For the first time ever, the department of environment has decided to release a pollution atlas that will help citizens compare the quality of air and levels of toxins that they breathe in with that in other cities. The atlas will be released through the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) in various cities in the state, with the latest as well as old statistics.
Secretary of the Department of Forest, Ecology and Environment, Kanwar Pal, said, “The atlas will act as a benchmark for people to know about and assess the quality of air that they are breathing, its deviation from the standard permissible levels, the major pollutants in the air in their city, and the most affected regions.
KSPCB has been directed to issue this atlas to the public, along with its quarterly newsletter, from June.”
Pal, who spoke to DNA on the sidelines of the inauguration of a two-day workshop on ‘Urban Air Pollution Forecasting, Monitoring and Implementation', organised by KSPCB and the Karnataka State Environment Research Foundation, Bangalore, said that the information was being made available to people as it was their right to be informed of these issues. He said that this was a practice in the US, where citizens were periodically informed of the levels of the 189 pollutants in the atmosphere under their Clean Air Act.
Pal said that the atlas would not only be released as a report, but would also be posted on the KSPCB website. It would also be issued to all government agencies and industries.
The central government's guidelines suggest 12 parameters that need to be followed while monitoring air pollution. However, KSPCB does not have the necessary equipment to monitor pollution levels as per the guidelines.
Hence, with the from experts,the first atlas report would contain values based on the existing four parameters, — carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide and nitrous oxide.
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