As many as 7 of the top 10 most polluted cities of the world are to be found in India. Gurgaon or Gurugram now has the dubious distinction of leading this pack. This is as per a new report which shows India’s battle with declining air quality and how unsuccessful it has been till now in tackling this problem. This is bound to have immense economic consequences worldwide. Other cities belong to the NCR like Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Noida. There is also Patna from Bihar.
Gurugram or Gurgaon, which is towards the southwest of New Delhi, India’s capital, actually led all other cities in pollution levels in the year 2018. It has improved upon its tally from the last year, as per the data and info released by IQAir AirVisual as well as Greenpeace. 3 other Indian cities have joined the top 5 with Faisalabad, in Pakistan, the only other from a different country.
The air quality index measures the quantity of fine particulate matter which is known as PM2.5. This size of pollutants can go deep into the lungs as well as the bloodstream of humans.
“This has huge impact, on our health, and on wallets,” says Yeb Sano, who is the executive director of Greenpeace Southeast Asia. He claimed this in a statement which has been released along with figures. “Besides human lives which are lost, there is an estimated cost of $ 225 bn in lost labor and trillions in medical cost,” he emphasized.
India is one of the world’s fastest growing major economies. There are 22 from India among the top 30 most polluted cities across the world. While 5 are from China, 2 are from Pakistan and 1 are from Bangladesh. India needs to up the ante against air pollution and other health hazards as its health care costs as well as productivity losses are increasing manifold and could harm its economy. There is 8.5 per cent loss of the gross domestic product (GDP) from pollution, as per the World Bank.
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