NEW DELHI – A damning report published on the occasion of World Environment Day said air pollution kills more than one hundred thousand children under five every year in India.
Carried out by the Centre for Science and Environment, the report found that 86 percent of Indian water bodies are critically polluted.
It further said the country’s progress in renewable energy is dismal.
India has repeatedly failed to address the environmental concerns.
Last year a UN report found that fourteen out of the world’s fifteen most polluted cities are in India.
https://en.dailypakistan.com.pk/world/india-tops-global-list-of-pollution-related-deaths-with-2-5-million-victims-report/
Despite calls for action against pollution around the globe, Indian politicians mostly side-stepped the issue in the last election.
The State of India’s Environment Report has found that air pollution is responsible for 12.5 percent of all deaths in the country, painting a bleak picture of the environmental record of recent Indian governments.
As of last month, India had 280,000 electric vehicles, a fraction of the target of 15 million-16 million by 2020.
India’s greenhouse gas emissions rose more than 20% between 2010 and 2014, while its natural gas and hydroelectric plants were in a “shambles”, the report continued.
The report found gas-based power plants are running at 24% of their capacity, and hydropower projects are running at just 19%.
“The country’s progress in renewable energy in 2018-19 has also been dismal,” the CSE said.
“In wind, the country met only 6.3% of the target this year. In solar, it met 5.86%.”
India also recorded a 56% rise in the number of industries creating hazardous waste between 2009 and 2016-17, while the number of grossly polluting industries soared 136% between 2011 and 2018.
India is projected to add 416 million town and city dwellers to the world’s urban population by 2050.
But Prime Minister Narendra Modi, recently re-elected in a campaign in which climate change was barely mentioned, instead tweeted appealing to people to “live in harmony with nature” on World Environment Day.
https://twitter.com/narendramodi/status/1136104717405302784
“We have been brought up in a tradition, where nature is equal to God. Where sanctity of nature is meaningful and where nature’s protection has been put at par with humans,” Modi said.
“On this Environment Day we all need to spare some time to think what can we do to make our planet clean and green,” he said.
