With India aiming to emulate China in taking aggressive domestic measures to control emissions, the Central Pollution Control Board
(CPCB) on Thursday released a study ranking the environmental pollution in 88 industrial clusters across the country.
The study formulates a comprehensive environment pollution index (CEPI) on the basis of water, land and air pollution. All available data on water and air pollution, biodiversity conservation, land degradation, ecological damage and waste management has been used to make this assessment. The exercise would be undertaken once in two years.
The study, Comprehensive environmental assessment of industrial clusters, undertaken by IIT Delhi and the CPCB, found that the environmental pollution levels in 10 major industrial hubs had reached a “very alarmingly high” level. This list includes Ankleshwar and Vapi in Gujarat , Ghaziabad and Singrauli in Uttar Pradesh, Korba (Chhattisgarh), Chandrapur (Maharashtra), Ludhiana (Punjab), Vellore (Tamil Nadu), Bhiwadi (Rajasthan) and Angul Talcher (Orissa).
“Many of these areas have already exhausted their capacity . We might put on hold new approvals in these 10 polluted hotspots till their environmental health is restored,” said environment minister Jairam Ramesh said.
The clusters have been ranked on a scale of 0-100 , based on their sensitivity towards the environment with ten of them topping the infamous list by scoring above 80 indicating the high level of metals and effluent discharged by them in the nearby rivers and region. Thirty-three industrial hubs have scored between 70 and 80 and categorised as "critically" polluted, at least 32 others scored between 60 and 70 and tagged as "seriously" polluted clusters while 10 in the score of 50-60 are in the "warning" zones.
The CPCB along with state PCBs have been asked to prepare an action plan for 43 industrial clusters including ten "very alarmingly" and 33 "most severely" polluted areas within next three months.
“The idea is to identify them in order to take concerted action and to centrally monitor them at the national level to improve the current status of their environmental components such as air and water quality. I will soon approach the Finance Commission for fund for clean-up programmes in these clusters,” Mr Ramesh said.