dhruvrathe

 

Namashkar Friends!

Kanpur, Faridabad, Varanasi,

Gaya, Patna, Delhi, Lucknow

Agra, Muzaffarpur, Srinagar and Gurgaon

These 10 cities have a very big achievement

They are the top 10 cities in India

You know why? In the realm of Air Pollution!

They're not just the top 10 polluted cities in India

but the World!

That means in the entire world the most polluted cities are only these cities.

And this shows how significant and pressing is the issue of air pollution in India.

But even then you seldom see our government and politicians

talking about air pollution.

Not only that, you hardly ever see our media talking about air pollution.

In comparison to other parts of the World like London

The Britain's parliament members asked the assembly to declare

London's level of air pollution

as a national health emergency!

And friends,

do you know the level of air pollution in London?

If we look at the PM 2.5 method

which is way to measure the air pollution of a region,

In London it is 20 micrograms per cubic meter which is

'2 times' more than the limit (which is 10 micrograms per cubic meter)

And if we compare this with India

to our 10 most polluted cities

Each of those cities has more than 110 micrograms per cubic meter!

Can you even imagine?

London's parliament members want to declare a national health emergency

when their air pollution reached 20,

but in our cities it has crossed 110

and our parliament members are completely quiet about this issue!

It is very clear that air pollution is a big crisis in our country

and nobody is talking about it.

So, I'm going to talk about it in this video.

To understand about the situation of air pollution in India, it is important to understand

China's air pollution.

Because at one point, China also used to have the World's most polluted cities.

But today have managed to improve a lot.

But to talk about air pollution,

we all should go to an open air place.

While I'm tying my laces,

you should look at some charts.

These compare China and India

In 2005, 2009 and 2015.

They have used to satellite data to do so.

You can see the difference between the two from 2005 to 2015,

Did you see the graphs?

Did you see how China reduced it's air pollution

from 2009 to 2015?

Statistically, according to Chinese data

between 2012 to 2017

in just 5 years they reduced their air pollution

by 30%

So, what has China done?

This was possible due to China's National Clean Air Programme.

which included a national level plan to reduce the air pollution

and another regional plan for Beijing.

Both programs had

time-bound and specific plans.

For example, the environmentally disastrous coal industry

in the next 5 years,

was targeted to

reduce its pollution by 30%

It was a time-bound plan

with a highly specified target stating 'what' and 'how much'.

This was the reason

China successfully reduced its air pollution levels.

On the other hand, in India

we had an air pollution crisis since 2005

but our governments didn't even recognise air pollution as a national problem!

They didn't accepted that air pollution is a problem!

And so took NO action on it!

Any steps that were taken in those 10 years where in Delhi

which were really small, scattered,

unplanned,

unconnected steps,

with no time limit

or specific targets.

In the last few years

one attempt was made to introduce a time-bound plan.

In 2015, the government asked

all coal-based power plants

would have to follow a new emission standard

and they would be given two years

to comply with and implement this new rule.

Fast forward to 2017

And friend you wouldn't believe but

not even one coal power plant

adopted this new standard!

Nobody listened to the government!

And now the government, along with coal based industries have extended the deadline to 5 more years!

17 April 2018

This was the first time

our government admitted that air pollution was a problem!

Our environment ministry

prepared a draft report of national Clean Air  Programme

In which they state the steps

they will take in the next few years to reduce air pollution

This is an achievement in itself

At least they acknowledged this problem!

Now let's move on to seeing

the good,

the bad and any improvemnets

that are needed in NCAP draft.

The environment ministry is accepting people's suggestions in the draft

till 17th May 2018

So if you have any suggestions,

you can email them.

I have again consulted an environmental activist

and asked them to asses the draft.

The good this is

It focuses on

In a lot of our cities we don't have monitoring systems that measure

the air pollution in the environment

Another good thing is,

So that our fight against air pollution is precautionary

rather than being reactionary

This means that rather than waiting

for the environment to be polluted

to take steps

and reduce pollution

our monitoring systems will be able to tell

if the pollution is going to increase

in the coming days/weeks so that we can prepare for it in advance.

They have also talked about

This means low-cost monitoring systems will be set-up in our cities

including a significant focus on

indoor air quality, the pollution from our kitchens and homes.

Now, the problem with NCAP.

This biggest problem is that our government has

While the first draft had such plans,

the latest one has no such mentions.

There is no time-bound

or specific target of an industry

or a region.

Most of its focus is to

monitor the air quality. Second,

Pollution from the industries, coal power plant

is ignored completely.

The program focuses on 100 cities in the nation and despite being named 'national' clean air program- it

It adds the responsibility of cleaning the air

on the state government

And despite focusing on cities,

it ignores Patna, Muzzafarpur and Gaya

although it was focusing only on cities.

and these cities are in the top ten cities

still they are not focused upon.

And so, there are so many major points missing in the NCAP

that this policy

can only work

if these points are addressed.

The environmental activist helped me specify the changes needed in this report.

They have given me a draft email,

the link for which I will put in the description

and you can email that to this email ID.

If a lot of people email them the same thing

they will have to include these points in their policy.

Or else our air can't be cleaned!

So, I hope friends you like this video,

if you did please comment your thoughts on air pollution

and the NCAP policy.

Also, please share this video

as you all know that air pollution has become a crisis in our country.

Remember, the starting of the video.

See you now, we''ll meet in my next video.

Thank you!