Clean Air is an essential requirement for a long and healthy lifestyle and according to a survey by WHO 1,600 cities released last year Delhi was the world’s most polluted capital. Another study, conducted by economists and public policy experts from the Energy Policy Institute at Chicago, Yale and Harvard University, found that India’s poor air quality reduces the lifespan of the average citizen by 3.2 years[1] keeping this in view on April 6, 2015 an initiative was launched by PM Narendra Modi with the assistance of Environment Minister Prakash Jadvekar for providing real-time information to the public about the level of air pollution in their localities. The first national air quality index was launched in New Delhi on Monday April 6, 2015 during the two-day conference of Environment and Forest Ministers; PM Narendra Modi blaming the changing lifestyles that have come with India’s economic development for rising pollution levels that have given the country some of the world’s dirtiest air and in his speech he stated that “We are trying to think of ways of reducing carbon emissions, but we are not thinking of changing our lifestyle. Unless we bring a change in our lifestyle, we will not be able to save the environment.”
The National Air Quality Index was an initiative by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) as part of PM Narendra Modi’s ‘Clean India Mission’ to provide an understanding to the common people of the complex air pollutants data and its implications on their health. The index is a tool which transforms the complex information on air quality into such simple language which the lay man can understand.
The new index will initially cover 10 cities — Delhi, Agra, Kanpur, Lucknow, Varanasi, Faridabad, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad — each of which would have monitoring stations with AQI display boards. The aim is to eventually deploy the index in all cities with a population of over one million.[2]
The AQI is a tool which states the level of pollution caused by 8 major pollutants in such terms that any layman could understand. This Index is for the public to know the daily pollution level in their areas and to take precautions such as not sending the kids to school or not going to that area for certain period etc.
Working of AQI
The Central Pollution Control Board with the Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change formed the National Air Quality Index booklet which documents the objectives, working and all other details related to AQI.
The basic objective of the Project is “To adopt/develop an Air Quality Index (AQI) based on national air quality standards, health impacts and monitoring programme which represents perceivable air quality for general public in easy to understand terms and assist in data interpretation and decision making processes related to pollution mitigation measures.”
In India, as in many other countries, the Index is centered on five chief pollutants – Particulate Matter with a diameter less than 10 micrometers (PM10), Particulate Matter with a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5), ozone (O3), Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2), and Carbon Monoxide (CO). The Index gives current as well as 24-hour average data on particulate matter – PM2.5 or very fine particles smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, and PM 10 which are less than 10 micrometers in diameter – as well as other pollutants including nitrogen dioxide, ozone and carbon monoxide. PM 2.5 levels are commonly used as the best indicator of severe air pollution, while PM 10 particles are also a cause of public health concern, but less lethal. What the Index does is color code each pollutant’s AQI reading according to the official code, and then assign an overall AQI on the basis of top pollutant’s reading.
The air quality monitoring network in India can be classified as (i) online and (ii) manual.
- Online Monitoring network: These are automated air quality monitoring stations which record continuous hourly, monthly or annually averaged data. In India, 40 automatic monitoring stations are operated where parameters like PM10, PM2.5, NO2, SO2, CO, O3, etc. are monitored continuously. Data from these stations are available almost in real-time.
The Central Pollution Control Board with the assistance of IIT Kanpur has made a web-portal for online monitoring of the AQI by the Public.[3]
- Manual: India, air quality is being monitored manually at 573 locations under National Air Monitoring Programme (NAMP). In most of these manually operated stations, only three criteria pollutants viz. PM10, sulphur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) are measured. The monitoring frequency is twice a week, thus the information is not quick enough. These manual networks are not suitable for computing AQI, as availability of monitored data could have a lag of 1-3 days and sometimes not available at all.[4]
The data from all the manual and online monitoring stations are used to provide an hourly and a daily report on the air pollution level.
Defects
The National Air Quality Index is a work in progress, as the quality of data from some cities remains weak, monitoring stations are not fully equipped and the standards set for pollutants fall short of World Health Organization recommendations. Many stations don’t even update their AQI’s on a periodic basis. Sarath Guttikunda, director of urbanemissions.info, recently pointed out that the index is not adequately representative. “Most monitoring stations in India are manually operated, collecting information every two days. Data is available only after a week of collection” he said.[5] Moreover it is still not clear what a person is to do if say the monitor shows very poor or severe air pollution on a given day in his area. There have been no regulations or recommendations by the Central Pollution Control Board on how a person is to act and react based on the AQI monitor and air pollution status.
Conclusion
AQI is a global standard and Air quality AQI monitoring stations are set-up in 10 cities as the initial stage of the project and it is to be expanded to other cities. These AQI monitors provide an hourly and a daily average of Air pollution level of the specific areas and would be able to raise awareness of the level of pollution on the ground- level to the people who cause such pollution in the first place through their cars, back-door fires and air-conditioners etc. The initiative is based on the idea that once the people know that their pollution they will avoid causing it or atleast avoid the place where pollution is severe. The Government has not worked out an after-plan on what to do in such overly polluted areas or a plan to work with the AQI to reduce the level of pollution. The initiative of setting up a National Air Quality index is a positive one and would be helpful in the long- run but for its success it has to be updated regularly and should be made easily accessible to the common man who doesn’t have a computer or an internet connection to access the web- portal. Moreover, if thought of from the short – term point of view, the government needs to make other plans which go hand in hand with the AQI because the common man is desperate enough to even knowing the pollution level and its harm can’t miss a day or two of work.
[1] http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/worsening-pollution-government-moves-to-clear-the-air/article7074813.ece (Last accessed on 9 pm, 26 April 2015)
[2] http://urbanemissions.blogspot.in/2015/04/india-launches-aqi-system.html (Last accessed on 9:35 pm, 26 April 2015)
[3]http://aqi.iitk.ac.in:9000/ (Last accessed on 7:16 pm, 25 April 2015)
[4] http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/files/file/Air%20Quality%20Index.pdf (Last accessed on 7:25 pm, 25 April 2015)
[5] http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/centres-move-on-national-air-quality-index/article7078261.ece (Last accessed on 9:46 pm, 26 April 2015)
About the Author
Arundhati Singh is pursuing her B.A LL.B. (Hons.) from Army Institute of Law, Mohali. She is an avid reader. Her areas of interests are Environmental Law, International Law and Family Law. Currently, she is interning with the Model Governance Foundation.
