Why is India's pollution much worse than China's?

Pedro_P

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▼ As India's north continues to struggle with extreme pollution levels, the story has put a fresh spotlight on air quality in cities across Asia.
Beijing has long been notorious for its smog - but statistics show that India, Pakistan and Bangladesh have worse air by far.
So why is South Asia so much more polluted?
Asia's most polluted cities
Of the world's most polluted 30 cities, 22  are in India, according to research by IQ AirVisual, a Swiss-based group that gathers air-quality data globally, and Greenpeace.
The remaining eight cities are all in Pakistan, Bangladesh and China - but the list doesn't include Beijing, which comes in at number 122.
Just looking at global capitals, it's also Asian cities that top the ranking.
World's most polluted capitals
Sorted by average yearly PM2.5
Source: World Air Quality Report
Looking at overall countries, it's Bangladesh that has the worst air, followed by Pakistan and then India.
All these rankings are based on average air quality per year.
As these countries have very different densities of measuring stations and transparency of data, the statistics have to be read with a degree of caution. But they certainly indicate an overall trend.
Why is India worse off than China?
Pollution in urban areas is usually a mix of different factors - mostly traffic, fossil fuel burning power plants and heavy industries.
What differentiates China from India is that in the latter, there is still a lot of burning of agricultural stubble when farmers want to clear their fields. The burning usually takes place in autumn.
"In this episode, the big problem really seems to have been the agricultural burning," assistant professor Thomas Smith of the London School of Economics told the BBC.
"That's one thing that China has tackled. All agricultural burning has been banned, full stop."
A global overview for fires and thermal abnormalities is made available by Nasa, and allows users to track developments over past days and weeks.
The area north-west of Delhi shows a  highly unusual concentration of fires, Prof Smith points out.
"And you can't underestimate how important agricultural burning is - even though people often think only of cars and heavy industry as the causes."
In the wake of the pollution spike, India's Supreme Court ordered a stop to stubble burning in the states around Delhi.
But the city's situation is made worse by the colder winter air which is more stagnant, trapping the pollutants in place.
Prof Smith also points out that "while India is largely reactive, Beijing tends to be more proactive and preventative to try to stop the problems from happening in the first place".
What does pollution feel like? (▪ ▪ ▪)

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abhidebb

India should give pollution-control a top priority...

asr335704

Three simple reason for this:
1. Government is not that serious.
2. People want government to do everything but not willing to participate equally with government in the initiatives
3. Lack of a dedicated and sufficient fund to control pollution

chanakyakripa

HOPE THIS WILL BE TACKLED BY NEXT YEAR......AND AGIN NEXT YEAR WE WILL HOPE FOR SAME......ONLY CURE???? BRING AND FORCE THE PEOPLE BURNING THE AGRICULTURE STUBBLES TO STAY IN DELHI FOR THIS ENTIRE PERIOD.

parivijesh100

Main reasons are political will & vote bank politics. Leaving such matters in Dual control or overlapping power between state & centre further cripples it & everyone things move only after supreme Court interferes. These are executive matters. We must relook constitution if such matters are not be resolved by only centre. States must follow such instructions else such state governent must be dismissed.

somyajeet

parivijesh100 14-11-2019 08:18 AM
Main reasons are political will & vote bank politics. Leaving such matters in Dual control or overla ...

You have made some very good points here.