Photo credit: Sanjay Verma/Getty.The map also showed that the rate in northern China, about 1,000 or more deaths each year per 1,000 kilometres, is matched by that of northern India, in a diagonal swathe stretching from New Delhi southeast to Calcutta. This has been corroborated by other recent studies and data that indicate that air quality in Delhi is worse than in Beijing, despite the fact that far less media attention is paid to India's air pollution. A World Health Organization study shows that India has the world's highest death rate due to chronic respiratory diseases, and more deaths from asthma than any other nation.
Noting that there is more public dialogue about air pollution in China than in India, the China correspondent for The Hindu, Ananth Krishnan, has explored the reasons for the disparity. He believes that the posting by the U.S. Embassy in Beijing of daily air quality readings on Twitter has played a role in forcing the Chinese government to publicize air quality problems in the past year or two. He said that although Delhi officials make the same kind of data available to the public, the Indian press has paid little attention to it, which may have contributed to public apathy. “I don't think the Indian media has given enough attention to this issue," said Mr. Krishnan.
Meanwhile, India has been ranked 155 out of 178 countries on the 2014 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) released by Yale University in the United States. The Index ranks countries on high-priority environmental concerns including air quality, water management, and climate change. India's performance on the Index lags most notably in the protection of human health from environmental harm. “Although India is an ‘emerging market' alongside China, Brazil, Russia, and South Africa, its environment severely lags behind these others," said Angel Hsu of the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy, and lead author of the report. Hsu added that, “Very low GDP per capita coupled with the second highest population in the world means India's environmental challenge is more formidable than that faced by other emerging economies."
Author: Jennifer Scarlott, Sources: The New York Times, The Financial Express.Â
