PATNA: Believe it or not, but Patna is the sixth most polluted city in the world.
According to a recent
World Health Organisation (WHO) report, Gwalior, Allahabad, Raipur and Patna from India are among the 10 worst cities in 67 countries in terms of air pollution, said
Patna University (PU) geology teacher and JD(U) MLC Ranbir Nandan at a national seminar on ‘Environmental challenges: Monitoring, assessment and remediation’ at Patna Science College on Wednesday. The two-day seminar has been organized by PU zoology department in collaboration with the Centre for
Environment and Energy Development (CEED), Patna.
Nandan said the WHO survey found 11 cities in India among the 20 worst polluted in the world. “Average life expectancy of people in our country is likely to decrease at least by 15 months because of the ever-increasing air pollution from industrial effluents, greenhouse gases and vehicular emissions. By 2040, about nine lakh premature deaths are likely in the country due to drastic rise in air pollution,” he said and added that the green cover in Bihar, however, had increased from 9 to 15% in the last 17 years due to some bold state government initiatives.
PU vice-chancellor Rash Bihari Prasad Singh said the increasing human intervention in the natural processes was creating all the problems. “The pace of climate change has accelerated in recent times due to human activities. It involves all three dimensions — economic, environmental and social — of sustainable development. We must have a long-term perspective on how our actions today will affect our children tomorrow. As much as 64 square km of land area on the earth is turning into an urban landscape per day,” he said.
The VC said indiscriminate exploitation of natural resources by the ever-increasing population is likely to result in a major catastrophe. The world’s population in 1650 was only 50 crore, which increased to 250 crore in 1950. But, in the last 67 years, the population has increased to 730 crore. About 50 to 60 organic species are being lost every day due to environmental degradation, he added.
Nalanda Open University VC Rabindra Kumar Sinha observed that the ancestors were more concerned about environmental protection. Emperor Asoka had ruled that husk containing insects must not be burned. He said developing countries like India will suffer the most from environmental changes.
PU pro-VC Dolly Sinha, Jadavpur University School of Environmental Sciences director Tarit Roychowdhary, PU science faculty dean Radha Kant Prasad, PU zoology department head Pashupati Nath, organizing secretaries D K Paul and
P K Khan also addressed the seminar on its first day.
