MoEF to launch anti-pollution campaign in four cities in state

Bengaluru, Davangere, Kalaburagi and Hubballi-Dharwad are the four Karnataka cities where the Union Environment Ministry will launch an anti-pollution campaign with an aim of reducing air pollution by 35% in the next three years.

They will be among 100 Indian cities where such programme will be initiated. "Each of the cities will reduce the pollution levels by 35% in the next three years and by 50% in the next five years under the National Clean Air Programme," Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Environment and Forest, said in a media interaction.

Delhi worst hit

With Delhi being one of the world's most polluted cities, bulk of the central government's mitigation efforts are directed towards the national capital region.

The Central Pollution Control Board maintains a network of pollution measurement stations for 55 cities, but the quality of data is inadequate as a majority of the cities has only one measurement unit. Barring Delhi, no other city has more than 10 measurement units.

The shortfalls to be tackled in the programme will include an expansion of the monitoring network, air pollution health impact studies, setting up of air information systems, certification of monitoring institutions and air quality forecasting for each of these cities.

Source apportionment studies will be carried out in cities to pin point the contribution for individual pollutants in each of these cities. There will also be support for implementation of the actions for abatement of air pollution and to enhance international cooperation.

The government roadmap follows a Greenpeace report in January in which the non-governmental organisation cited Bengaluru, Tumakuru, Bidar, Davangere and Raichur, as the five most polluted cities in Karnataka with high concentration of dust particles that can penetrate and lodge deep inside the lungs, causing serious health problems. The report was based on the government data accessed from multiple sources.