That air pollution is a serious problem in cities like Mumbai and Delhi is common knowledge. Therefore, it won’t be as surprising to learn that there are a number of deaths that occur every year in these cities owing to the high air pollution. What is surprising to learn is that cities that have clean air like Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad have a higher mortality rate. A recent study found that these cities, too, are not exempt from deaths owing to poor air quality.
Despite Having Clean Air, Cities See Higher Mortality Rate
According to an article which was recently published by Deccan Herald or DH, the study was published in the Lancet Planetary Health. This study is India’s first multi-city evaluation of exposure to air pollution. A total of ten studies were evaluated for the study.
These are Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Shimla, Kolkata, Pune and Varanasi. The study found that despite having clean air, many cities saw a high number of deaths owing to air pollution. These include Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad.
A total of 33,000 deaths were recorded in these ten cities. Delhi had the highest number of deaths totalling 12,000. Mumbai saw 5,091 deaths whereas Kolkata saw 4,678 deaths. Bengaluru and Chennai saw 2,102 and 2,870 deaths respectively related to air pollution. Hyderabad and Shimla saw 1,597 and 59 deaths respectively.
Failure Of The NCAP Programme Launched In 2019
In 2019, the Union Ministry launched the National Clean Air Programme or NCAP to monitor air quality in 131 cities. As per statements cited in the DH article, the programme has been a failure. The statement said that more than 50 per cent of the NCAP funds remained unutilised.
What is more, the Lancet study points out that the clean air targets set by the NCAP are much too low. Such low targets may not be helpful in saving lives.
Which city do you live in and how is the quality of air there? Let us know in the comments section below!
Cover Image Credits: Canva Images
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