has proposed that all new buildings, except residential projects, coming up near Metro stations and multi-level car parking lots have 10%-30% less parking space, a move that is aimed at ending congestion by preventing parking on roads and encouraging the use of public transport. According the dynamic parking rules, approved by the DDA in a meeting last Thursday, parking space for new buildings will be defined by not only the use of the premises but also access to public transport and parking lots. “Currently, parking norms are based on the designated use of the premises. It has been observed that the surplus parking from buildings spills over to roads and results in congestion in public spaces. The new parking norms have been worked out based on the availability of the Metro network, other modes of public transport (including cab aggregators) and multi-level car parking facilities,” a senior DDA official said, requesting anonymity. The new rules, drafted by the Delhi Urban Art Commission (DUAC), rationalises parking space for 35 categories of buildings such as commercial centres, colleges, community halls, hospitals, etc, the official said. A second DDA official said the Union housing and urban affairs ministry had asked the DUAC last year to examine the existing parking norms and suggest suitable measures. The new norms will now be put in the public domain for comments before being notified by the ministry. Once notified, the new rules will apply to all properties where construction has not begun, even if the plans have been approved by the local civic agency concerned, said a third DDA official. “In all such cases where the plans have already been approved, the properties may be developed as per the revised norms and the concerned local body may be informed in writing. No separate permission will be needed,” the official said. Proximity to Metro, parking lots As per the new norms, for a property (except residential) located within 500 metres of a Metro station, there will be a 30% deduction in the permissible parking space. For properties located more than 500 metres and less than 800 metres from a Metro station, there will be a 15% reduction. For properties coming up within one kilometre radius of a multi-level parking lot, 10% of the permissible parking space will be deducted. Currently, a new commercial complex within 500 metres of a Metro station has to provide three equivalent car parking spaces (ECS) for every 100 sqm of built-up area. An ECS is the parking space which has to be provided in a building, based on its built-up space (floor area), for parking vehicles, including car, scooter, light vehicles, etc. Transport experts welcomed the move, saying it is the “way forward” for planned development. They also wanted a a cap on maximum parking that can be provided for a premises. Amit Bhatt, director transport, WRI India, said, “It is a good move that they have reduced parking in areas where Metro or multi-level parking lots are located nearby. A lot of cities world over are moving towards parking maximum. This means that they are capping the maximum parking space. This should be done in Delhi too.” Banquet halls, commercial centres The new norms have also reworked the existing parking norms for various ‘use categories’ such as commercial complexes, hospitals (mainly government hospitals), coaching and educational centres, community halls, social and cultural centres, district courts, government offices, etc. For banquet halls, the permissible parking limit has been doubled from three ECS per 100 sqm to 6 ECS, without any deduction for proximity to a Metro station. Officials said it has been done to cut congestion on roads around banquet halls in city, where parking on roads is a major problem, particularly during wedding season. For hotels, however, the limit has been reduced from 3 ECS per 100 sqm of built-up area to 2 ECS, plus applicable deduction for proximity to a Metro station. For commercial centres such as Connaught Place, the current limit of 3 ECS has been kept unchanged. But, deductions for proximity to Metro and parking lots will apply. (For more categories, see box) Residential projects Permissible parking limits have only partially changed for residential areas. While norms for plotted residential areas remains the same, rules for group housing societies have been altered. However, deductions for Metro and parking lots will not apply to residential buildings or areas. For residential areas, the DDA has proposed to take the number of dwelling units as the baseline instead of the current built-up area. Currently, 2 ECS per 100 sqm of built-up area is the norm for group housing. It will now be changed to 0.5 ECS per dwelling unit for societies where each house/flat has an area of less than 40 sqm. If the dwelling units are between 40sqm and 100 sqm, 1 ECS of parking space per house/flat will have to be provided. Anumita Roy Chowdhury, executive director (research and advocacy) at Centre for Science and Environment, said, “The parking provision in housing projects should also have the deductions proposed in other categories if they fall in the influence area of Metro stations or transit-oriented development. After the entire Metro network is built in Delhi, nearly 70% of the city will be in transit-oriented development zones (near Metro stations). Therefore, if we don’t apply the Metro and multi-level parking lot deduction in residential colonies, then it will mean negating the advantage of this policy.”
New Delhi: A year ago, the so-called janata curfew on March 22 heralded the shutdown of the nation from March 24 to counter Covid-19’s spread. Vehicles went off the roads, industrial units ground to a halt and construction activity ceased. While the economy took a hit, the air over Delhi reached quality highs. By March 28, the air was in the ‘good’ category with the Air Quality Index at just 45. The city went on to record five such ‘good’ air days in the year, the most since the Central Pollution Control Board launched the AQI readings in 2015. By the first week of April, the capital had azure skies, birdsong was audible everywhere and the Yamuna was visibly cleaner.A year on, all environmental gains of the lockdown have been lost. Dipankar Saha, former head of CPCB’s air laboratory, however, does not write off the positives. He explained, “With next to no emissions during the lockdown, we were able to analyse how significant a role dust pollution played in air quality and what effect reduction in vehicular and industrial pollution could have.” Anumita Roy Chowdhury, executive director, research & advocacy, Centre for Science and Environment, said the lockdown showed that reduction in pollutants was possible, but all regions had to clean up their acts and at speed across critical sectors such as vehicles, industries, power plants, waste, construction & open-air burning. “The bouncing back of pollution proves the change can be sustained only with systemic and time-bound action,” she said. “We have to raise the level of ambition to drive compliance with stricter air quality targets.” There are eight key sources of pollution according to source apportionment studies: thermal power plants, vehicles, industries, households, brick kilns, open burning, diesel generator sets and dust. Dr Sagnik Dey, associate professor, Centre for Atmospheric Sciences, IIT-Delhi, pointed out that during the lockdown, only four of these were eliminated, namely vehicles, industries, brick kilns and construction dust. “The power plants were still functioning. Household pollution might, in fact, have slightly increased because people were confined indoors. DG sets and open burning were also prevalent,” said Dey. “So clearly, this reduction in pollution during the lockdown came from the remaining four sources. This needs to be taken into account in the National Clean Air Programme. If we can control vehicular, industrial, brick-kiln and construction pollution, we can attain our PM2.5 and PM10 targets.” CPCB data confirmed the improvement of air during that period. The AQI in March 2020 was 128 (moderate) compared with 184 (moderate) in 2019. The average AQI dropped to 110 (moderate) in April against 211 (poor) in 2019, while the average AQI of 144 (moderate) in May was much less than the 221 of a year earlier. August was the cleanest month of the year, recording four ‘good’ air days and an average AQI of 64 (satisfactory). However, by November, things were returning to ‘normal’. Stubble burning from October on and a late Diwali saw 2020 record a more polluted November than in 2019, while the average AQI in December rose to 332 (very poor). As for the Yamuna, CPCB attributed its temporary improvement to an increase in the flow of water, aided by the closure of industrial units. CPCB tested samples from Palla, Nizamuddin and Okhla, while DPCC from nine locations. The major findings were that the water quality at the three stations had improved significantly against the pre-lockdown quality, with the biological oxygen demand at Nizamuddin and Okhla going up by as much as 90% and similar increases in the chemical oxygen demand. DPCC found BOD levels rising by up to 33%. A DPCC official, however, said, “Industrial effluent is only a small portion of the pollution. Household sewage continues to flow into the river and until that is halted, we cannot see a blue Yamuna again.”
Scheme already shows promise in helping villages go from being water-scarce to water-sufficient, as per DTE report To mark the World Water Day, the Union government announced a water conservation campaign, Catch The Rain. Given India receives more annual precipitation—though temporally and geographically unevenly distributed—than its peak requirement, many parts of the country suffering water insecurity for the larger part of the year is evidence of how inadequate the country’s water storage and management capacity is. While the government—primarily the states, given water is a state subject—will focus on water conservation efforts under Catch The Rain (there is also talk of geotagging existing water-bodies for real-time monitoring), it needs to look at MGNREGA’s role in developing water security over the past 15 years and build on this. Down To Earth (DTE), the magazine brought out by the Centre for Science and Environment, reports that the programme, primarily seen as an unemployment support scheme for rural India, has been a change-driver in terms of bolstering water sufficiency and management of precipitation in many villages. The Act had been amended in 2014 to ensure that at least 60% of the spending was on projects that benefit agriculture and allied activities—though, even before, such projects are estimated to have constituted more than half of all such projects. This focus, the rural development ministry noted in a release in 2019, meant 75% of the activities in the list of those permissible under MGNREGA “directly improve water security and water conservation efforts”. Over the past 15 years, nearly 30 million water-conservation related works—or 50/per Indian village—have been executed under the programme, creating a water conservation potential of close to 29,000 million cubic metres. That is 17% of the capacity of the 123 reservoirs that are monitored for storage by the Central Village Commission. The testimony from the 16 villages covered in the DTE report seems to suggest that the programme has contributed not just as a social security scheme, but also, by increasing access to water and supporting farm-related livelihoods, as a climate-resilience and livelihood support programme. While Bandlapalli in Ananthapuramu district of Andhra Pradesh—the first village in India where MGNREGA was implemented—saw recurring drought and large-scale migration in 2006, by 2021, it had 900-plus water harvesting structures. Thanks to this, it remained unscathed in 2018-19, when the district reported its lowest rainfall in a century. Similarly, Barmani in Madhya Pradesh’s Sidhi district, DTE reports, was virtually abandoned because of distress-migration in 2006, but by 2021, it had 7 big ponds and 39 wells that had perennial water availability. While MGNREGA helped Pookkottukavu in Kerala go from being a water-scarce village to seeing dying water streams getting revived, residents of Himmatpura in Uttar Pradesh saw incomes rise by 10 times with dependence on rains for agriculture reduced. While the MGNREGA saw a sharp fall in allocation in Budget FY22—Rs 73,000 crore, from the Budget FY21 revised estimate of Rs 1.1 lakh crore—it remains, read against the DTE findings, perhaps one of the world’s largest adaptation programmes. Given climate change will increase the incidence of weather shocks—for instance, too much rain over a short period, over a small geography, or scanty rain in areas that were used to abundant rainfall—there is a need to build robust adaptation programmes; more so, with the time to act on planet-warming emissions having all but run out. The government needs to look at MGNREGA afresh, as a multi-purpose vehicle—one that plays an income-support role while creating ecological assets that become the mainstay of climate-support in the decades to come.
Workers must be allowed to participate in the actual planning exercises of the Gram Sabha, say beneficiaries Bhuban Bag is an MGNREGA worker from Bhuanpada village in Odisha’s Balangir district, a perennially drought-affected region. The district has one of India’s highest rates of distress migration, with lakhs of workers looking for jobs elsewhere every year. “Things have changed in our village because of MGNREGA. We have been creating ponds and tanks to catch water, and digging wells to harvest the recharged water,” he said in a webinar organised by the Centre for Science and Environment on the occasion of World Water Day. He held up an onion plant to the camera, showing off the fruits of his newly fertile land. During the pandemic, most of the returning workers found employment in the village itself, he said. Bhuanpada is not an isolated case. Across the country, the water harvesting and conservation structures that now make up 60% of all new MGNREGA assets are starting to pay off, according to CSE. “The MGNREGA is not simply a social security scheme to generate employment for the rural poor. It may also be the world’s largest climate change adaptation scheme,” said CSE director Sunita Narain. Over the last 15 years, three crore assets related to water-conservation have been created through the rural jobs scheme with the potential to conserve more than 2,800 crore cubic metres of water. On the ground, this has transformed the fate of some villages. However, challenges remain in obtaining timely payment of MGNREGA wages and ensuring village participation in the planning process. Bhuanpada’s sarpanch joined Mr. Bag on the screen. “The payment for MGNREGA workers still comes very late,” he said, adding that distress migration could not be reversed unless timely payment was made. In Palakkad district of Kerala, women workers have managed to revive streams and rivers in the water-scarce village of Pookkottukavu, which gets only 2300 mm of annual rainfall. With hundreds of water harvesting structures being built under the MGNREGA scheme, 200 wells are now planned to make the village water-surplus. “Earlier, people had to walk a long distance for drinking water. These projects have helped to reduce their difficulty to a certain extent and give them the hope that in the near future the village will be free of water scarcity. We can see the groundwater levels rising,” said Vismaya Sukumaran, who works with MGNREGA. In Vasna village of Gujarat’s Sabarkantha district, migration has reduced by 40% because of the extensive irrigation system created through small dams constructed under the programme. “Earlier, the village was completely rain-dependent, but now the ponds and tanks provide surface water for 10 months of the year. Farming is back as the main occupation, and annual family savings are up to ₹2 lakh, preventing the need for migration,” said Ms. Narain. She emphasised the need for village workers to participate in the actual planning exercises of the Gram Sabha, rather than simply be treated as labour. Villages must also be allowed to take control of their own water security, she said, noting that catchment areas for many villages are on land controlled and owned by the Forest Department. “It is important to MGNREGA to measure the sustainability impact, and not just count the number of works created or days of labour provided. The scheme must track and monitor outcomes, measuring the change in groundwater levels and village incomes,” said Ms. Narain.
Jal yodhas’ tales of transformation are inspiring WORLD Water Day provides an opportunity to reflect upon the way in which efforts towards ensuring water security are flowing. There are some inspiring stories of determination to conserve the precious elixir that have transformed lives and livelihoods in many places. But, unfortunately, there are many more dry ones that foretell a parched future. Urgent measures are needed to counter the climate change-aggravated scenario that has unleashed catastrophes. A study by Down to Earth (published by the Centre for Science and Environment) on the exemplary use of MGNREGA funds for rainwater harvesting and water conservation by 15 villages — the jal yodhas (water warriors) — across the country since 2006 is illuminating. It shines light on how to stop large tracts of fertile land from turning into barren wasteland. The drought-prone villages of Bandlapalli in Andhra Pradesh, Batka Phala in Rajasthan and Nadia in MP have overcome the aridity with their water harvesting structures, leading to a stop in distress migration. They hold a lesson for Himachal Pradesh that is staring at a drought-like crisis. Equally stunning is how the water-scarce Pookkottukavu village of Kerala, led by its women, has revived dried-up streams and recharged groundwater to become water-surplus. Punjab and Haryana that are grappling with depleting water tables due to unchecked water extraction and water-guzzling paddy cultivation would do well to copy it. Haryana’s own Barokhan village has built a commendable pond system that enables recycling household waste water for irrigation, reducing dependence on groundwater. Importantly, the jal yodhas have shown how investment in water security yields economic gains. Their villages are today thriving and robust units. The range of trickle-down effects of their efforts is excitingly vast and has promising prospects for many a place. They vary from food-surplus (Barmani in MP), manifold rise in income (Himmatpura, UP), year-round jobs (Bhuanpada, Odisha), fighting salinity to reclaim infertile land (Vellapallam, TN) and improving livestock economy (Ramdurga, Karnataka). Communities and local bodies elsewhere must replicate these water management strategies to uplift their sagging economies.
To arrive at the estimates of annual deaths caused by power plant pollution, researchers took the actual emissions from these 12 power plants in 2018 and assessed their impact on a city’s population. Every year, nearly 218 people die in Delhi from exposure to a toxic cocktail of fumes from the 12 thermal power plants located in a 300km radius of the national capital, an estimate by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) showed. Sunil Dahiya, an analyst at CREA and the primary author of ”Health and economic impacts of unabated coal power generation in Delhi-NCR”, said the study estimated that the operation of the 12 power plants around the capital resulted in 218 deaths annually in Delhi, and 682 across Delhi-NCR, and more than 4,800 deaths across the country at 55% plant load factor—the ratio of average power generated by the plant to the maximum power that could have been generated in a given time—and more than 8,200 deaths at 100% PLF. “The installation of emission control technologies would prevent 62% of these deaths across the country, which would translate to around 2,976 to 5,084 lives saved annually,” Dahiya said. To arrive at the estimates of annual deaths caused by power plant pollution, researchers took the actual emissions from these 12 power plants in 2018 and assessed their impact on a city’s population. Meteorological conditions were also taken into consideration, CREA said. MORE FROM THIS SECTION Farmers sitting in protest against the new farm laws at the Delhi-Ghazipur border, in New Delhi on Monday, March 22. (ANI) Farmers’ protest: Traffic at Delhi borders remains diverted Representational image. (Sanchit Khanna/HT Photo) Possibility of light rain in Delhi today, air quality poor A student walks past a wall with the graffiti of frontline workers wearing face masks, in New Delhi on Monday. (ANI Photo) 888 new Covid cases, seven deaths on Monday; highest fatality count in 46 days HT Image Delhi: Man held for floating ponzi scheme, duping over 500 of ₹8 lakh The findings also highlighted that pollution from the 12 plants had economic impacts far beyond Delhi-NCR. The state-wise distribution of economic impacts of power plant operation in Delhi-NCR suggests that the highest cost burden was faced by Uttar Pradesh ( ₹2,301 crore) followed by Rajasthan ( ₹1,125 crore), Madhya Pradesh ( ₹1,100 crore), Haryana ( ₹395 crore), Gujarat ( ₹362 crore), Delhi ( ₹292 crore) and Punjab ( ₹242 crore). Experts pointed out that while pollution had become a conversation starter in the national capital, which forced governments to act on controlling various pollution sources, there was still a lack of awareness about how exposure to power plant emissions impacts health. The Union ministry of environment, forest and climate change (MoEFCC), in 2015, had notified emission norms for particulate matter (PM), sulphur dioxide and oxides of nitrogen, which had to be complied with by power stations in 2017. However, the industry pushed back and committed before the Supreme Court that it will comply with norms by 2022. In January this year, the power ministry asked the environment ministry to dilute norms for SO2 emissions from coal-fired thermal power plants citing “unachievable deadlines and unnecessary norms”. There was also a proposal to extend the deadline for complying with the emission norms from 2022 to 2024. A recent compliance report by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) showed that out of the 12 power plants located around Delhi, SO2 control technology was available only in two plants. It was observed that in six of these power plants, work on the control of SO2 emissions was underway, while in the remaining four plants, the work progress was slow. “In India, 58% of the thermal power plants are still not complying or haven’t put out tenders to comply with 2015 emission standard notification. Whether it is a state power plant, state discom or private power plant, nothing is being done to resolve issues. Non-compliance has to be taken seriously, and the onus is as much on the state governments as on the Centre, where there is a need for enhanced transparency,” said Nivit Kumar Yadav, programme director (industrial pollution unit), CSE. Yadav further said, “Old power plants need to be phased out at the earliest as their harmful emissions impact everyone’s health.” They said the only significant work to control the pollution from thermal power plants in the Delhi-NCR was the closure of the Badarpur Thermal Power Station in 2018. “My concern about compliance is that the standards keep changing continuously. We may press for various standards, but the coal plant operators can get the standards changed. What’s worse, the deadline to install emission control technologies seems to be further extended biannually,” said environment lawyer Ritwick Dutta.
नई दिल्ली, संजीव गुप्ता। लाकडाउन से आर्थिक और सामाजिक स्तर पर भले जो परिणाम आए हों, लेकिन पर्यावरण के लिए यह किसी वरदान से कम नहीं था। आलम यह रहा कि दिल्ली-एनसीआर सहित देशभर की जिस हवा को देश और राज्यों की सरकारें तमाम उपाय करके भी साफ नहीं कर सकीं, उसे लाकडाउन ने कर दिखाया। वायु ही नहीं, बल्कि ध्वनि और जल प्रदूषण में भी बड़े पैमाने पर सुधार देखने को मिला। इस सुधार ने भविष्य के लिए भी ऐसी राह दिखाई, जिसे विशेषज्ञों तक ने सराहा। केंद्रीय प्रदूषण नियंत्रण बोर्ड (सीपीसीबी), दिल्ली प्रदूषण नियंत्रण समिति (डीपीसीसी), सेंटर फार साइंस एंड एनवायरमेंट (सीएसई) और अन्य तमाम संगठनों की रिपोर्ट बताती है कि लाकडाउन की वजह से दिल्ली- एनसीआर का वायु प्रदूषण 75 फीसद तक कम हो गया। प्रमुख प्रदूषक तत्व पीएम 2.5, पीएम 10, कार्बन डाईआक्साइड, नाइट्रोजन डाईआक्साइड में 70 से 74 फीसद की कमी देखने को मिली। जल और वायु ही नहीं, लाकडाउन के दौरान ध्वनि प्रदूषण में भी कमी देखने को मिली। अस्पताल और रिहायशी कालोनियों जैसे साइलेंट जोन में तो ध्वनि प्रदूषण नियंत्रण में रहता ही है, इस दौरान इसके सामान्य स्तर में भी 10 फीसद तक की कमी देखी गई। वातावरण एकदम साफ हो जाने से दूर दूर तक की चीजें साफ दिखाई देने लगीं। प्रदूषण के कारण ही दिल्ली में यमुना नदी मृतप्राय हो गई है। इस नदी का पानी खेती के लायक भी नहीं है। लाकडाउन में इस यमुना का प्रदूषण भी 33 फीसद तक कम हो गया। यमुना के प्रदूषण के दो मुख्य तत्व डीडी (डिजाल्व डिमांड) में 51, जबकि बीओडी (बायोलॉजिकल ऑक्सीजन डिमांड) में 75 फीसद तक की गिरावट आई। दशकों बाद यमुना का पानी काला नहीं बल्कि नीला नजर आया। दिल्ली-एनसीआर के वायु प्रदूषण में कहां कितनी कमी आई -- शहर प्रदूषण में कमी दिल्ली 75 फीसद गाजियाबाद 65 फीसद नोएडा 60 फीसद गुरुग्राम 56 फीसद ग्रेटर नोएडा 68 फीसद फरीदाबाद 58 फीसद इसमें कोई शक नहीं कि लाकडाउन के दौरान हमें प्रकृति का साक्षात्कार करने का अवसर मिला। यह भी साबित हो गया कि प्रदूषण की जड़ में इंसानी लापरवाही ही है। इसलिए अगर अब भी इंसान लाकडाउन से सबक लेते हुए भविष्य के लिए सावधानी बरते और पर्यावरण का भी खयाल रखे तो प्रदूषण को आगे भी नियंत्रण में रखा जा सकता है। (-सुनीता नारायण, महानिदेशक, सीएसई)
Greater water security, more jobs, lesser outmigration: what villages in Odisha and West Bengal have got from MGNREGA, finds Down To Earth survey Said Sunita Narain, director general, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) and editor of the fortnightly, Down To Earth, here today, inaugurating a webinar.
Bathinda: A survey by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) and its publication ‘Down to Earth’ (DTE) says that putting water conservation at its core, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) has the power to transform India’s rural landscape and change the lives of the country’s poor. The unheralded success stories of rural India’s ‘jal jodhas’ (water warriors) were shared in a webinar on World Water Day, which highlighted report on villages that have made the transformation from drought to prosperity. The findings of a countrywide survey of the impacts of MGNREGA after 15 years of its implementation were released on Monday. The reports were filed from 16 villages in 15 states. “Finding the villages which had successfully executed MGNREGA was difficult as no records are kept of the sustainability of the works. The government only keeps a record of the number of works done, and of whether they have been completed. What is not known is if the structure built under MGNREGA has improved the water security of the village or contributed to livelihood improvements,” said CSE director general Sunita Narain The districts covered included Ananthapuramu (Andhra Pradesh), Jalaun (Uttar Pradesh), Tikamgarh and Sidhi (Madhya Pradesh), Balangir (Odisha), Pakur (Jharkhand), Bankura (West Bengal), Kaimur (Bihar), Jalna (Maharashtra), Palakkad (Kerala), Nagapattinam (Tamil Nadu), Dungarpur (Rajasthan), Sirsa (Haryana), Chitradurga (Karnataka), Ranga Reddy (Telangana) and Sabarkantha in (Gujarat). Narain said, “With climate change, we will see more rain and more heat, and in this, the management of water will be our make or break. Water security is also crucial for livelihood security. It builds resilience and the ability to cope with weather adversities. The MGNREGA is the world’s largest social security and climate risk management programme.” DTE managing editor Richard Mahapatra said, “One of the big findings of the report is that villages have reaped economic and environmental benefits of water conservation works defying all odds. This has only been possible due to the persistence and diligence of water warriors in villages.” Full report on www.toi.in “MGNREGA is also the country’s largest water conservation exercise. The governments must now measure the potential harvested of these instruments. For this, it must turn its focus to track the impacts of water harvesting structures. As government data shows half of water structures are either left unfinished or turn defunct after a few years due to lack of maintenance. This is a wasted opportunity,” Mahapatra added. Sirsa example Barokhan village in Sirsa district of Haryana has been using MGNREGA labour to build systems to recycle grey water for irrigation. The village has built three-pond system to treat waste water from kitchens and bathrooms. The ponds, built under MGNREGA, are adjacent to each other, along the gradient of the land, and connected via pipes. Grey water of villages Barokhan, Bhavdeen and Jasania gets cleaned due to settlement of impurities as it moves down successive ponds. The villagers manage to save up to 66% on water charges and have reduced their dependence on groundwater too. Water assets created As per government records, since 2006 more than 30 million water conservation-related ecological assets have been created; this comes to 50 water structures in every village of India. Calculations show that these structures have potentially conserved roughly 29,000 million cubic meters of water in this period and have the potential to irrigate some 19 million hectares.