AIR POLLUTION – AN EXISTENTIAL CRISIS
In spite of significant progress made in improving air quality, 92% of the world's population still lives in places where air quality much exceeds the WHO guidelines. According to WHO Report 2018, an estimated 7 million deaths were associated with pollution. This cause of mortality accounts for 11.6 per cent of all global deaths.
India with its 14 out of 15 world's most polluted cities has a gigantic task of monitoring and mitigating air pollution from its mega cities, state capital and satellite towns. Air Quality of Delhi and NCR region has been a matter of grave concern for the last few years. Alarms were raised when AQI touched 999 in the month of October 2016. The problem was further compounded with the crop residue (Pallari) being burnt by farmers of the NCR region that surrounds the capital city of Delhi. It should be noted that New York/New Jersey, London and Munich were as polluted or even worse than Delhi 1950s, 1960s and up to 1970s, but the timely interventions of the policy makers, planners and the government that recognize the problem with a sense of urgency and thus rolled out strategic policies and actions that resulted in mitigating air pollution in these mega world cities.
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