Kathmandu — Indian would live for about four years longer on an average if the country meets World Health Organization’s(WHO) air quality standards, a new study shows.
“This number would increase to four years if India were to meet the World Health Organisation (WHO) norms. Some of the greatest gains would be seen in the country’s largest cities such as Delhi. There, people would live six years longer if air quality met the national standards. Similar gains are expected across the Indo-Gangetic plain, including in the rural areas,” according The Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago in a study titled A Roadmap towards Cleaning India’s Air.
Delhi is among the most polluted cities in the world. The issue of tackling pollution had also become a political flashpoint between the Union and state governments.
According to a January 2018 survey by Greenpeace Environment Trust that covered 630 million Indians, 550 million live in areas where particulate matter exceeds the national standard, and many live in areas where air pollution levels are more than twice the stipulated standard.
