Nagaland among 23 states/UTs ordered to submit plans on combating air pollution

Eastern Mirror Desk

Dimapur, Oct. 11: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) had ordered 23 states and union territories, including Nagaland, to prepare action plans to bring the air quality standard within the prescribed limit in two months.

According to NGT, headed by Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel, the action plans may be forwarded to the Central Pollution Control Board by December 31.  The chairman of CPCB will approve of the plans by January 31, 2019.

“The action plan will include components like identification of source and its apportionment considering sectors like vehicular pollution, industrial pollution, dust pollution, construction activities, garbage burning, agricultural pollution including pollution caused by burning of crop residue, residential, and indoor pollution etc.The action plan shall also consider measures for strengthening of Ambient Air Quality monitoring and steps for public awareness including issuing of advisory to public for prevention and control of air pollution and involvement of schools, colleges and other academic institutions and awareness programmes,” the NGT said.

The states and union territories with their number of cities to prepare action plans were: Maharashtra (17 cities), Uttar Pradesh (15), Punjab (9), Himachal Pradesh (7), Odisha and Madhya Pradesh (6 each), Assam, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan (5 each), Karnataka (4), Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Telangana (3 each), Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, Nagaland and Uttarakhand (2 each), and Jharkhand, Delhi, Chandigarh, Meghalaya, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal (1 each).

Quality of air in Dimapur

According to the Nagaland Pollution Control Board, the annual average concentration of Respirable Suspended Particulate Matter (RSPM) during the year 2011 to 2017 in Dimapur showed an increasing trend over the years with the highest level of 141μg/m3 recorded in the year 2017 against the permissible annual average limit of 60μg/m3.

The board concluded that the RSPM contained 140 microgram per cubic metres (mpcm) in 2017, which was 80 mpcm higher than the permissible level and the highest since 2011.

It may be mentioned that some of the major sources of air pollution in the city included- road dust, vehicular emissions, burning of waste, pollution from small scale industries and construction and demolition activities.