Soaring pollution, crippling floods, India's environment in a fix
India is prestigiously described varyingly like "Sub continent", "Peninsular", "The only Country's name's after an Ocean in the world". \Yes,That's true ,because it's romantically designed bordering , Drass in Jammu the second most coldest place in the world to be inhabited in the north, Mawsynram in Meghalaya receiving high rainfall(467 inch) and the wettest place in the world at east, Thar desert recording Jaisalmer as the driest place receiving only 11inch in entire year in the west and in southern India has all in one bowl like seas , mountains like western and eastern Ghats, Deccan plateau to add on more beauty . To the healthy nation disease called pollution started and is exponentially skewing when the urbanization, industrialization came into picture, eg. Polluted River Ganga, Taj Trapezium i.e discoloration of Taj Mahal due to the industrial pollution nearby, huge decrease of the pollution of Ganges Dolphin "The National Aquatic Animal",etc evidence to it among the 20 most polluted cities in the world 13 are from India topped by the capital Delhi reported by WHO,80% of India's surface water may be polluted due to the intrusion of sewage water in to river and other drinking water sources propounded by WaterAid an international organization.
Finding a panacea is tedious but stepwise approach like monitoring, preventing, maintaining could show a paradigm shift towards the sustainable environment. Major sources for pollution is vehicle exhaustion, industrial pollutants mainly in thermal power plants like coal burning, improper sewage treatement,etc..Air pollution is not purely contributed by urban but rural people activities like wood , kerosene and biomass burning, improper sewage treatment ,etc. also account to it.
Cental pollution control board (CPCB) established under water pollution control act1974 helps to provide guidelines and structure for the betterment, in addition Air pollution control act 1981 and Environment protection act 1986 was added more charges to them to perform monitoring, generate relevant data, technical inputs to national policy, etc.
As a result to that new Air Quality index released comprising of the chief pollutants like CO,NO2,O3,particulate matter of diameter less than 10 and 2.5 micrometers ,as per Clean air act the national ambient air quality standards(NAAQS) comprises CO,lead,NO2,O3,PM,SO2 helps immensely to screen the dos and don'ts . Increase of Coal Cess from 100 rupees to 200 rupees per metric ton of coal, Clean Ganga program partly funded by private firms under "Swachch Bharath Kosh" ,Delhi government initiatives like phased out leaded petrol, banned diesel diesel cars of above 2000cc,etc.. shows a positive note towards combating the pollution in an effective and innovative way.
India being agronomic depends upon 80% on monsoonal rainfall by South West Monsoon around June-September and North East Monsoon around October-November due to the temperature difference on Pacific Ocean and rest from the western disturbance carrying moisture from Mediterranean Sea, thus we receive disproportionate rainfall around the country and resulting flood in fee places like recently occurred Uttarkhand and Southern India Flood.
El Nino is "The Little Boy" warms up the Peruvian coast and result huge amount of rainfall around South-East pacific region favoring North East Monsoon rainfall, La Nina "The Little Girl" is the reverse of El Nino cooling the surface water.
These are the two factors responsible for drought and flood around southern Pacific region. Nearly 2 degree Celsius increase in temperature above pre-industrial levels is an alarming cause for global warming and this is due to the anthropological actions like greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation, fossil fuels burning, etc',
Generally El nino leads to favourable amount of north-east monsoon rainfall and this year it lead to 39cm rainfall which is 32 percent above the normal , which affected the soil fertility , inundation of crops resulting in the drop in economic growth like inflation, importing of necessary commodities, mismatch of goods and supply in a nutshell the daily life of a normal person got affected. Uttarkhand flash floods occurred mainly due to the increase in temperature compared to last decade resulting in cloud bursting .
These floods pictured the unplanned development like lack of dams, inaccurate prediction of Meteorological department, skewing deforestation and real estate business, unpreparedness ,etc. Measures like ISRO's Disaster Management Support Program (DMS) forms the core element for the observatory of the disaster, participating in the Global Disaster relief Summit , conference on Disaster Management we could acquire knowledge of cross- sector management of various countries, making reservoirs, embankments, proposed channelization of rivers ,etc. are highly welcomed as a curative initiative.
Though we can't stop nature we can protect nature. As enshrined in constitution "it shall be the duty of every citizen of India to protect and improve the natural environment" and lets think of before, during and after the disaster and to "Make India Pollution less Disaster Free and Sustainable more".
-Merin Selvi Nelson
