pollution

National Clean Air Programme (NCAP)

The Centre has launched National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) to reduce particulate matter (PM) pollution by 20-30% in at least 102 cities by 2024.

  • Air pollution is one of the biggest global environmental challenges of today. A time bound national level strategy for pan India implementation to tackle the increasing air pollution problem across the country in a comprehensive manner in the form of National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) was  launched by Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
  • The World Health Organisation’s database on air pollution over the years has listed Tier I and Tier II Indian cities as some of the most polluted places in the world. In 2018, 14 of the world’s 15 most polluted cities were in India. A study in the journal Lancet ranked India as No.1 on premature mortality and deaths from air pollution.
  • Inter Link: SDG 11: Sustainable Cities And Communities By 2030, reduce the adverse per capita environmental impact of cities, including by paying special attention to air quality and municipal and other waste management.

  • Approach: Collaborative and participatory approach involving relevant Central Ministries, State Governments, local bodies and other Stakeholders with focus on all sources of pollution forms the crux of the Programme.
  • The approach for NCAP includes collaborative, multi-scale and cross-sectoral coordination between the relevant central ministries, state governments and local bodies. Dovetailing of the existing policies and programmes including the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) and other initiatives of Government of India in reference to climate change will be done while execution of NCAP.
  • Target: Taking into account the available international experiences and national studies, the tentative national level target of 20%–30% reduction of PM2.5 and PM10 concentration by 2024 is proposed under the NCAP taking 2017 as the base year for the comparison of concentration.
  • Today cities occupy just 3% of the land, but contribute to 82% of GDP and responsible for 78% of Carbon dioxide emissions; cities though are engines of growth and equity but they have to be sustainable and it is in this context that NCAP being a very inclusive program holds special relevance.
  • Overall objective : of the NCAP is comprehensive mitigation actions for prevention, control and abatement of air pollution besides augmenting the air quality monitoring network across the country and strengthening the awareness and capacity building activities.
  • The NCAP will be a mid-term, five-year action plan with 2019 as the first year.
  • However, the international experiences and national studies indicate that significant outcome in terms of air pollution initiatives are visible only in the long-term, and hence the programme may be further extended to a longer time horizon after a mid-term review of the outcomes.
  • There will be use of the Smart Cities program to launch the NCAP in the 43 smart cities falling in the list of the 102 non-attainment cities.
  • The NCAP is envisaged to be dynamic and will continue to evolve based on the additional scientific and technical information as they emerge.
  • The NCAP will be institutionalized by respective ministries and will be organized through inter-sectoral groups, which include, Ministry of Road Transport and Highway, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Ministry of Heavy Industry, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Health, NITI Aayog, CPCB, experts from the industry, academia, and civil society.
  • The program will partner with multilateral and bilateral international organizations, and philanthropic foundations and leading technical institutions to achieve its outcomes.
City specific action plans
  • are being formulated for 102 non-attainment cities identified for implementing mitigation actions under NCAP. Cities have already prepared action plans in consultation with CPCB. Institutional Framework at Centre and State Level comprising of Apex Committee at the Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change in the Centre and at Chief Secretary Level in the States are to be constituted.
For effective implementation and Monitoring :
  • Sectoral working groups,
  • national level Project Monitoring Unit,
  • Project Implementation Unit,
  • state level project monitoring unit,
  • city level review committee under the Municipal Commissioner and
  • DM level Committee in the Districts are to be constituted under NCAP .
Monitoring stations:  Increasing number of monitoring stations in the country including
  • rural monitoring stations,
  • technology support,
  • emphasis on awareness and capacity building initiatives,
  • setting up of certification agencies for monitoring equipment,
  • source apportionment studies,
  • emphasis on enforcement,
  • specific sectoral interventions etc.

Beach pollution and Blue Flag certification

  • In addition to air and water pollution, India can now add one more category to its pollution worries: beach pollution.
  • Tourism and Fishing are contributing most of the plastic litter on beaches, according to a study by the National Centre of Coastal Research (NCCR).
  • The NCCR conducted a qualitative analysis of the litter on six different beaches on the eastern and western coasts. It found that plastic litter from tourism alone accounted for 40%-96% of all beach litter.
  • While fishing nets were a major contributor, the processing of fish on the beach also produced a lot of litter. Waste from fishing was high in three of the six beaches studied.
  • Other than the plastic litter dropped by tourists, similar waste from creeks and inlets made its way into the sea in the monsoon. 
  • Most of the litter consisted of plastic bottles, cutlery, and thermocol.

Way Forward: 

  • Experts suggest installation of debris booms and fin deflectors upstream as measures to reduce the quantity of floating solid waste entering coastal waters.
  • India needs a national marine litter policy to control and manage waste on land and prevent its entry into the marine environment.
  • India need to start blue-flagging its beaches. The ‘blue flag’ is a globally recognised eco-label awarded to beaches and marinas that adhere to strict environmental and safety norms.

Blue Flag certification

  • The Chandrabhaga beach on the Konark coast of Odisha will be the first in Asia to get the Blue Flag certification.
  • The tag given to environment-friendly and clean beaches, equipped with amenities of international standards for tourists.
  • It  was awarded the honour on World Environment Day on June 5.
  • Twelve more beaches in the country are being developed by the Society for Integrated Coastal Management (SICOM), an Environment Ministry’s body working for the management of coastal areas, in accordance with the Blue Flag standards.

Blue Flag standards:

  • The standards were established by the Copenhagen-based Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE) in 1985.
  • It challenges local authorities and beach operators to achieve high standards (33 standards) in the four categories of: water quality, environmental management, environmental education and safety.
  • A beach must be plastic-free and equipped with a waste management system.
  • Clean water should be available for tourists, apart from international amenities. 
  • The beach should have facilities for studying the environmental impact around the area.