Prof. Dr. P. K. Jena, Bhubaneswar, May 26, 2016 : In recent decades, air pollution due to rapid increase in population, industrialization and urbanization has emerged as an important global health issue.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the concentrations of both gases like oxides of nitrogen and sulphur, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, volatile organic chemicals and solid pollutants like particulate matters (PM), metal dusts etc., are increasing in the atmosphere at an alarming rate. In recent years, the air quality in India particularly in the urban and industrial areas has also detoriated very much.

The WHO report – 2014 says, Delhi had the dirtiest atmosphere out of 1600 cities surveyed around the world and it was also found that 13 India cities had very high level of particulate matters in their air. The city of Delhi has also been declared as “Asthma capital of India’.

The consequence of the exposure to various pollutants in our air has resulted in suffering of large number of population by diseases like Asthma, Chronic bronchitis, Oxygen deficiency in blood, respiratory illness, eye irritation, impact on reproductive health, cancer etc. The ecological impacts include loss of productivity and slower photosynthesis, deposition of polluting dusts on vegetation etc.

Similarly, structural impacts include corrosion of metals, erosion of buildings and monuments and the aesthetic impact includes bad smell, reduced visibility, and accumulation of dust on buildings etc. Air pollution is a major cause of death in India and it is increasing very rapidly in recent years. The ‘Global Burden of Disease’ report has found that, in India, outdoor air pollution and indoor air pollution are respectively the 5th and the 3rd leading cause of death.

In view of these hazardous situation, the Government of India has taken various initiatives to tackle the air pollution in the country like, promotion of cleaner technologies and alternate source of energy to run the vehicles. Some of these are (i) Use of environment friendly hybrid and electric vehicles, (ii) Substituting petrol and diesel by bio fuels (iii) Reducing the burning of biomass for cooking and other purposes by improved method of ‘cooking chulah’. (Under the National Biomass Cookstove Programme for development of improved biomass cookstove), and (iv) Use of renewable energy like solar, wind, small hydro power etc. in place of coal, diesel and petrol.

It may be mentioned here that, under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM), it is being planned to install solar power both thermal and photovoltaic of the capacity of 20GW by the year 2020. The government has also taken necessary steps to bring awareness amongst the common people about the air quality and its effect on health under the National ‘Air Quality Index’ (AQI). This programme has been launched by the Prime Minister of India on 6th April 2015.

In addition to the above ones, it is suggested to take the following measures to control the air pollution in industrial, urban and rural India.

1. The industries like thermal power plants, cement, metal extraction and chemical plants should take all precautions to remove the objectionable materials and gases from the flue gas before letting out those to the atmosphere. The methods to be used are as follows:

 Scrubbing the flue gases and using electro static precipitator to remove the particulate matters,
 Acid gas, sulphur dioxide etc., can be removed from the exhaust gases by wet scrubbers, dry scrubber, flue gas desulphurization etc.,
 Mercury and other metals can be removed by methods like sorbent injection technology, electro catalytic oxidation etc. and
 Treatment of volatile organic compounds and other organic hazards can be accomplished by adsorption, incineration and condensation processes.

2. In order to cut down the polluting agents on city roads, it would be better if buses are plied with electrical energy and the cars, two and three wheelers by solar energy, biogas, natural gas etc. Diesel using transport systems should be avoided in populated areas.

3. In rural and also in urban areas, for cooking and to a limited extent for lighting and heating, solar energy should be widely used as this energy is abundant in India for about 300 days in a year. Instead of using diesel, the farmers should be motivated to use solar pumps for drawing water for irrigation and domestic purposes.

4. Efforts for producing more energy from wind should be made in a big way particularly in the coastal and hilly regions. These can be used for cottage and small scale industries for meeting their energy requirements.

5. Small hydro power units particularly in hilly and other suitable water bodies can be developed for providing electrical energy for various purposes. For setting up large number of small hydro power units, a detail survey should be made all over the country so that large amounts of environment friendly energy can be harnessed through this route.

Air pollution in India has become a very alarming issue and it has to be tackled in a very scientific manner to facilitate the socio economic developments of the country. The efforts being made in this direction in recent years by the Government of India, should be further strengthened and implemented properly with incorporation of more recent technologies in close cooperation of all sections of people in the society. These will go a long way to keep our air clean and thus allowing us to lead an environment friendly comfortable life.

• {Prof Jena is former Director General, Council of Scientific & Industrial Research, India}