CSE: Action by SC, govt has resulted in lower pollution peaks this winter

The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said that action on air pollution in recent months by both Supreme Court and the Delhi government has resulted in lower pollution peaks this winter when compared to 2015.

In a live discussion on Thursday on Facebook, CSE’s director general Sunita Narain and executive director Anumita Roychowdhury talked about the impact of recent actions and also the link between early deaths and air pollution. “The data establishes that action has led to impact. After that horrendous peak in November (post 2016 Diwali), which was bigger than previous winter, we did not see a higher peak than what we have seen in 2015 winter. Post November (2016), consistently, the monthly average have remained lower than the previous winter. This gives you enormous amount of confidence that if you act, you will see results,” said Roychowdhury.

The two also took exception to Union environment and forest minister Anil Madhav Dave’s recent statements that there is no conclusive data available linking “death exclusively with air pollution”.

According to 2017 Global Burden of Disease (GBD) report, India has the second highest number of early deaths due to PM 2.5 in the world.

“From the numbers we have got, the rate of increase in early deaths in India is also quite scary. While early deaths related to PM 2.5 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,” said Ms Roychowdhury.

“The minister’s comments mean that the government is telling us to generate evidence which means they are telling their own people to be guinea pig, to die,” said Ms Narain.

While responding to a question from viewers on why pollution in other cities is not highlighted as much in Delhi, Ms Roychowdury said that more than half of Indian cities have critical pollution levels but the monitoring system in most of them is poor.