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This article talks about air pollution from coal, liquid gas, and petrol use being the reason behind many deaths in India. As a result of the fossil fuel usage the death rate has increased 40% in the past 12 years.

-Ja'Quan

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17 lakh and counting: In India, deaths due to air pollution from fossil fuels up 40% in 12 yrs

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Why is New Delhi making it rain artificially?

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Why is New Delhi making it rain artificially?

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New Delhi is using artificial rain through cloud seeding to help reduce its dangerous winter air pollution. Planes spray substances like silver iodide and salt into clouds to trigger rainfall that can wash away smog. However, experts warn it’s only a temporary fix and won’t solve the city’s deeper pollution problems.

-Haylee Cheatwood

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Why is New Delhi making it rain artificially?

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Delhi is using 'cloud seeding' in a bid to dispel pollution - but can it work?

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This article details a study that examines how air pollution in India affects individuals across different socioeconomic classes. It highlights the disparities by class and tells how the poorer citizens are at such a disadvantage when it comes to dealing with the effects of air pollution

-Reed & Spencer

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Poorer households in India are bearing a disproportional impact from pollution caused by others, a new study by Yale School of the Environment Associate Professor of Energy Systems Narasimha Rao has found.

The study, published in the journal Nature Sustainability, is the first to analyze and review how different households contribute to air pollution, as well as the impact of the pollution on different households by income levels.

"Low-income groups, despite not producing a lot of air pollution indirectly because they don't consume much, are facing a disproportionate impact of air pollution from other sources,'' Rao says.

The study, "Household contributions to and impacts from air pollution in India," was co-authored by Gregor Kiesewetter, Jihoon Min, Shonali Pachauri, and Fabian Wagner of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis where Rao is also a senior research scholar.

Most pollution from poorer households comes from the use of biomass burning cook stoves that rely on wood and kerosene, which have a direct impact on indoor pollution levels in their homes. Higher income groups indirectly contribute to pollution through the manufacturing of the products they consume as well as their use of transportation and electricity. But wealthier households are shielded from the effects because of access to air conditioning, better health care, and more efficient buildings and clean-energy stoves.

Air pollution is among the leading causes of premature mortality worldwide and unequal exposure to air pollution likely contributes to health inequality, the study notes. It leads to lung and cardiovascular disease, cancer, and other illnesses such as COPD.

The study reviewed data in unique ways. It presents a breakdown of indirect contributions to annual, population-weighted ambient pollution by consumption category for different income levels; accounts for different vulnerabilities of income groups in mortality estimates and compares the effectiveness and distributional impacts of pollution-mitigation policies. It also defines a new pollution inequity index (PII) that measures the mortality impact per unit of air pollution contributed by households at different income levels.

The data showed that in aggregate, transport and indirect emissions associated with household consumption contributed almost twice as much to ambient particle matter concentrations as direct emissions from biomass cook stoves and that the mortality risk from these indirect sources falls disproportionately on lower-income households, exacerbating the mortality risks they already face from the cook stoves.

It concluded that while industry‐wide pollution controls can reduce inequity in the impacts of ambient air pollution, providing low-income households with clean cooking fuels remain the most effective way to reduce the number of premature deaths from air pollution in India.

"The main policy solution still is to clean up the direct source,'' he says.

The data will likely hold for other countries with similar issues.

"Some of these patterns are quite universal,'' Rao says. "For example, as you have a higher income, you buy a cleaner stove. As you increase in income, you buy more stuff; you consume more electricity, and you drive cars instead of taking public transit. The study makes us understand that we have a responsibility to clean up our pollution. We are hurting other people from our consumption more than we are hurting ourselves."

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Study Finds Poor Households in India Bear Brunt of Pollution Effects

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Poorer households in India are bearing a disproportional impact from pollution caused by others, a new study by Yale School of the Environment Associate Professor of Energy Systems Narasimha Rao has found. The study, published in the journal Nature Sustainability, is the first to analyze and review how different households contribute to air pollution, as well as the impact of the pollution on different households by income levels.

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The article talks about how using too many pesticides in India’s farms is polluting the soil, water, and even the food people eat. Farmers often use more chemicals than needed and don’t always have the right safety gear, which can harm their health and the environment. The study says that these pesticides can hurt animals, insects, and plants, and that India needs better rules and safer, more natural ways to control pests in farming.

-Owen Ritger

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Pesticide pollution in India_ Environmental and health risks, and policy challenges

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This article talks about how pollution has affected India so bad to a point to where schools and outdoor activities have been restricted. Over 1.4 billion people are exposed to the bad air quality.

Garrison B

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L ast month, pollution blanketed India's capital city New Delhi so thickly that officials closed schools, suspended outdoor activities for older children, and placed restrictions on trucks carrying non-essential goods. Air quality is not just a health problem in New Delhi, however. India's entire population, 1.4 billion people, is exposed to unhealthy levels of ambient PM 2.5-fine particulate matter emitted by factories and cars, among other sources. As of December 8, 2022, government data rated more than sixty cities in India with "poor," "very poor," or "severe" air quality.
We asked India's former union secretary for the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, K. Sujatha Rao, to share her thoughts on India's pollution problem. □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □
Think Global Health: New Delhi has been in the news again recently for its high levels of pollution. Why is it so bad there?

K. Sujatha Rao: You have to understand the Delhi pollution issue in context. It's geographically bound by the mountains, and it is surrounded by these nineteen districts. The air gets trapped there, so in the summer, hot air takes away any pollutants. But when it's cold, the air settles down and there is no escape route for pollutants-it's like a lid. All of the waste burning that is happening and all of the pollutant particles that are emerging from other sources of contamination get trapped.

That is the reason why Delhi is a particularly bad situation where air pollution is concerned. All of the north has similar geographic and climatic constraints. India has the enormous distinction of having the greatest number of cities which are highly polluted. And Delhi is certainly one of the three top polluted cities in India and in the world.

When it's cold, the air settles down and there is no escape route for pollutants - it's like a lid

Think Global Health: What are the top sources of pollution in India?

K. Sujatha Rao: Construction is a main polluter-it throws up a lot of dust. Also, in Delhi, the population is 25 million and we have more than 3,000 to 4,000 factories that pollute the air. And this is peculiar to Delhi, but it has about eleven small thermal stations that provide power, and thermal stations are highly polluting. The city also has high traffic-it is leaping and growing in bounds. We have very, very dense vehicular traffic. There has to be a shift in the transportation strategies in all of our cities. In Delhi and other metro areas with dense vehicular traffic, there is a certain amount of contamination of gasoline with kerosene. It happens largely because of the gas pricing policies. People need economic incentives to use clean fuel.

Think Global Health: What role does cooking fuel play in air pollution in India?

K. Sujatha Rao: Cooking fuel is a problem. At least 100 million people depend on cow dung cakes and other biomass sources for cooking and that has its own problems in regards to polluting the air. So we need to take some kind of policy corrective for that. It is cheap and they get it from their animals-agriculture waste-but they area bout five to ten times more polluting than a gas stove would be.

So these are some of the factors that are really contributing to air pollution.

Think Global Health: What are the health implications of these types of air pollution?

K. Sujatha Rao: There has been a steady increase, particularly in northern part of the country, and particularly again Delhi. In India, about 1.67 million people died in 2019 due to air pollution [which translated to $36.8 billion in economic losses]. That's a huge number and in Delhi, it's estimated that over 30,000 people die from air pollution each year. It has a large trail of mortality and it is largely respiratory infections-lung diseases, COPD, asthma bronchial infections. These are the main impacts. And it also leads to cardiac arrest and gastrointestinal problems. Respiratory infections are also the third or fourth highest mortality factors in India.

Think Global Health: Does air pollution impact people in all economic brackets in India equally?

K. Sujatha Rao: Of course, air is equally distributed to all-rich and poor, young and old-we all breath the same air. But its impact is disproportionately felt by poorer people. Those who work in the construction industry, those who work in factories that create pollution, those who work in unhygienic environments-these are the people whose health is much more impacted by poor air quality. They may also be nutritionally compromised and immunologically compromised. Death is one aspect, but also long morbidity has an impact on their earnings, because not only do they lose productivity in terms of work, but also they spend money on buying health care, unless they go to government hospitals. So, these are the kind of social and economic impacts that air pollution has. It is quite devastating.

Think Global Health: How can changes in national or local level air pollution policies shift the course of pollution's affect on health in India?

K. Sujatha Rao: India is a federal country-not so federal as the U.S.-and in our constitution, health is a state subject. So essentially, each state ought to have its own very strong stand on industries that are polluting the environment-polluting our air and waterways.

But, the government of India needs to take this much more seriously, too, and it hasn't. It needs to come up with stronger controls on pollution, and what I mean by that is that perhaps some hard decisions need to be taken to shut down the thermal stations and replace them with cleaner fuel for power. They need to bring in new technologies for agricultural waste, that do not involve burning it. But these measures are costly and the agricultural economy can not sustain them, or invest in it in order to supply small farmers with the kind of machinery they need. Heavy subsidies perhaps have to be given by the government to encourage them to use this technology, or provide common facilities to do so.

What Delhi does is interesting. Every time the pollution gets very high, beyond acceptable levels, they have have an odd/even policy. They regulate traffic by having all odd-numbered car numbers allowed in use on one day, and even numbers on the next. They shut down half of the thermal stations and half of the construction. It's essentially a lockdown.

The government of India needs to take [air pollution] much more seriously

And they found during the lockdowns due to COVID, that the air quality improved. For the first time, we could see blue skies in Delhi. One can lead oneself to believe that COVID was probably nature's way of saying halt, let the earth breath a little bit for God's sake. We saw many more birds. All of nature seemed to be rejuvenated during COVID. That was a signal we all found interesting.

There are technologies to reduce emissions into the air and I think we need to be more stringent in our enforcement of them, and take this more seriously. It's a long-term project.

Think Global Health: One final unrelated-yet health-focused-question. As someone who has been in public health leadership for a long time now in India, how do you think India is doing now, coming up on three years of COVID?

K. Sujatha Rao: COVID really put public health on the map. And even more than public health, health as a sector. It's been one long neglected sector in the battle for prioritization among India's different sectors-development, roads and highways, factories and industry. As opposed to developing health and education. COVID has done one thing. For the first time, we're seeing health as an electoral promise. It never happened before. It is not like the United States. In India, health is hardly an issue that attracts any political party votes. But now we find even the prime minister making promises and commitments on health-related issues in recent elections. And several other chief ministers are beginning to show interest. COVID-19 has had such a devastating imprint on all of us and health has certainly gained visibility finally.

Second, it has brought in the value of public health, both in terms of having to invest in more public health surveillance systems and better disease control programs and to have more public health expertise. But also in terms of having stronger public hospitals that cater to the poor. Overall, there's an opportunity now to strengthen our health systems and policies.

Mary Brophy Marcus is the former deputy managing editor of Think Global Health. She is a health journalist who specializes in medicine, health policy, and global health.

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India's Pollution Problem | Think Global Health

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India's former secretary for the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare talks smog and health

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This article highlights how the Ganges River has been tied up in a heated legal battle and focuses on the failure of the government to enforce these laws.

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Dying Waters: India Struggles to Clean Up Its Polluted Urban Rivers

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India’s booming population and rapidly expanding urban areas have exacted a huge toll on its rivers, which are badly polluted and choked by development. But in cities across India, activists are heading to court to force municipalities and states to take action.

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India is facing a water crisis despite housing 18% of the world's population. Pollution from human waste threatens public life, health, and ecosystems in India.

-Carly

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India’s rivers choking on water pollution

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Water pollution is more than just an environmental issue, it’s a human crisis. In India, contaminated water is spreading diseases, harming children, and burdening women with endless chores. Let’s raise awareness and take action to protect our most precious resource.

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90% of India's biodiversity is threatened. 95% of vegetation life has been lost. 25 Animal species have gone extinct in recent years.

-Kate

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Understanding this drastic loss in environment

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Water pollution is one of the biggest problems in India. The untreated sewage is discharged and causes surface pollution and groundwater pollution. The issue is aggravated by the lack of development of sufficient wastewater treatment plants and the lack of maintenance of the existing ones. -baba

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Overview of Indian Environmental Challenges

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India is a developing country with a huge population. There are some severe and biggest environmental issues for the country, which are analysed in this article.

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Ayla Moffitt- This article discusses all the lives lost due to air pollution within India. It also focuses heavily on economic loss/impact and how future generations will continue to suffer in many ways under these conditions.

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Pollution-related deaths numbered 1.67M in 2019, according to a new report led by Boston College researchers

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Pollution-related deaths numbered 1.67 million in 2019, according to a new report led by Boston College researchers. Economic losses were in the billions.

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This article is about how India’s water crisis is driven by its vast population, overuse and mismanagement of groundwater, pollution, and inadequate infrastructure, leaving hundreds of millions without safe water or sanitation.

-Thomas R

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SIWI - Leading expert in water governance

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With the planets second largest population at 1.3 billion, and expectant growth to 1.7 billion by 2050, India finds itself unable to serve the vast majority of that populace with safe, clean water.

Supporting 16% of the world's inhabitants is daunting enough, but it is even more so when recognizing that population is crammed into an area one-third the size of the United States. Then consider that India only possesses 4% of the world's fresh water and the crisis can be more fully realized.

India may not be the only nation in this predicament, but theirs is at a stage more critical than most. Severe lack of regulation, over privatization, general neglect and rampant government corruption have led to multiple generations thirsting for more than just a few drops of hazard free water.

The situation has grown to the point that regional disputes have risen over access to rivers in the country's interior. Those disputes take on a global scale in conflicts with Pakistan over the River Indus and River Sutley in the west and north and with China to the east with the River Brahmaputra.

Surface water isn't the only source reaching a breaking point.

Tracing back several generations, the critical situation in India can be linked to a myriad of causes. In modern times though, the concern has moved from the surface to the ground. And it's there where India's freshwater is under the greatest stress.
Causes: Groundwater and A History of Indifference
Over the past 50 years, policies have allowed what amounts to a free-for-all in groundwater development and as the crisis has grown it has been met with continued neglect, mismanagement and overall indifference.

Estimates put India's groundwater use at roughly one-quarter of the global usage with total usage surpassing that of China and the United States combined. With farmers provided electricity subsidies to help power the groundwater pumping, the water table has seen a drop of up to 4 meters in some parts of the country. This unfettered draining of groundwater sources has accelerated over the past two decades.

With the aggressive pumping, particularly in rural areas, where agriculture provides the livelihood for upwards of 600 million Indians, Mother Nature is often the difference in a good year and a devastating one. Relying on monsoon rains without proper irrigation or water management techniques has been a recipe for disaster.

Mismanagement and corruption often draw the largest headlines, but many of India's leaders have also been slow or unwilling to adapt to newer technologies or cohesive plans to address the issues.

The response can at best be described as irresponsible. Consider China, a country with roughly 50 million more people, uses a quarter less freshwater.
Growing Demand, Declining Health
Not only is India the world's second most populated country, but it has a fast growing middle class that is raising the demands on clean, safe water. Then consider close to half of the country practises open defecation and you have a dichotomy of two very different populations desperately pulling at the same limited resource.

One group wanting to grow and flourish and the other wanting to survive.

A few numbers from the World Bank highlight the plight the country is facing:

163 Million Indians lack access to safe drinking water

210 Million Indians lack access to improved sanitation

21% of communicable diseases are linked to unsafe water

500 children under the age of five die from diarrhea each day in India

More than half of the rivers in India are highly polluted with numerous others at levels considered unsafe by modern standards. The waters of the Yamuna, Ganga and Sabarmati flow the dirtiest with a deadly mix of pollutants both hazardous and organic.

Aside from commonplace industrial pollution and waste, India's rivers are open use across much of the country. From dumping human waste as previously noted to bathing to washing clothes, the human element contributes to the epidemic of health related concerns.

Adding to the human toll is the reliance on seasonal rains, which are often sporadic in some years and over abundant in others. Rain totals can vary greatly and do not always arrive in the places they are needed most. The drought and flooding that results from this inconsistent cycle often leads to crop failures and farmer suicides.

Much of the above affects rural citizens where poverty is rampant, but even more developed urban areas face their own challenges.

Even with a robustly growing middle class, when combining rural and urban populations, over half of India still lives at or below the poverty level. Furthermore, no city in India can provide clean, consumable tap water full-time.

Should the crisis continue unabated, the scarcity of water will have a negative impact on the industrial health of the country.

Recent drops in manufacturing jobs can be tied to companies being unable to access clean water. Along with the inability to properly cultivate agriculture areas and the water crisis quickly becomes an economic one.
Look to the Future
It may seem a foregone conclusion that the water will soon enough dry up and along with it India as a whole. That need not be the case.

There are even bright spots in the current environment. The Rivers Narmada and Chamabal run clean with water fit for consumption. Several projects are currently underway that aim to move water to areas that need it the most.

But it will take a long-term commitment of the Indian government not previously shown and the heavy assistance of outside resources.

Common sense practices and training will also aid in reducing the damage done to groundwater sources. Teaching farmers updated irrigation techniques, such as drip irrigation, and utilizing more rainwater harvesting are small, effective steps in stemming the loss of freshwater sources.

Much of India will also need modern sanitation policies that both conserve and wisely utilize water sources. Recognizing physical and economic growth directly ties to the amount of safe, usable water is another step in right direction.
Conclusion
Yes, all of these changes take the long view, but a crisis of this magnitude will not be solved with lip service and short sided solutions.

However daunting, the goals are not unattainable. India is still a developing society, and there is time to reverse the crisis that has been decades in the making.

Given the right commitment and dedication, India can soon enough have safe, clean water. https://businessconnectworld.com/2018/01/11/water-crisis-in-india/

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The Water Crisis In India: Everything You Need To Know | SIWI - Leading expert in water governance

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With the planets second largest population at 1.3 billion, and expectant growth to 1.7 billion by 2050, India finds itself unable to serve the vast majority of that populace with safe, clean water.

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Environmental concerns in India: Plastic Pollution, Deforestation & Water Crisis

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The document highlights three of India’s biggest environmental challenges: plastic pollution, deforestation, and the water crisis. Plastic pollution is a grow

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This article says Global warming is a big issue right now in India, along with air and water pollution, soil erosion, and waste management. - Blake

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5 Biggest Environmental Issues In India and Solutions

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1. Global warming 2. Air pollution 3. Water pollution 4. Soil erosion 5. Waste management are the biggest environmental issues in India.

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This article talks about how polluted water is detrimental to the lives of people in India. Even though there are existing water treatments in the area to aid in this problem, water scarcity is still putting the lives of India residents in Jeopardy.

-Garrett S.

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Fossil fuel-driven air pollution and extreme climate events caused 1.72 million deaths in India in 2022, with economic losses totaling $339.4 billion, highlighting the urgent need for climate action to address health impacts and environmental degradation. - Jake W

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Fossil fuel-driven air pollution claimed 1.72 million lives in India in 2022: The Lancet report

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The Lancet report reveals fossil fuel pollution caused 1.72 million deaths in India in 2022, highlighting urgent climate action needs.

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This article talks about how about half of India's rivers are polluted. India has contributed 10% of waste leakage to the world's rivers.

- Liza

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India’s polluted rivers are becoming a global pollution problem

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Towering landfills are testament to poor waste segregation practices in India that have persisted for decades. But India’s mounting, untreated waste is a problem whose consequences go beyond its borders. A new study estimating waste leakage into aquatic environments finds India is at risk of being one of the top contributors to this global problem, […]

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This article is about a study that shows that over the past decade, hours of sunlight in India have gone down steadily. This is due to an increase in emissions and fossil fuels in the air.

-Thomas H

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How air pollution is stealing India’s sunshine

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India’s sunshine hours have fallen over the past 30 years due to clouds, aerosols and local weather.

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Micro-particles are entering people's blood and lungs. An increase in these particles has shown a direct increase in mortality rate.

-Billy and Jackson

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Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

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Air pollution in India linked to millions of deaths | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

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A new study published today in Lancet Planetary Health found that long-term exposure to air pollution increased deaths by 1.5 million deaths per year in

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This article discusses the 5 prominent environmental issues within India regarding Air pollution, water pollution, Food and Water Shortages, Waste management, and the loss of Biodiversity.

-Sariel

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5 Biggest Environmental Issues in India in 2023 | Earth.Org

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Top environmental issues in India: 1. Air Pollution; 2. Water Pollution; 3. Food and water shortages; 4. Waste management; 5. Biodiversity loss.

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This article talks about a recent rise in the air pollution level and the people groups most affected by it including marginalized groups and day laborers.

-your name here

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India: Prolonged air emergency levels must be addressed immediately

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Reacting to the reports of air pollution level in Delhi remaining in “severe” category for over a week as toxic smog blankets the capital city of India, Ann Harrison, Amnesty International’s Climate Advisor, said: “The annual air emergency in Delhi is neither a new problem, nor one that comes without warning. The government’s repeated failure […]