Air pollution in India is quite a serious issue with the major sources being fuelwood and biomass burning, fuel adulteration, vehicle emission and traffic congestion. As far as emission of greenhouse gases are concerned, India is third largest after China and the United States.] A 2013 study on non-smokers has found that Indians have 30% lower lung function compared to Europeans.
According to recent report, the transport sector contributes about 15 to 50 per cent of PM 2.5 emissions in cities, and is a dominant contributor to NOx emissions. The World Health Organization estimates that, of the 67 risk factors studied in its Global Burden of Disease project, outdoor air pollution was ranked 5th in mortality and 7th in health burden in India, contributing to over 6,27,000 deaths and 17.7 million healthy years of life lost in 2010.
Increasing air pollution is a major cause of concern as it not only causes degradation of environment but also makes one's life susceptible to various ailments and diseases, thereby reducing one's life-span. On the other hand, improved air quality leads to increase in one's lifespan. This has also been substantiated by a new study which says as many as 660 million people or half of India's population could add 3.2 years to their lifespan, if air quality met the national safe standard. In other words, compliance with standards can save up to 2.1 billion life years in India.
Given the current air quality in cities of the country, It is high time a collective efforts need to be taken not only by the governments, corporates but also individuals for making air quality better and that can be achieved not only be preserving flora and fauna but also curbing carbon emission to the environment.
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