19-Dec-2022: Black Carbon

The study of Himalayan glaciers is a complex and evolving subject studied through investigations, data collection and analysis of various research studies by scientists in India and all over the world. The glaciers and their characteristics exhibit complex changes in specific locations across different sub-regions of the Himalayas. There are stable, retreating, or even advancing glaciers in the Himalayas, thereby emphasizing the complex geographical and cyclical nature of the glacial dynamics. The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is operating a network of aerosol observatories under ISRO Geosphere Biosphere Programme. One of the parameters being measured from this network is the black carbon mass concentration. The long-term measurements of black carbon over the Indian region from the aforesaid regional network of aerosol observatories clearly shows a decreasing trend (0.24 µg m-3year-1) in the past decade.

The Government has taken several measures to control black carbon emissions which inter-alia include the following:

1. Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana promoting use of cleaner household cooking fuels.
2. Leapfrogging from BS-IV to BS-VI norms for fuel and vehicles from 1st April, 2020.
3. Network of metro rails for public transport has been enhanced and more cities are covered.
4. Introduction of cleaner / alternate fuels like gaseous fuel (CNG, LPG etc.), ethanol blending.
5. A new initiative, “Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation (SATAT), has been launched to set up 5000 Compressed Bio-Gas (CBG) production plants and make CBG available in the market for use.
6. Under Central Sector Scheme on ‘Promotion of Agricultural Mechanization for in-situ management of Crop Residue in the States of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and NCT of Delhi’, agricultural machines and equipment for in-situ crop residue management are promoted with 50% subsidy to the individual farmers and 80% subsidy for the establishment of Custom Hiring Centres.
7. The Central Government is implementing the National Clean Air Programme as a long-term, time-bound, national-level strategy to tackle the air pollution problem across the country in a comprehensive manner with targets to achieve 40% reduction in particulate matter concentrations by 2025-26.
8. Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has identified 131 cities based on ambient air quality levels exceeding national ambient air quality standards, and cities with million plus population. City specific Clean Air Action Plans have been prepared and rolled out for implementation in these cities. These plans define time bound targets to control city specific air polluting sources (soil &road dust, vehicles, domestic fuel, municipal solid waste burning, construction material and industries, etc.).Annual plans with micro detailing are also prepared for effective implementation of the city plans.
9. Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles (FAME) phase-2 scheme has been rolled out.
10. Shifting of brick kilns to zig-zag technology for reduction of pollution. Industrial units shifting to piped natural gas.

30-Jun-2021: Black carbon could lead to premature mortality: study

Black Carbon has a significant adverse effect on human health and leads to premature mortality, says a new study. The study could help in the estimation of future burden of mortality associated with air pollutants more accurately.

The Indo-Gangetic plain is exposed to black carbon (BC) with serious implications on regional climate and human health. However, most of the pollutions-based epidemiological studies essentially relate exposure to particulate mass concentration (PM 10 and/-or PM 2.5) that invariably generalize all particulates with equal toxicity without distinguishing individuals by its source and composition, which genuinely have different health consequences. Importantly, the health effects in terms of mortality due to BC aerosol exposure have never been evaluated in India.

R.K. Mall led the team of scientists including Nidhi Singh, Alaa Mhawish, Tirthankar Banerjee, Santu Ghosh, R. S. Singh from the Department of Science & Technology-Mahamana Centre of Excellence in Climate Change Research (MCECCR) at Banaras Hindu University explored the individual as well as the cumulative impact of BC aerosol, fine (PM 2.5), and coarse (PM 10) particulates, and trace gases (SO2, NO2, O3) on premature mortality in Varanasi. They have recently published their research in a reputed journal “Atmospheric Environment”.

A typical urban pollution hotspot in central Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP), the town experiences very high aerosol loading and trace gas concentrations throughout the year due to prevalence of a subsidence zone and observed decadal increasing trends both in Aerosol Optical Depth and Black Carbon aerosols.

The Scientists from the Centre of Excellence in Climate Change Research supported by the Climate Change programme of Department of Science and Technology (DST) utilized daily all-cause mortality and ambient air quality from 2009 to 2016 to clearly establish a significant impact of BC aerosols, NO2 and, PM2.5 exposure on mortality. The inclusion of co-pollutants (NO2 and PM 2.5) in the multi-pollutant model increased the individual mortality risks for BC aerosols. The effect of pollutants was more prominent for males, age group 5-44 and, in winter. They found that the adverse effect of air pollutants was not limited to current day of exposure but can extend as high as up to 5 days (Lag effect). They further showed that mortality rises linearly with an increase in air pollutants level and shows adverse impact at higher levels.

Inclusion of BC as a potential health hazard inspires and provides a background for more epidemiological studies to provide evidence of health effects of air pollutants from different parts of India. The study could also help estimate the future burden of mortality associated with air pollutants considering the present association and incorporating a growing population rate. This will help government and policy-makers for better planning to mitigate the adversity associated with changing climate-air pollution-health nexus.

24-Sep-2019: Black Carbon particles affect unborn babies

The black carbon particles emitted by the vehicular exhaust and coal-fired power plants, have been detected on the fetus-facing side of the placenta, which possibly is expected to affect the overall development of the unborn baby.

90% of the world’s population lives in places where air pollution is above the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines.

The concentration of black carbon particles was highest in the placentas of women who are most exposed to airborne pollutants in their daily life. Inhalation of these particles by the mother gets translocated from the mothers’ lungs to the placenta, resulting in life-long changes to the development of the baby along with permanently damaging the lung tissues.

The link between exposure to dirty air and increased cases of miscarriages, premature births, and low birth weights which in turn increases the chances for diabetes, asthma, stroke, heart disease and a lot of other conditions, has been established in this study. This opens future avenues for new fields of research that demand focused attention on the direct role of particles getting to the tissues, rather than particles getting into the lungs.

A comprehensive global review also concluded that the air pollution may be damaging every organ and virtually every cell in the human body. Nanoparticles have been found crossing the blood-brain barrier in humans.

According to the WHO standards, the black carbon particles in the air are not considered as a major pollutant. The need is to identify and aptly list all possible pollutants affecting crucial stages of the development. The nascent stage of development is the most vulnerable period of life. All the organ systems are in the phases of development. For the protection of future generations, we have to reduce the exposure to such pollutants.

Black Carbon Particles: Black carbon particles are short-lived climate pollutant with a lifetime of only few days to weeks after release in the atmosphere. Black carbon particle is a potent climate-warming component of particulate matter formed by the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels, wood, and other fuels. Incomplete combustion releases CO2, carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, and organic carbon and black carbon particles in the atmosphere. Black carbon and its co-pollutants are key components of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) air pollution that is one of the leading environmental causes of poor health and premature deaths.

15-Dec-2022: Increase in sea level

The Government stands committed to addressing the global collective action problem of climate change through multilateralism and resolute domestic actions, including, improving the understanding of the subject through various research endeavours. The Government is fully aware that research and knowledge generation are critical aspects of the fight against climate change.

Climate change is a cross-cutting issue spanning various Ministries/ Departments and institutions under them. Research on climate change is mainly sponsored by the Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, and Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. Sectoral aspects of climate change are also studied by different Ministries/Departments concerning sectors like agriculture, water resources, human health, power, renewable energy, transport, urban issues / development, etc. Further, a large number of universities and government research institutions such as the Indian Institute of Technologies (IITs), Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Central and State Universities and their departments also carry out climate change related research.

Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), an autonomous institute of MoES has acquired the baseline Airborne Lidar Terrain Mapping (ALTM) elevation data from National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) under ISRO for the Tsunami Inundation modelling and vulnerability mapping. This data is available for the mainland Indian coast up to two kilometres from the coast and would be used for predicting the sea-level rise.

As part of Indian Tsunami Early Warning System, INCOIS has established a real-time network of 36 tide gauges at different locations along the Indian coast to monitor the tsunami waves and provide timely advisories. It has established 4 tide gauges in Andhra Pradesh at the following locations.

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change had notified the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) Notification in the year 1991 vide S.O.114(E), dated 19th February 1991 which was superseded by Coastal Regulation Zone Notification 2011 issued vide S.O. 19(E) dated 6th January 2011 and subsequently by Coastal Regulation Zone Notification 2019 issued vide the Notification G.S.R. 37(E) dated 18th January 2019, with a view to ensuring livelihood security to the fisher communities and other local communities, living in the coastal areas, to conserve and protect coastal stretches, its unique environment and its marine area and to promote development through sustainable manner based on scientific principles taking into account the dangers of natural hazards in the coastal areas, and sea level rise due to global warming. As per the said Notifications, coastal areas are declared as Coastal Regulation Zone, wherein setting up and expansion of industries, operation and process are restricted and require prior clearances for permitted and regulated activities as per provisions of the said Notifications.

The CRZ Notification 2019 will, however, be effective, once the Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP) as per the said Notification is prepared or updated by the respective States / UTs and the CZMP as per provisions of CRZ Notification, 2011 shall continue to be followed for appraisal and CRZ clearance to such projects till such time.

The CRZ Notifications are revised or amended based on representation from various Coastal States and UTs, besides other stakeholders.

18-Jun-2021: Climate change to increase sea level in Lakshadweep Islands, will affect airport & residential areas: Study

Sea-level will rise around the Lakshadweep Islands in the range between 0.4 mm/year to 0.9 mm/year, says a study conducted projecting different greenhouse gas scenarios.

The study highlights that the worst possible inundation scenarios projected for Lakshadweep Islands are almost similar under different emission scenarios projected and all the islands in the archipelago would be vulnerable to impact from sea-level rise.

One of the major threats in the coming years is rising sea level and its significant impact on small islands and this is for the first time, that climate model projections were used to assess the potential areas of inundation over the archipelago of Lakshadweep Islands in the Arabian Sea.

 A team of scientists including Aysha Jennath, Athira Krishnan, Saikat Kumar Paul, Prasad K. Bhaskaran jointly from the Department of Architecture & Regional Planning and Department of Ocean Engineering & Naval Architecture, IIT Kharagpur, with support from the Department of Science & Technology, Government of India under the Climate Change Programme (CCP), studied the Climate projections of sea level rise and associated coastal inundation in atoll islands, a ring-shaped coral reef or island.

The study estimated that smaller islands Chetlat and Amini are expected to have major land-loss. Projection mapping indicated that about 60%-70% of existing shoreline would experience land-loss in Amini and about 70%-80% in Chetlat. The present work highlights that, larger islands Minicoy and the capital Kavaratti are also vulnerable to sea-level rise, and expected to experience land-loss along 60% of the existing shoreline. Sea-level rise effects are seen to have the least impact on Androth Island under all emission scenarios.

The research that was published in the journal ‘Regional Studies in Marine Science, Elsevier recently showed that the coastal inundation could have wide socio-economic impact. According to the team, projected inundation due to sea-level rise can impact the islanders as residential areas are quite close to the present coastline. Also, the only airport in the archipelago is located at the southern tip of Agatti Island, and has a high likelihood of damage due to inundation from sea-level rise.

The authors have suggested that keeping in view the impacts from projected sea-level rise for Lakshadweep, it is necessary to have appropriate coastal protection measures and best-practices to formulate planning guidelines.

This study also opens up a new outlook and dimension on future research to assess the directional nature of wave energy, impact of storminess in the Arabian Sea region, islands that are exposed and sheltered and amenities such as potable water, sanitation and so on.

This noteworthy study has practical value and can be immensely useful to policy makers and decision making authorities for both short and long-term planning that benefit the population in Lakshadweep Islands.