Combating air pollution

Rural areas should not be left out

The notion that air pollution is primarily an urban phenomenon does not seem well-founded. Evidence gathered by reputed institutions, including some leading Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), suggests that air quality in villages is almost as bad as in most cities, posing equally grave health hazards. But this aspect, regrettably, is totally disregarded in the combat against air pollution, which remains focused on select urban centres. Practically, little is underway to monitor and mitigate air pollution in non-urban zones. The bulk of the country’s population, therefore, lives in areas outside the pollution-tracking network and continues to breathe foul air with its attendant ill-effects on health.

A study by non-profit outfit Climate Trends, based on the data provided by IIT Delhi, showed that India’s annual average PM 2.5 (particulate matter of less than 2.5 microns) content of air in 2022 was 46.8 microgram in urban areas and barely a tad lower at 46.4 microgram in the rural belt. PM 2.5 pollutants can penetrate into the lungs and enter the bloodstream to cause serious illnesses, ranging from respiratory disorders to cancer. The national threshold for PM 2.5 is 40 microgram, although in heavily polluted cities, their concentration invariably hovers substantially above this level. Previous studies on pollution, conducted by IIT Bombay and IIT Kharagpur, have also come to similar conclusions. Yet, the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), launched in 2019 to reduce PM 2.5 and PM 10 levels by 20-30 per cent by 2024, is confined only to 130-odd selected cities. Of the total sum of around Rs 9,000 crore released for this programme so far, not a single rupee has been earmarked for any rural area, overlooking the fact that pollution is a transboundary menace that does not recognise geographical borders. The air quality indices, meant to forewarn citizens about perilous pollution levels, also do not cover non-urban belts. Little surprise, therefore, that the Delhi-based environment think tank, the Centre for Science and Environment, recently reported that villagers tend to lose about seven months more of their potential lifespan due to exposure to contaminated air than their city counterparts.

The traditional chulha (clay oven), which is still used in village homes, is one of the most prominent causes for pollution in the countryside, though numerous rural-specific factors are also at play. These include the widespread use of conventional fuels like wood, crop residues, and animal dung cakes for cooking and extensive use of diesel in farm operations, such as for running tractors, crop harvesters, grain threshers and water pumps. The smoke generated by torching crop leftovers to clear the field for subsequent sowing is another significant source of atmospheric pollution that drifts across even to the urban centres. Moreover, a sizeable part of the chemical fertilisers added to the soil end up in the form of greenhouse gases, including potent pollutants like ammonia and nitrogen dioxide. Many of these issues can be taken care of by facilitating easier access to clean fuels in rural areas and promoting efficient use of farm inputs. But, the most critical need is to treat rural and urban areas equally when it comes to combating air pollution.