India's air now 'deadlier' than China's - Only 2 of 10 most polluted cities covered by real-time monitoring, says report

In its new analysis, Greenpeace reveald that only two of India's 10 most polluted cities - Delhi and Faridabad - are covered by the government's real-time air quality monitoring system, leaving more than one billion unprepared for toxic episodes.

New Delhi: Few days after it showed that none of the north Indian cities monitored comply with international air quality standards, Greenpeace India has come out with another report indicating government apathy in tackling pollution.

In its new analysis, Greenpeace revealed that only two of India's 10 most polluted cities - Delhi and Faridabad - are covered by the government's real-time air quality monitoring system, leaving more than one billion unprepared for toxic episodes.

The green body said that in the cities not covered, lack of real-time monitoring means inhabitants cannot check current pollution levels to protect themselves, and the government is unable to issue public warnings.

"Only two of India's 10 most polluted cities are covered by the government's real-time air quality monitoring system, leaving more than one billion unprepared for toxic episodes. The two cities covered are the capital Delhi and Faridabad, an industrial hotspot in northern India.

"In the cities not covered, lack of real-time monitoring means inhabitants cannot check current pollution levels to protect themselves, and the government is unable to issue public warnings," it said.

It said that around 88 million Indians - only 7 per cent of the population - live in the 33 cities that have online air pollution monitoring that is available in real time, meaning that less than 10 per cent of India's 380 urban agglomerations are covered.

Greenpeace India said that although the government runs several monitoring networks that cover more than 200 cities and towns, measurements in most are only taken twice a week and are not available in real-time.

"Instead, a manual monitoring system means samples must first be sent to a laboratory to be assessed," it said.

Comparing it with China, where levels in most cities are slowly dropping, the NGO said that in the latter its government has built a particle pollution monitoring network covering 400 cities and including 1,500 monitoring stations, all posting data online in real time.

Noting that India's air is now more deadly than China's, the analysis also said all of the cities in the top 10 are experiencing levels of the particulate PM10 three-and-a-half times the annual legal limit and 10 times above international guidelines.

Although media attention focuses on Delhi, the NGO said some of the worst pollution hotspots - four out of the 10 most polluted cities - are found in the coal mining state of Jharkhand.

"It has a population of 32 million but not a single official real-time air pollution monitor. Yet Jharkhand is the state googling for information about air pollution the most, well ahead of Delhi, per relative search interest metrics on Google Trends," it said.

In its earlier report titled 'Airpocalypse', Greenpeace named Delhi as the most polluted city in the country out of 20 cities, with PM10 levels between 168 and 268 units, for the year 2015 - which was 4.5 times of the NAAQ standards and 13 times the World Health Organisation (WHO) standards.

Meanwhile, a recent study by the IIT-Bombay showed air pollution caused 81,000 premature deaths in Delhi, Mumbai in 2015 and cost the two cities $10.66 billion (approximately Rs 70,000 crore) in the corresponding year, or about 0.71% of the country's gross domestic product.

(With PTI inputs)