{"id":34016,"date":"2018-10-30T15:28:49","date_gmt":"2018-10-30T09:58:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=34016"},"modified":"2018-10-30T15:28:49","modified_gmt":"2018-10-30T09:58:49","slug":"the-aim-is-pollution-control-not-theatre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/the-aim-is-pollution-control-not-theatre\/","title":{"rendered":"The aim is pollution control, not theatre"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/opinion\/interview\/the-aim-is-pollution-control-not-theatre\/article20445694.ece\"><b>The aim is pollution control, not theatre<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n<p><b>Context:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment, a statutory body set up under the Environment Protection Act as well as the Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA), led the shift to compressed natural gas in Delhi, to reduce air pollution.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Introduction:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Supreme Court asked the Environment Ministry to come up with what is now called the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP).<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Problems:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Forecasting data were very poor.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Due to poor infrastructure<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Governance crisis<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>What possibly makes the air of the capital so polluted?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Burning of crops<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Weather pattern which brought winds from Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. This brought a lot of dust, huge wind storms which collided with the wind system coming from the east which was bringing moisture. The moisture locks in the dust and becomes a cloud.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Emissions of pollutants from vehicles<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>How is air pollution measured in India?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Air pollution is measured by many parameters, like CO and PM2.5<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India has come up with an Air Quality Index (AQI) to give an aggregate sense of the quality of air.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The formulation of the index was a continuation of the initiatives under Swachh Bharat Mission envisioned by the present Prime Minister of India.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are six AQI categories, namely Good, Satisfactory, Moderately polluted, Poor, Very Poor, and Severe.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The proposed AQI will consider eight pollutants (PM10, PM2.5, NO2, SO2, CO, O3, NH3, and Pb) for which short-term (up to 24-hourly averaging period) National Ambient Air Quality Standards are prescribed.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>What are the prime sources of air pollution in India?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>Agricultural waste burning<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The burning of agricultural waste in three neighbouring states is responsible for the rise in Air Pollution levels in Delhi.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh are claiming to have taken several measures to discourage straw and stubble burning, but farmers say they have not received any assistance from their respective governments on an alternate method to clear the fields after the harvest<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Industrial chimney wastes:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are a number of industries which are source of pollution.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The chief gases are SO2and NO2.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are many food and fertilizers industries which emit acid vapors in air.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Thermal power stations:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are number of power stations and super thermal power stations in the country.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) is setting up four mammoth coal- powered power stations to augment the energy generation.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The chief pollutants are fly ash, SO2 and other gases and hydrocarbons.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Automobiles:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Toxic vehicular exhausts are a source of considerable air pollution<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In all the major cities of the country about 800 to 1000 tonnes of pollutants are being emitted into the air daily, of which 50% come from automobile exhausts.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The exhaust produces many air pollutants including un-burnt hydrocarbons, CO, NOx and lead oxides.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Way ahead:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is need to have proper data in order to integrate weather forecast with pollution monitoring.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Need a better system and protocol in place to inform people about spiked pollution levels.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Comprehensive plan should be put in place.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Infrastructure to bring long-term and emergency measures.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Need for clean fuel \u2013gas or electricity.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Need for proper governance system.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The aim is pollution control, not theatre Context: The Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment, a statutory body set up under the Environment Protection Act as well as the Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA), led the shift to compressed natural gas in Delhi, to reduce air pollution. Introduction: The Supreme Court asked the&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/the-aim-is-pollution-control-not-theatre\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The aim is pollution control, not theatre<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-test-1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704908423},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34016\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}