Lok Sabha Question No. 3914 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-03-19
Subject: Premature Deaths due to Air Pollution
Ministry: ENVIRONMENT,  FORESTS AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Asked by: Gaurav Gogoi

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION No. 3914

TO BE ANSWERED ON 19.03.2021

## Premature Deaths due to Air Pollution

## 3914.  SHRI GAURAV GOGOI:

Will the Minister of ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the  Government is aware that more than one million premature deaths are attributed to air pollution and if so, the details thereof;
- (b) whether air pollution is a major factor for death of children under five years of age;
- (c) whether the Government recognises air pollution as a health emergency in the country and if so, the details thereof;
- (d) whether the Government's initiatives to reduce pollution have been successful so far and if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor; and
- (e) whether  the  Government  proposes  to  increase  funds  to  address  the  situation  of worsening air quality in the country?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER  OF  STATE  IN  THE  MINISTRY  OF  ENVIRONMENT,  FOREST  AND CLIMATE CHANGE (SHRI BABUL SUPRIYO)

## (a) and (b)

There  is  no  conclusive  data  available  to  establish  a  direct  correlation  of  death/disease exclusively with air pollution. Air pollution is one of the many factors affecting respiratory ailments and associated diseases. Health is impacted by a number of factors which includes food habits, occupational habits, socio-economic status, medical history, immunity, heredity, etc., of the individuals apart from the environment.

## (c)

Considering  the  impacts  of  air  pollution  on  human  health  Government  of  India  launched National  Clean  Air  Programme  (NCAP),  which  is  very  comprehensive  plan  to  tackle  air pollution problem across the country in a focussed manner to achieve 20 % to 30 % reduction in  PM10  and  PM2.5  levels  by  2024  from  2017  levels.  The  concerned  ministries,  State Governments, Research Institutes, Industries, etc. are partner in this effort. Under NCAP, a National Knowledge Network (NKN) has been constituted with a group of experts from IITs and  Institutes  of  Repute  as  an  advisory  board  for  providing  capacity  building,  State  of  art technologies,  suggestions,  advisories  regarding  air  pollution  mitigation  and  abatement  to CPCB, SPCB and ULBS.

Further,on 15 th August 2020, the Hon'ble Prime Minister also announced to improve air quality in more than 100 cities. Hon'ble Prime Minister has also launched Air Quality Index (AQI) in 2015, which provides air pollution information and health effect in simple  form,  which  can  be  understood  even  by  common  persons.  National  Air  Quality Standards are also based on health consideration.

Government  has  taken  several  steps  for  mitigation  of  air  pollution  such  as introduction  of  BS-VI,  expansion  of  Metro,  operationalization  of  Eastern  and  Western peripheral expressways, shifting of industries to PNG, waste processing plants, online round the  clock  monitoring  of  red  category  industries,  etc.  The  details  of  initiatives  taken  by government to combat air pollution is at Annexure.

While the Government is making concerted efforts to mitigate air pollution, the citizens should also extend support for the following activities such as:

-  Renew your Pollution Under Control Certificate timely.
-  Avoid idling of engines.
-  Plan your errands to reduce travel time and trips.
-  Adopt clean modes of transport.
-  Prefer cycles/ e-bikes for short trips.
-  Adopt public transportation wherever feasible.
-  Avoid Congested routes.Segregate household waste
-  Never burn waste
-  Take recyclable waste to collection centres & earn from waste too
-  Compost leaves and garden waste
-  Avoid vigorous sweeping of leaves in gardens/ parks - use wide rakes
-  Dispose e-waste responsibly.
-  Adopt green good deeds and encourage others too.
-  Use public grievance redressal apps to inform air polluting activities to authorities
-  Share about ongoing clean initiatives with others.

## (d)

Concerted actions taken has resulted in improvement trend in Air Quality Index of Delhi and NCR area:

| Air Quality Index               |   2016 |   2017 |   2018 |   2019 |
|---------------------------------|--------|--------|--------|--------|
| Number of Good to Moderate days |    108 |    152 |    159 |    182 |
| Number of Poor to Severe days   |    246 |    213 |    206 |    183 |

## (e)

In  Financial  Year  2019-20  and  2020-21  funds  to  the  tune  of  336.8  crores  have  been sanctioned to non-attainment cities under NCAP for initiating actions such as expansion of monitoring  network,  construction and  demolition waste management  facilities,  nonmotorised transport  infrastructure,  green  buffers,  mechanical  street  sweepers,  composting units  etc.  ₹  4400  crores  have  been  allocated  to  42  million  plus  cities  in  FY  2020-21  for tackling the problem of air pollution of which  ₹2200 crores have been released. Further, an amount of₹ 2217 crores has been allocated for FY 2021-22 for improvement of air quality in these cities. A provision of 1,41,678 crores over a period of 5 years from 2021-2026 has been made for Urban Swachh Bharat Mission 2.0 with a focus on air pollution reduction by effectively managing waste from construction-and-demolition activities and bioremediation of all legacy dump sites.

*****

## CENTRAL GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES TO COMBAT AIR POLLUTION

Based  on  air  quality  data,  122  non-attainment  cities  (NACs)  have  been  identified  under NCAP  and  City  Specific  Clean  Air  Action  Plans  have  been  prepared  and  approved  for 111NACs. The other measures taken by the Government includes:

## i. Vehicular Pollution Control

-  Leapfrogging from BS-IV to BS-VI norms for fuel and vehicles since April, 2020.
-  Network of Metro rails for public transport are enhanced and more cities are covered.
-  Development of Expressway  and  Highways  are  also  reducing  the  fuel  consumption and pollution.
-  Introduction of cleaner/alternate fuels like CNG, LPG, ethanol blending in petrol.
-  Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles (FAME) -2 scheme has been rolled out
-  Permit requirement for electric vehicles has been exempted.
-  Promotion  of  public  transport  and  improvements  in  roads  and  building  of  more bridges to ease congestion on roads.

## ii. Industrial Pollution Control

-  Stringent emission norms for Coal based Thermal Power Plants (TPPs).
-  Pet coke and furnace oil have been banned as fuel in Delhi and NCR States.
-  Industrial units shifting to PNG.
-  Installation of on-line continuous monitoring devices in highly polluting industries.
-  Shifting of Brick kilns to zig-zag technology for reduction of pollution

## iii. Waste Management

-  Notifications  of  6  waste  management  rules  covering  solid  waste,  plastic  waste,  ewaste, bio-medical waste, C&D waste and hazardous waste.
-  Setting up infrastructure such ass waste processing plants.
-  Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for plastic and e-waste management.
-  Ban on burning of biomass/garbage.

## iv. Crop Residue Management

-  Under Central Sector Scheme on 'Promotion of Agricultural Mechanization for in-situ management  of  Crop  Residue  in  the  States  of  Punjab,  Haryana,  Uttar  Pradesh  and NCT  of  Delhi',  agricultural machines  and  equipment  for  in-situ crop residue management  are  promoted  with  50%  subsidy  to  the  individual  farmers  and  80% subsidy for establishment of Custom Hiring Centres.

## i. Monitoring of Air Quality

-  Expansion  of  air  quality  monitoring  network  under  National  Air  Quality Monitoring Programme (NAMP)
-  Implementation of Air Quality Early Warning System for Delhi. The system provides alerts for taking timely actions.

## v. Allocation of funds

vi.

## vii. Public Participation

-  This  Ministry  has  an  ongoing  Environment  Education,  Awareness  and among all sections of the society, especially school and college level students and to mobilize people's participation for conservation of environment.
-  The  Green  Good  Deeds  (GGDs),  a  social movement,  is  one  of  the components  of  the  scheme  aimed  to  inculcate  green  good  habits  and behaviour among all sections of the society to take green social responsibility such as minimizing the use of single-use plastic, celebrating Green Diwali, use of public transport,  avoid personal car and promoting car pool, regular check-ups to  get  Pollution  Control  Certificate (PUC),  save  electricity,  save water, avoid congested lanes etc. The detailed suggestive list of good deeds is available at http://164.100.160.232/sbhb/GoodDeeds.aspx

***

-  Rs. 7365.82 Crores was allocated for Solid Waste Management under Urban Swachh Bharat Mission from 2014-2019.
-  Under Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) scheme Rs. 1436 Crore have been allocated for non-motorised urban transport and Rs. 1768 Crores for green spaces and parks for five years from FY201516 to FY2019-20.
-  ₹  1726.67  crores  have  been  released  for  crop  residue  management  in  the States of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and NCT of Delhi, during the year 2018-21.