Causes of air pollution in India
Air pollution can be termed as one of the major and most common challenges for the current global scenario. This is due to the reason that increases in industrialization and urbanization is causing huge emission of different kinds of pollutants in air. In addition, it should also be noted that increase in urbanization is also leading to the exploitation of natural resources such as fossil fuels. However, different regions are having different major sources of air pollution and measures are being initiated accordingly (Shah et al., 2013). It is also reported in different international reports that even though developed countries are the major source of air pollutants but in the recent time, developing countries are rapidly coming up as the key contributor of air pollutants. Furthermore, developing countries are also less effective in initiating corrective measures for the air pollution as the developed countries. This is causing adverse impact not only on the environment of the particular country but also on the entire globe (Janhall, 2015).
In this essay, adverse impact of air pollution will be discussed from the perspective of India due to the fact that India is the country with having the highest growth rate and a major country facing the wrath of air pollution. This essay will also argue among the different causes given by the authors regarding the pollution in India. In addition, this essay will discuss about the causes for emergence of air pollution and what are the corrective measures being initiated. In accordance to this, a few recommended steps will be discussed.
One of the major causes of air pollution in India is vehicular pollution. This is due to the reason of rapid economic growth of the country. With having huge growth rate, purchasing power of the customers is increasing and this is increasing the demand for vehicles. It is reported that currently, India is the fourth largest automobile market in the world and this denotes the increase in the number of vehicles in the country. According to Greenstone and Hanna, (2014), vehicular pollution is one of the major sources of air pollution in India. In addition, it is also being stated by them that India is having the favorable infrastructure for electric and other cleaner fuel based vehicles like in the developed countries. This is also causing huge air pollution. However, in this article, the authors blamed only the increase in the vehicle number for the pollution but there are other countries with having more number of vehicles but having less air pollution than India. This shows that not only the increase in vehicles but the lack of proper infrastructure is contributing in air pollution (Langbroek, Franklin and Susilo, 2016).
Impact of air pollution on human health
On the other hand, it is also argued by Shrivastava, Neeta and Geeta (2013) that fuel used by the vehicles in India is also responsible for the increase in air pollution. This is due to the reason that quality of petroleum based fuel in India is low compared to some other countries. Lower quality fuel is causing increased amount of air pollution from the vehicles. The view of these authors is denoting that not only the increasing in number of vehicles but also the quality of the fuel also is responsible for the air pollution from the vehicular transportation.
Apart from the vehicular pollution, unsustainable agricultural activities are also responsible for the air pollution in India. According to Ravindra et al. (2015), agricultural practices in India are not sustainable and scientific such as burning of the crop residue after the cultivation. This is causing huge emission of pollutants in the air and further causing smog and other impacts on the Indian metro cities. It should also be noted that the authors have only talked about the burning of crop residue as the source of pollutants but huge amount of pesticides and chemicals are being used in the crops, which are also getting burnt and causing emission of poisonous particles in the air.
One of the major impacts of the air pollution in India is on the human health. This is due to the reason the harmful emission is getting inhaled by the human beings only. According to the reports, Delhi, the capital city of India is the most polluted city in the world with having the air quality as severe. According to Lelieveld et al. (2015), these pollutants in the air are causing health disorders such as premature mortality, cancer and asthma. According to the reports, more than 2 million children from Delhi are having lungs problem due to the continuous inhalation of polluted air. In addition, it is also stated by the authors that the average life expectancy rate of India is getting affected due to the adverse impact of air pollution and this is more evident in the metro cities such as Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata.
Rizwan, Nongkynrih and Gupta (2013) stated that air pollution is also reducing the immunity of not only the human being but also for different other species. Thus, the adverse impact of the air pollution is not only on the human beings but also on the entire ecosystem. On the other hand, it is also being stated by them this impact will not have national effect but the entire world will face the consequences and already majority of the global population are suffering from health disorders due to air pollution. Burney and Ramanathan (2014) stated that apart from the health disorders, vegetation and agricultural productivity also getting hit by the air pollution. This is due to the reason that increase in the air pollution is increasing the average global temperature and contributing in global warming. This is affecting the agricultural activities and will lead to food shortage in the future. In the case of India, this situation will have more impact due to the huge population in the country.
Impact of air pollution on the ecosystem
There are number of actions being initiated by the Indian authorities in fighting against the air pollution. This is further amended according to the current state and situation of the Indian cities (Gulia et al., 2015). This includes stricter regulations for the industries and vehicles. In addition, the government also initiated to introduce cleaner fuels in the market along with introducing alternative fuels such as CNG (Sharma et al., 2013). This will help in reducing the vehicular pollution significantly. Government of India also initiated the FAME scheme under which electric and hybrid vehicles are subsidized and this will further motivate the buyers to buy electric vehicles (Sierzchula et al., 2014). Public mass transportation such as rapid transport system are getting developed, which will reduce the use of personal vehicles. Farmers are also given subsidy and support in availing newer technologies and reducing the emergence of air pollution from agricultural activities.
It is identified that there are number of preventive measures being initiated already but these are not enough due to the reason that all the schemes initiated will have long term impacts and thus short term planning is also required. It is recommended that people should be made aware about the ill impacts of the air pollution. This is important due to the reason that a considerable amount of pollutants in India is emerged due to the unsustainable lifestyle of the people. Thus, the major population should be made aware only to have a significant impact on the emission of air pollution. On the other hand, it is also recommended that nuclear energy should be promoted along with the renewable sources over thermal power plants. This will help to reduce the burning of coal and reducing their emission. In India, thermal power is the major source of power and electricity, which is causing huge amount of coal being burnt along with pollution. Promotion of the nuclear energy will help to reduce this impact to a large extent.
Conclusion
Thus, this essay concludes that air pollution is getting bigger and amplified with time in India and there is an immediate need of regulating this phenomenon. In this essay, different reasons of air pollution in India are being discussed along with their major impacts. It is identified that India is suffering from many ways due to the poisonous pollutants in the air especially their metro cities. In addition, the preventive measures initiated by the government of India are also discussed in this report. However, these measures do not have short term impact and in accordance to that a few recommended steps are discussed in this essay.
References
Burney, J., & Ramanathan, V. (2014). Recent climate and air pollution impacts on Indian agriculture. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(46), 16319-16324.
Greenstone, M., & Hanna, R. (2014). Environmental regulations, air and water pollution, and infant mortality in India. American Economic Review, 104(10), 3038-72.
Gulia, S., Nagendra, S. S., Khare, M., & Khanna, I. (2015). Urban air quality management-A review. Atmospheric Pollution Research, 6(2), 286-304.
Janhäll, S. (2015). Review on urban vegetation and particle air pollution–Deposition and dispersion. Atmospheric Environment, 105, 130-137.
Langbroek, J. H., Franklin, J. P., & Susilo, Y. O. (2016). The effect of policy incentives on electric vehicle adoption. Energy Policy, 94, 94-103.
Lelieveld, J., Evans, J. S., Fnais, M., Giannadaki, D., & Pozzer, A. (2015). The contribution of outdoor air pollution sources to premature mortality on a global scale. Nature, 525(7569), 367.
Ravindra, K., Sidhu, M. K., Mor, S., John, S., & Pyne, S. (2015). Air pollution in India: Bridging the gap between science and policy. Journal of Hazardous, Toxic, and Radioactive Waste, 20(4), A4015003.
Rizwan, S. A., Nongkynrih, B., & Gupta, S. K. (2013). Air pollution in Delhi: its magnitude and effects on health. Indian journal of community medicine: official publication of Indian Association of Preventive & Social Medicine, 38(1), 4.
Shah, A. S., Langrish, J. P., Nair, H., McAllister, D. A., Hunter, A. L., Donaldson, K., … & Mills, N. L. (2013). Global association of air pollution and heart failure: a systematic review and meta-analysis. The Lancet, 382(9897), 1039-1048.
Sharma, P., Sharma, P., Jain, S., & Kumar, P. (2013). An integrated statistical approach for evaluating the exceedence of criteria pollutants in the ambient air of megacity Delhi. Atmospheric environment, 70, 7-17.
Shrivastava, R. K., Neeta, S., & Geeta, G. (2013). Air pollution due to road transportation in India: A review on assessment and reduction strategies. Review Paper (NS-2), Journal of Environmental Research and Development, 8(1).
Sierzchula, W., Bakker, S., Maat, K., & Van Wee, B. (2014). The influence of financial incentives and other socio-economic factors on electric vehicle adoption. Energy Policy, 68, 183-194.
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