After a study claimed that India's premature deaths due to air pollution nearly equalled that of China, a green body today said the "scary" scenario left no room for "denial" and asked the Centre to implement a nationwide strategy to tackle it.
After a study claimed that India's premature deaths due to air pollution nearly equalled that of China, a green body today said the "scary" scenario left no room for "denial" and asked the Centre to implement a nationwide strategy to tackle it.
"India cannot afford to remain complacent or on denial any more. With so many people dying early or falling ill and losing productive years due to particulate and ozone pollution, it is a state of health emergency.
"This demands nationwide intervention to ensure stringent mitigation and a road map to meet clean air standards," Anumita Roychowdhury, Executive Director -Research and Advocacy, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said.
The 'State of Global Air 2017' report said that India and China accounted for more than half of the world's premature deaths due to air pollution and India's lives lost to the tiny particulate matter was "approaching" China's numbers.
It said that among the 10 most populous countries and the European Union (EU), Bangladesh and India had the highest exposure to PM2.5, the "steepest" rise since 2010, while globally, there was 60 per cent rise in ozone attributable deaths, with a striking 67 per cent of this increase occurring in India.
CSE's analysis of the report stated that the number of premature deaths due to PM2.5 in India was the second highest in the world and that "it has nearly equalled China's 'dubious' record."
"The new scary results leave no room for diffidence and denial of the problem anymore," it said while asserting that as the Gross External Damage (GBD) analysis becomes an annual tracker of change, it is "possible for the world and India to know the trend in emerging health risk from air pollution." "The Environment Ministry needs to implement nationwide strategy to control both particulate and gaseous pollutants to meet clean air standards," Roychowdhury said.
The NGO also claimed that the rate of increase in early deaths in India was quite scary.
While early deaths related to PM2.5 in China have increased by 17.22 per cent since 1990, in India these have increased by 48 per cent. Similarly, while early deaths due to ozone in China have stabilised since 1990, in India these have jumped by 148 per cent, it said. (MORE)
(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}