The Indian Express | 2 months ago | 30-03-2023 | 01:45 pm
With 37 districts in the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) being identified as air pollution ‘hotspots’, including nine districts in Delhi and those of Noida, Gurgaon, Faridabad and Ghaziabad, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed that these districts be listed as ‘air quality sensitive districts’ and polluting sources operating in them be monitored closely.The NGT’s order came after a joint committee appointed by it had submitted a report on air pollution in the IGP, in January this year. On the report, the NGT said in its recently issued order: “It is stated that in view of air pollution in Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP), development activities can be only with advanced technology and management interventions, particularly during October and November.”The joint committee included representatives of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC), the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), and experts, professors Mukesh Khare and Mukesh Sharma.In addition to listing out the hotspots based on satellite observations of PM2.5 concentrations, the committee has identified a three-stage approach to deal with the situation – the use of cleaner fuel, adopting efficient pollution control technologies, and regulating operations as per the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP).The report had also noted that the industrial sectors are the main PM2.5 emitters over the IGP, contributing around 48 per cent of the total PM2.5 emissions in the region annually, according to an emissions inventory that was prepared by IIT Kanpur as part of the report. Among the states, Uttar Pradesh was found to be the major emitter of PM2.5 from industries, followed by Bihar, West Bengal, Haryana, and Punjab. To deal with industrial emissions, the report emphasises the use of cleaner fuel.The domestic sector was found to contribute 19 per cent of the total PM2.5 emissions per year over the IGP, with this being primarily due to the use of solid fuel and chulhas, according to the report. Soil and road dust was found to contribute 10 per cent of total PM2.5 emissions annually over the region, open burning 15.5 per cent, and the transport sector 5 per cent.On crop residue burning, the report said: “Our results have clearly shown that the major fraction of open burning is due to crop residue burning. For the IGP, we cannot settle the issue of episodic air quality unless we talk about crop residue burning (CRB) in Punjab and Haryana; the estimated PM2.5 emissions from CRB is 70 Gg (gigagrams) at the end of the kharif season, and is almost three times more than Delhi’s annual estimated emission. Thus, the large CRB emissions have a paramount impact on the entire IGP. Plan of actions need to be taken well before and implemented.”In its recent order, the NGT has directed that the MoEF&CC and CPCB may “enforce requirement of cleaner fuel, switching over to efficient air pollution control technologies, enforcement of GRAP and vigilance measures to control other pollution sources like dust control, vehicular pollution and the like under the National Clean Air Program and require city and district-specific action plans within six months by identified authorities/joint committees.”The CPCB has also been directed to hold a meeting with the concerned ministries, departments, states and Union Territories, and other stakeholders within three months to prepare a road map for implementation of the recommendations that the joint committee made.The NGT’s Principal Bench was hearing a case on the operation of hot mix plants in Noida beyond the carrying capacity of the area.
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