'It is time to retire the trite stories about clear skies and clean rivers because of the economic lockdown triggered by the coronavirus pandemic. As environment ministers and state governments make it easier for businesses to restart, the toxic gas leak at LG Polymers’ polystyrene plant in Vizag — killing 11 people and exposing 1,100 to the styrene gas — has reminded the world of the folly of viewing environmental due diligence as an impediment to economic activity.
'There are 128 sites in India contaminated by toxic and hazardous substances, according to a March update by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). West Bengal led the list with 27 sites followed by Odisha at 23. Including those, there are 324 sites that may be contaminated, with 196 still awaiting an investigation and confirmation...'
'Some 8,561 trees will be cut down across eight densely wooded roads in outer Bengaluru very soon, leaving them bare and exposed, if the Karnataka Road Development Corporation Limited has its way. The reason? Road widening. Namma Metro Phase 2 will take an additional 1,253 trees. 16,685 trees will be chopped down to make way for the Peripheral Ring Road... More than anything, trees are our last buffer against climate change and urban pollution. India records the largest number of deaths from air pollution, having overtaken China in this dubious rat race to the bottom...'
'As the increasing air pollution in Bengaluru threatens to disrupt the usual way of life, even foetuses are affected by air pollution. There is a rise in the number of cases where the cognitive development of the infants is impacted owing to rising air pollution, highlight experts. Dr H Paramesh, a paediatric pulmonologist and a professor with the Divecha Center for Climate Change at the Indian Institute of Science, stated that automobile exhaust emissions increase the levels of atmospheric lead by around 86%, and that causes lead poisoning.
'Groundwater as well as river water in the western Bengal basin has high concentrations of pesticides and toxic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), a study authored by a group of scientists from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur has revealed. The researchers tested hundreds of samples, both of groundwater and river water, which is used for drinking water supply from the Farraka Barrage to the Sunderbans, and found these chemicals in significantly higher amounts than permissible limits...'
'Caught up in the maelstrom of divisive politics, India is silently but surely sliding into an environmental abyss under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's watch. The latest EPI ( Environmental Performance Index) report released on the sidelines of the WEF conclave at Davos puts us at third from the bottom- at 177 out of 180 countries, a decline of 36 places since 2016 ( when we were at 141). We do even worse in the index of air quality, at 178 out of 180.
'Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar has made a bizarre statement that pollution is not linked to the shortening of life in India. "No Indian study has shown pollution shortens life. Let us not create fear psychosis among people," Union minister Prakash Javadekar told Parliament on Friday... The minister's statement is in sharp contrast with several studies, where the Government of India is also a party. These studies have found that a rise in pollution is linked to deaths and shorter life spans.
'Cities in Uttar Pradesh may be topping the air pollution charts this season, but their police seem to have other priorities in mind. A tweet by a differently abled student to draw attention to an instance of stubble burning in his Bareilly neighbourhood backfired recently, with the local police inspector allegedly threatening to charge him under the National Security Act instead of acting on the complaint. Irshad Khan, a differently abled first-year law student, had tweeted on November 9 about a farmer in his neighbourhood burning crop stubble from his field in violation of the law.
'On Sunday, the intense toxic haze building up in North India over the past week reached apocalyptic levels. Ten monitoring stations in the National Capital Region recorded pollution levels in the “severe plus emergency” category... Despite living in Delhi, however, top ministers in the Prime Minister Narenda Modi government seemed to be on another planet. Environment minister Prakash Javadekar tweeted in the morning to ask Indians to start their day with music...
'The Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change has given in-principle approval for relaxing air pollution standards for coal-fired thermal power plants. The decision was taken on May 17, 2019 in a meeting chaired by the ministry’s joint secretary, Ritesh Kumar Singh... It is noteworthy that before the meeting, the CPCB had sent a monitoring report on seven units of four thermal power plants to the Ministry of Environment on May 2, 2019. The pollution body found that emissions at just two units out of the seven exceeded the 300 mg/Nm³ emission limit.
