Down to Earth and Centre for Science and Environment annual report named “State of Indian’s Environment 2021” revealed that as many as 41,090 deaths ascribing to air pollution were reported in Punjab in 2019, which is 18.8% of total fatalities.
The report was released on Saturday. It said that 1.67 million Indians were killed attributing to air pollution in 2019, as per the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019 on health and economic impact of air pollution in states of India.
Half of these deaths were reported in five Indian states including, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, West Bengal and Maharashtra.
In Punjab alone, 1,148 million US Dollars (1.49% state GDP) economic loss was due to air pollution. In Haryana, there were 34,119 deaths due to air pollution.
The report mentions that two Punjab industrial clusters Jalandhar and Batala were among 33 of the 88 clusters of the country where air quality evaluated in 2008 had worsened in 2018. In 2009, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) had developed a Comprehensive Environmental Pollution Index (CEPI) to identify the problematic industrial regions in India.
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Water pollution in Ludhiana
The industrial cluster in Ludhiana was among 45 of the total 88 clusters that witnessed an increased level of water pollution, the report said. The city got over 70 (CEPI out of 100) in 2008, under the critically polluted cluster category, while since 2009 there have been no adequate actions taken to reduce the pollution.
The report said, “Jalandhar and Batala were among the 35 of 88 industrial clusters between 2009 and 2018. In this category, the CEPI score of Jalandhar was around 70 in the year 2009, but it has increased nearly to 80 (out of 100), while Batala scored over 60 in 2009, while it was close to 70 in 2018.”