Study Notes on Air Pollution for UGC NET Exam 2022

By Mohit Choudhary|Updated : June 7th, 2022

UGC NET Exam consists of Paper-1 and Paper-2. Paper-1 is common for all students and Paper-2 is subject-specific. The environment is the most important section of paper-1. Every year 5 question comes directly from this section. Any aspirant who aims to clear NET/NET-JRF has to cover all sections holistically. In today's post, we are providing study notes on Air pollution and the Government initiatives with regard to it. Happy learning.

AIR POLLUTION

  • Air Pollution is change in the characteristics of air due to introduction of harmful and excessive quantities of substances.
  • Four main reason for increase in air pollution are: increasing traffic, growing cities, rapid economic development, and industrialization.
  • It is injurious to human health or welfare, animal or plant life.
  • It can cause health problems, damage the environment, property and climate change.

 Major air pollutants

  • Carbon monoxide (CO)
  • Carbon dioxide (CO2)
  • Chloroflorocarbons (CFC)
  • Lead
  • Ozone
  • Suspended particulate matter (SPM)
  • Sulphur dioxide (SO2)
  • Smog

Reports

1. Greenpeace has found that India is the largest emitter of sulphur dioxide in the world, contributing more than 15% of global anthropogenic emissions.

2. World Air Quality Report 2019

  • Released by the pollution tracker IQAir and Greenpeace. 
  • The ranking is based on a comparison of PM 2.5 levels. 
  • Bangladesh emerged as the most polluted country for PM 2.5.
  • India is at 5th place.
  • Among the top 30 cities, 21 cities are in India.
  • Among top 10 cities 6 cities are in India.
  • Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, is ranked as the world’s most polluted city, with an average PM 2.5 concentration measurement of 110.2 in 2019. 

Government Initiatives

1. National Air Quality Monitoring Programme

  • Executed by Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB)
  • It is a Nationwide programme of ambient air quality monitoring.
  • It is undertaken in India for the following purposes:
  1. To determine status and trends of ambient air quality
  2. To ascertain the compliance of NAAQS.
  3. To identify non-attainment cities.
  4. To understand the natural process of cleaning in the atmosphere
  5. To undertake preventive and corrective measures.

2. National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS)

  • It was notified in the year 1982 than revised in 1994 based on health criteria and land uses.
  • It has been revised again in November 2009.
  • In 2009, 12 pollutants were included
  1. Sulphur dioxide (SO2),
  2. Nitrogen dioxide (NO2),
  3. PM10
  4. PM2.5
  5. Ozone
  6. Lead
  7. Carbon monoxide (CO)
  8. Arsenic
  9. Nickel
  10. Benzene
  11. Ammonia
  12. Benzopyrene.

3. National Air Quality Index

  • It was launched in April, 2015 with the theme ‘One Number -One Colour -One Description’ for the people to identify the air quality within their area.
  • Developed by Central pollution Control Board (CPCB) with IIT-Kanpur and an expert group comprising medical and air-quality professionals.
  • At present it is in 10 cities- Delhi, Agra, Kanpur, Lucknow, Varanasi, Faridabad, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad.
  • It measures the air quality in real time basis.
  • It has six categories of air quality associated with health impact.
  • Good, Satisfactory, Moderately Polluted, Poor, Very Poor and Severe with distinct colour scheme.
  • It considers eight pollutants
  1. PM10
  2. PM 2.5
  3. NO2
  4. SO2
  5. CO
  6. Ozone
  7. NH3
  8. Pb

4. SAFAR

  • The System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR)
  • Introduced by Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) 
  • Its aim is to measure the air quality of a metropolitan city, by measuring the overall pollution level and the location-specific air quality of the city.
  • It is indigenously developed by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune and is operationalized by the Indian Meteroilogical Department (IMD).
  • It shared on real time, air quality index on a 24x7 basis with colour-coding.
  • It also gives advance forecast for 72 hours.
  • Objective of this project is to create awareness among the people regarding the air quality in their city so that appropriate mitigation measures and systematic action can be taken up.
  • It monitors all weather parameters like temperature, rainfall, humidity, wind speed, and wind direction, UV radiation, and solar radiation.
  • Pollutants monitored: PM2.5, PM10, Ozone, Carbon Monoxide (CO), Nitrogen Oxides (NOx), Sulfur Dioxide (SO2), Benzene, Toluene, Xylene, and Mercury.

5. Action Plan for Cleaner Industry

  • Launched in 2016 by NITI Aayog along with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
  • Its objective is to address the issue of air pollution in Delhi National Capital Region (NCR). 

6. National Clean Air Programme (NCAP)

  • Launched by Central Government.
  • It is Central Sector “Control of Pollution” Scheme.
  • It aims to tackle the air pollution problem across the country in a comprehensive manner.
  • It targets to achieve 20 % to 30 % reduction in PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations by 2024 keeping 2017 as the base year.
  • The programme has identified 102 non-attainment cities (for city specific action plans) mostly in Indo-Gangetic Plains.

7. Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP)

  • It was notified in January 2017
  • It is aimed at prevention, control and abatement of air pollution in Delhi and NCR.
  • Environmental Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA) is the implementing agency.
  • Four AQI categories, namely, Moderate to Poor, Very Poor, Severe and Severe+ or Emergency.

8. WAYU (Wind Augmentation Purifying Unit)

  • It is an air pollution control device which can purify air in an area of 500m.
  • It was developed by Council of Scientific and Industrial Research – National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (CSIR-NEERI) as a part of Technology Development Project being funded by Department of Science and Technology. 

9. SAMEER app

  • It provides hourly updates on the National Air Quality Index.
  • Developed By Central pollution control board (CPCB).
  • It provides information for more than 100 cities.
  • The app can be used to file complained related to pollution issues.

10. Green Crackers

  • Its aim is to resolve the crisis of air pollution.
  • Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) led by Nagpur-based National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) developed green firecrackers.
  • Names of Green crackers developed are - Safe Water Releaser (SWAS), Safe Thermite Cracker (STAR) and Safe Minimal Aluminum (SAFAL).

 Other measures to curb pollution

  • Delhi became first city running on BS VI fuels.
  • Delhi is scheduled to run Hydrogen-CNG (H-CNG) fueled buses to curb emission. It reduces carbon monoxide emission by upto 70%.
  • Anti-smog guns: Anti-smog gun is a device that sprays nebulized water droplets into the air through high pressure propellers which help particles to settle down.
  • Smog towers  Smog towers are basically structures designed as large-scale air purifiers to reduce pollution particles from the atmosphere.

We hope you understood all about Air Pollution and Government initiatives with regard to it.

Thank you,

Team BYJU'S Exam Prep.

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