Amid concerns over rising pollution in Indian cities, a new tool was launched today that aims to create awareness among people about the quality of air they breathe as well as its likely health impact.
The national Air Quality Index (AQI) launched by Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar proposes six AQI categories, namely good, satisfactory, moderately polluted, poor, very poor and severe and is likely to be operational initially in the country's million plus cities by mid-December.
Noting that the formulation of the index was a continuation of the initiatives under Swachh Bharat Mission envisioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Javadekar said the government would make clean air also a people's campaign.
"It won't be business as usual. In future we will act differently, we will succeed and we will take people along," he said.
"This Air Quality Index is now open... We are starting with million plus cities but definitely will go further deeper and we will start simultaneous action programmes in collaboration with states," he said.
Javadekar outlined the AQI, which has categories with elegant colour scheme beginning from green and ending in dark red, as 'One Number- One Colour-One Description' for the common man to judge the air quality within his vicinity.
The objective of an AQI is to quickly disseminate air quality information almost in real-time that entails the system to account for pollutants which have short-term impacts, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) said.
The proposed AQI will consider eight pollutants (PM10, PM2.5, NO2, SO2, CO, O3, NH3 and Pb) for which short term (up to 24-hourly averaging period) National Ambient Air Quality Standards are prescribed.
Eight pollutants having short-term standards have been considered for near real-time dissemination of AQI.
AQI, a CPCB initiative, was developed by an expert group comprising medical professionals, air quality experts, academia, NGOs, and state pollution control boards. IIT Kanpur, which conducted the technical study, and the expert group have recommended the AQI scheme.
