Lok Sabha Question No. 3657 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-08-08
Subject: Air Pollution Global Cities Ranking
Ministry: ENVIRONMENT,  FORESTS AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Asked by: Jyotsna Charandas Mahant

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION No. 3657

TO BE ANSWERED ON08.08.2022

## Air Pollution Global Cities Ranking

## 3657.   SHRIMATI JYOTSNA CHARANDAS MAHANT:

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

- (a) whether  Korba  district  of  Chhattisgarh  has  been  ranked  17th  in  the  world  in  the  Air Pollution Global Cities Ranking released by Greenpeace Organization on the basis of data of the NASA;
- (b) whether the said pollution is affecting the adjacent districts also and if so, whether the Union Government has taken any steps to control pollution after this report;
- (c) whether  any  action  is  being  taken  to  control  the  polluted  water  and  other  effluents discharged by various nearby plants/factories, along with the pollution emanated majorly by transport and industrial cluster- Government and private power plants; and
- (d) if so, whether any study has been conducted about the adverse health effects of the said pollution on the citizens?

## ANSWER

MINISTER  OF  STATE  IN  THE  MINISTRY  OF  ENVIRONMENT,  FOREST  AND CLIMATE CHANGE (SHRI ASHWINI KUMAR CHOUBEY)

## (a) to (d)

There  is  no  established  mechanism  for  ranking  the  cities  in  terms  of  pollution.    It  also requires authentic data and proper peer review.  The Government is aware that several private institutions and universities are ranking cities adopting different methodologies, different data set  and  using  different  weightages  to  parameters.    The  data  used  for  ranking  is  extracted primarily from satellite imageries which are not validated by proper ground truthing.

The analysis of ambient air quality of last 5 years by CPCB shows that the concentration of SO2 in Korba and its adjacent district of Bilaspur is within the National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) ( Annexure-I).

City Specific Clean Air Action Plans have been prepared and rolled out under National Clean Air  Programme  (NCAP)  for implementation  in  132  non-attainment  cities  and  million  plus cities  including  Korba  city  of  Chhattisgarh  as  a  non-attainment  city.  The  city  action  plans focus on city specific short/ medium/ long term actions to control air pollution from sources such as vehicular emission, road dust, burning of biomass/ crop/  garbage/  Municipal Solid Waste, landfills, construction activities, industrial emission, etc.

Under NCAP, an amount of Rs 1.06 Cr has been released to Korba City from the period of Financial Year 2019-20 to Financial Year 2021-22 for initiating actions as per the city action plan.

The action taken/ being taken to control the polluted water and other effluents discharged by various nearby plants/factories, along with the pollution emanated primarily by transport and industrial clusters, Government and private power plants, is given as Annexure-II.

Air pollution is one of the factors for respiratory ailments and associated diseases. However, there  is  no  conclusive  data  available  in  the  country  to  establish  direct  correlation  between health  and  air  pollution.  Health  effects  of  air  pollution  are  synergistic  manifestation  of factors,  which  include  food  habits,  occupational  habits,  socio-economic  status,  medical history, immunity, heredity, etc., of the individuals.

*****

## Annexure-I Ambient Air Quality of Korba and Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh with respect to SO2

| District   | City     |   Annual Average of SO2 (µg/m3) |   Annual Average of SO2 (µg/m3) |   Annual Average of SO2 (µg/m3) |   Annual Average of SO2 (µg/m3) |   Annual Average of SO2 (µg/m3) |
|------------|----------|---------------------------------|---------------------------------|---------------------------------|---------------------------------|---------------------------------|
|            |          |                            2016 |                            2017 |                            2018 |                            2019 |                            2020 |
| Korba      | Korba    |                              12 |                              11 |                              10 |                               8 |                               7 |
| Bilaspur   | Bilaspur |                               5 |                               6 |                               6 |                               6 |                               5 |

NB. NAAQS of SO2 is 50 µg/m 3 (annual)

## Annexure-II Steps towards prevention and control of pollution caused by various industries

Several steps are taken towards prevention and control of pollution caused from various types of industries across the country. Steps towards control of industrial pollution inter alia include the follows:

-  The  Ministry  of  Environment,  Forest  and  Climate  Change,  Government  of  India notifies  Industry  Specific  Discharge  Standards  under  Schedule-I:  'Standards  for Emission  or  Discharge  of  Environmental  Pollutants  from  various  Industries'  of Environment Protection  Act,  1986  including  Sugar  industries.  SPCBs  and  PCCs  in States  and  Union  Territories  respectively  are  adhered  to  ensure  the  compliance  of these  standards.  So  far,  industry  specific  environmental  standards,  for  about  80 industrial sectors, have been notified.
-  The SPCBs/PCCs issue consent to establish/ consent to operate and authorization to the industries in the States verifying the permission granted by concerned authority for  land  conversion  for  setting  up  of  industry.  Also,  the  SPCBs/PCCs  monitor  the compliance of industrial emissions/effluent discharges and other operational activities according to the prescribed standards.
-  CPCB  carries  out  inspection-cum-Monitoring  of  17  categories  of  highly  polluting industries  on  random  basis,  selected  on  the  basis  of  the  real  time  data  received through  OCEMS  installed  in  industries.  In  case  of  non-compliance,  action  against industry is taken under provisions of Water Act, 1974, Air Act, 1981  and Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.
-  CPCB  has  revised  the  criteria  for  categorization  of  industries  and  directed  all SPCBs/PCCs  in  March,  2016,  to  adopt  the  same.  The  categorization  is  based  on pollution potential of the industrial sector and the purpose of the categorization is to ensure that the industry is established in a manner consistent with the environmental objectives and to prompt industrial sectors to adopt cleaner technologies, resulting in generation of no or minimum pollutants. CPCB has categorized 254 industrial sectors into red (61), orange (90), green (65) and white (38) categories.

****