The fact that the air quality is getting worse every year and that pollution has spread to the majority of the nation’s locations with dense populations of people is of more concern right now. Since the air is free to flow, pollution has an effect everywhere and cannot be easily defended against.
While contaminated air can be avoided, polluted water cannot always be. The harm done to life and health in India by air pollution has been accurately documented by the Air Quality Life Index (AQLI) created by the University of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute (UCEPI), and that is a serious situation.
Source: The Times of India
According to the AQIL report, which calculates the loss of life expectancy around the world, air pollution cuts the ordinary Indian’s life expectancy by five years and that of a resident of the national capital by twelve years. It has tracked the average PM (particulate matter) 2.5 levels over the course of a decade and discovered that some of India’s most polluted locations are there. One of the worst is the National Capital Region (NCR), which includes Delhi, NOIDA, and Gurugram. The average lifespan lost to air pollution in India’s northern plains, where around 40% of the nation’s population resides, is eight years.
Similar to air pollution, the human and medical costs of this pollution are quite substantial yet rarely acknowledged. According to a prior AQIL research, 2.3 million Indians died from pollution in 2019. It is predicted to cost $36.8 billion, or around 1.36 percent of the nation’s GDP, and is the second-largest contributor to disease burden after hunger.
Source: Telangana Today
States and communities across the nation have strategies to combat air pollution, which is recognized as a serious hazard to public health. However, these are frequently carried out so terribly in practice that they immediately threaten people’s ability to support themselves. They are also thought to have a negative impact on development plans.
The fact that these short-term considerations result in bigger losses over the long term and often even in the near term without our knowledge is not realized. India aspires to be a developed nation, but it should be understood that public health, which air pollution directly and significantly affects, is one of the most important factors that leads to economic growth and development.
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