Cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Varanasi and several others have been fighting their battles against the notorious air pollution.
In fact, Delhi and the NCR region has been observing hazardous pollution levels. Days have been heavily smoggy for about a week now.
In India, several people die premature deaths due to Air Pollution. According to a new study, around 1.4 million are killed by pollution each year.
Across the globe, around 5.5 million people die a premature death. The sad part is that more than 55 percent of these deaths take place in India and China.
As per the international research teams from Canada, United States, India as well as China, even after limiting future emissions, deaths due to pollution during the next decades will only increase in number. The only way to put an end to these killings is setting more aggressive targets.
The situation is worse in India as compared to other countries. The burning of dung, wood and other biomass sources of cooking results in thousands of families being exposed to poor air quality in their homes. Outdoor sources of pollution including stubble burning, cracker bursting during festivities and weddings, and industrial toxic air has been wreaking havoc over many parts of the country, specifically Delhi and the NCR region.
According to Chandra Venkataraman, a professor at IIT Bombay, in Mumbai, "India needs a three-pronged mitigation approach to address open burning for agriculture, industrial coal burning, and household air pollution sources.”
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Strict measures need to be taken in cities battling Air Pollution so as to let the future generations breathe free.
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