New Delhi world's most polluted capital city for 2nd consecutive year
Darpan News Desk IANS, 22 Mar, 2022 10:46 AM
New Delhi, March 22 (IANS) New Delhi has been ranked the world's most polluted capital city for a second consecutive year followed by Dhaka (Bangladesh), N'Djamena (Chad), Dushanbe (Tajikistan) and Muscat (Oman).
Of the 15 most polluted cities in Central and South Asia in 2021, 12 were in India. New Delhi saw a 14.6 per cent increase in PM2.5 concentration in 2021, 96.4 Ig/m3, up from 84 Ig/m3 in 2020.
The annual PM2.5 concentration averages in 48 per cent of India's cities, exceeded 50 Ig/m3 or more than 10 times the World Health Organization's (WHO) air quality guidelines.
Crop burning is common in India, especially in the rice farms near Delhi during the winter months.
During crop burning season, smoke is responsible for up to 45 per cent of pollution in the city.
These startling facts came to light on Tuesday in the 2021 World Air Quality Report according to which only three per cent of cities and no single country has met the latest WHO PM2.5 annual air quality guidelines.
The report analyses PM2.5 air pollution measurements from air monitoring stations in 6,475 cities in 117 countries, regions and territories.
IQAir's 2021 World Air Quality Report is the first major global air quality report based on updated annual WHO air quality guidelines for PM2.5.
The new guidelines were released in September 2021 and cut existing annual PM2.5 guideline values from 10 Aug/m 3 to 5 Aug/m 3.
Fine particle pollution, known as PM2.5, is commonly accepted to be the most harmful, widely-monitored air pollutant and has been found to be a major contributing factor to health effects such as asthma, stroke, heart and lung diseases.
PM2.5 leads to millions of premature deaths every year. The key findings include no country met the latest WHO air quality guidelines for PM2.5 in 2021.
Only the territories of New Caledonia, US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico met the updated WHO PM2.5 air quality guidelines.
Only 222 out of 6,475 global cities in the report met the updated WHO PM2.5 guidelines.
At least 93 cities in the report had annual PM2.5 concentrations exceeding 10 times the WHO PM2.5 guidelines.
Of 174 Latin America and the Caribbean cities, only 12 (seven per cent) have met the WHO PM2.5 guidelines.
Of 1,887 Asian cities, only four (0.2 per cent) have met the updated WHO PM2.5 guidelines.
Of the 1,588 cities in Europe, only 55 (three per cent) have met the WHO PM2.5 guidelines.
The report covered 2,406 cities in the US and found that an average PM2.5 concentrations rose from 9.6 Aug/m 3 to 10.3 Aug/m 3 in 2021 compared to 2020.
"It is a shocking fact that no major city or country is providing safe and healthy air to their citizens according to the latest WHO air quality guidelines.
"This report underscores just how much work remains to be done to ensure that everyone has safe, clean and healthy air to breathe. The time for action is now," said Frank Hammes, CEO of IQAir.
The accused have been identified as Nitin Pratap alias Atul and Sandeep Kumar -- residents of Firozabad in Uttar Pradesh. Police said the accused used a Suzuki Gixxer motorcycle for the last two months to commit the crime in Gurugram and Rajasthan, and they used to travel from Tapukara in Rajasthan once a week to snatch mobile phones.
The deceased, identified as Megha Kayal, 40, was working as a doctor in London Milton Keynes University Hospital. Prior to this, she was a doctor at Apollo hospital, Sarita Vihar, Delhi.
A gofundme has raised US$70,000 for the victim family. The bodies of the four family members – who have been identified after autopsies as Jagdish Patel, 39, his wife Vaishaliben Patel, 37, daughter Vihangi Patel, 11, and son Dharmik Patel, 3 – are currently lying in a morgue in Winnipeg.
Senior advocate and Additional Solicitor General Rupinder Singh Suri passed away, sources said here on Monday. According to reports, he was battling Covid-related complications for over a week. He is survived by his wife Gurvinder and advocate daughters Suruchi and Simar.
A bench headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana told the Punjab government counsel to advise his government to refrain from launching criminal cases against the political opponents, just before the election. The top court directed Majithia to surrender on February 24 before the trial court and seek regular bail.
The chief minister further said that from Monday onwards, they have started recouping farmers' loss. "By providing them with a financial assistance of Rs 20,000 per acre, Delhi is paying the highest compensation amount across the nation," he tweeted, adding that they have handed over cheques amounting to Rs 2.5 lakh or 3 lakh.
