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The National Clean Action Programme (NCAP) was launched in 2019 with a target of reducing 20 to 30 per cent particulate pollution by 2024, which was then further increased to 40 per cent by 2026. However, most major cities in the country are way behind the 2024 benchmark, according to a recently released study.
The cities fell short despite about Rs 9,650 crore being pumped into controlling air pollution across 131 non-attainment cities so far, out of which nearly 60 per cent — Rs 5,835 crore — being utilised by the cities.
Non-attainment cities are designated as such if they consistently fail to meet the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for fine particulate matter (PM10 that has a diameter of 10 microns or less) or nitrogen dioxide over a five-year period.
The study, conducted by research-based consulting and capacity-building initiative Climate Trends and group of climate scientists and engineers Respirer Living Sciences, was based on data generated by Central Pollution Control Board.
Out of 46 cities tracked over the years (others do not have continuous data, which is a failure in and of itself), the PM10 level in 22 cities has deteriorated over the last five years, while only 8 cities have met the initial target of reducing pollution levels by 20 to 30 per cent, it found.
“Air pollution levels are higher than the NAAQS of 40 microgrammes per cubic metre (µg/m3) and 60 µg/m3 for PM2.5 (ultrafine particles) and PM10, respectively, in most cities,” read the report, adding that “PM2.5 and PM10 levels are higher than the World Health Organization’s air quality guidelines for both pollutants in all the cities where on ground monitoring is being done.”
“The NCAP has made noteworthy progress in tackling air pollution, witnessing notable reductions in PM2.5 and PM10 levels in top polluted cities, but persistent challenges exist, with some urban areas facing an uptick in pollution concentrations,” pointed out Aarti Khosla, director for Climate Trends.
Sachchida N Tripathi, a professor and air pollution expert from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur called NCAP a “limited success”. “While many cities could not achieve desirable results yet, there has been significant improvement in capacity development, monitoring, fund flow and overall awareness in identifying air pollution as a key agenda,” said the expert.
Unless more technology is brought into the exercise and clean air is prioritised in planning and implementation, achieving the overall target would be difficult, Tripathi added.
“Curtailing particulate concentration to 20 to 30 per cent by 2024 was a tough ask. Many cities did well, while others did not. However, we are reviewing and have now linked the fund release with the performance and expect them to do better in coming years,” said a Union ministry of environment, forest and climate change official who did not want to be named.
Durgapur in West Bengal has been the poorest performing city. Its PM10 level surged above 53 per cent during 2019-24 — to 118.2 µg/m3 in 2023 from 77.2 µg/m3 in 2019. It was followed by four Maharashtra cities: Thane, Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Aurangabad. Asansole in West Bengal is next in line.
Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s electoral constituency, has been the most improved city, with a whopping cut of 63 per cent in PM10 concentration in 2023 compared to 2019. Talcher in Odisha was the next-best performer.
The performance was for PM2.5, as the pollution level got poorer in 22 cities out of 49 assessed and only 16 cities could go beyond the 20 per cent reduction target.
Navi Mumbai in Maharashtra, with about 47 per cent increase, was the most deteriorated city for PM2.5, and was closely followed by Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh. Varanasi claimed the most improved city tag again for PM2.5, with a 72 per cent reduction in the last five years, followed by Agra at 53 per cent.
While PM10 is small enough to penetrate the respiratory system, PM2.5 is much smaller and can move deeper into the lungs and trigger a range of diseases, including fatal ones.
Durgapur, Asansol and Haldia are known as industrial cities with high industrial emissions but are also dust-laden regions, said professor Abhijit Chatterjee, a scientist at Bose Institute, Kolkata and an NCAP advisor.
“Close proximity to the highways and construction works and vehicle-driven road dust within the city could be the main drivers for such hikes in PM10,” said Chatterjee. “Such activities emit huge amounts of larger particles, which usually fall in the range of 2.5 to 10 microns. Therefore, these larger particles probably contribute to increasing the entire PM10 load.”
More stringent actions to suppress dust emissions are needed, along with actions to minimise biomass burning, solid fuel burning (especially low-grade coal) and solid waste burning, which would reduce particulates, especially the finer particles (PM2.5), the professor said.
Mumbai was the worst-performing metropolis, with its PM10 level shooting up almost 37 per cent in the last five years — from 80.6 µg/m3 in 2019 to 110.3 µg/m3 in 2023 — though the pollution statistic has gone down marginally in the last year. In the case of the PM2.5 pollutant, the slide has been found to be even higher — 38 per cent.
All other metro cities improved marginally but are way behind the target for 2024. Delhi showed barely a 4 per cent improvement in the last five years. Though in 2023, its PM10 average concentration stood at 208.4 µg/m3, more than thrice above the national annual permissible standard of 60 µg/m3.
PM10 levels for Kolkata and Bengaluru since 2019 have improved by around 14 per cent and 11 per cent, respectively, though both cities need to reduce levels significantly to meet the 40 per cent reduction target in 2026. Kolkata, which had a PM10 level of about 93 µg/m3 in 2023, must reduce its level by around a third, compared to the present level, within two years. The same stands for Bengaluru.
Chennai, where the measurement started in 2020 and hence does not qualify to be compared with others, has a similar PM10 load to Bengaluru.
“Kolkata should stress on pollution sources like vehicles, industries, construction and waste burning along with combating road dust if it has to reach close to 40 per cent particulate reduction target by 2026, compared to 2019 PM10 pollution levels,” observed Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director of Delhi-based think tank Centre for Science and Environment and a frontline air pollution expert.
Out of 93 cities with PM10 data for 2023, only seven (less than 10 per cent) met the national standard of 60 µg/m3. Meanwhile, 32 cities met the national standard for PM2.5 at 40 µg/m3.
While funding is critical for combating pollution, many cities have deteriorated or improved only slightly over the last five years, despite receiving significant amounts of money.
Mumbai is a case in point. Between 2019 and 2023, it received Rs 939 crore and utilised Rs 680 crore, but its pollution levels still soared. Similarly, Kolkata also utilised Rs 636 crore but managed just a 17 per cent improvement in PM2.5 levels and 14 per cent in PM10 levels. The same goes for Hyderabad, which, despite spending Rs 366 crore, improved by only about 7 per cent.
Delhi and Bengaluru, on the other hand, received pitiful funds from the NCAP and the 15th Finance Commission to combat air pollution but still managed to make some progress.
“Unless NCAP focuses on bridging the gap between policy and implementation using a city-level action plan and there is a more equitable distribution of funding for tackling pollution from all possible sources rather than stressing heavily on combating road dust, which is the present trend, it is difficult to meet the overall target,” added Roychowdhury, observing that currently 64 per cent funds get utilised to combat road dust, a low-hanging exercise.
The present NCAP policy of curtailing pollution in select cities does not seem to be working, opined another air pollution expert.
“Firstly, the reduction has not happened as desired and most cities are unlikely to meet the target of 40 per cent reduction by 2026; secondly, many of the cities beyond these so-called non-attainment cities are now found to be highly polluted, as well as the peri-urban areas and villages. Clearly, we need to focus on air shade management rather than countering air pollution in select cities,” the expert added.