Jharkhand is a mineral-rich state in India. Its cities have access to various solid fuels and proximity to several heavy industries. These factors, along with the movement of traffic (public and goods), contribute to air pollution in the state.
The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), under the Government of India (GoI), launched the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) for the mitigation of air pollution in non-attainment cities. However, owing to the unavailability of reference-grade monitoring data, air pollution levels in cities in Jharkhand (other than Dhanbad) have not been quantified. To better understand the air pollution scenario in cities other than non-attainment cities in Jharkhand, the current study developed emission inventories (EIs) for six cities, namely, Sahibganj, Dumka, Pakur, Chaibasa, Hazaribagh, and Ramgarh.
Reduction in emissions in the study cities requires holistic approaches. A large portion of transport emissions are generated from heavy commercial vehicles plying through the cities (owing to the presence of major roads within the cities and freight movement due to industries). New roads bypassing the city area need to be constructed to reduce the sectoral share of transportation. End-to-end pavement to reduce road dust and dust suppression systems in the industries for fugitive dust control are needed. Further, industries should be encouraged to use cleaner fuels, along with mandatory compliance (with third party auditing), to significantly reduce emissions in these cities. Industries need to be shifted from Ramgarh city area for reducing the total emissions. Clean fuel penetration and reduction of solid fuel usage within the domestic sector will also help in reducing the emissions from the city area.
