A monthly newsletter featuring CSTEP commentary, publications, events, and other developments.

A quarterly newsletter featuring CSTEP commentary, publications, events, and other developments.

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.

In 2019, the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change (MoEFCC) under the Government of India launched the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), which proposes strategies to reduce air pollution in several cities in India. In Jharkhand, only Dhanbad, a non-attainment city, and Ranchi and Jamshedpur, million-plus cities, are under the purview of NCAP. However, considering the importance of mitigating air pollution in several cities in the state, the government has identified multiple cities, including Ramgarh, to generate evidence on air pollution.

We are in a state of climate emergency. The past year was witness to some of the worst floods in Pakistan, extreme heatwaves in the United Kingdom, and devastating hurricanes in the United States. Climate disasters became the norm in India, too, during the first seven months of 2022 as 241 out of 273 days were marked by an extreme weather event — cold waves, heatwaves, cyclones, thunderstorms, torrential rains, floods, landslides, droughts, dust storms, hail, or snowstorms — according to a study by the Centre for Science and Environment.

Another Earth Day is upon us, reminding us how closely interlinked human, animal, and environmental health are. The theme for this year, ‘Restore Our Earth’, is yet another appeal to us—the inhabitants of this magnificent planet—to make earnest attempts at promoting harmony with nature.
Interestingly, nature itself holds vital cues on how we can go about it.

The studies, “Emission Inventory and Pollution Reduction Strategies for Bengaluru” and “Identification of Polluting Sources for Bengaluru: Source Apportionment Study”, point to transportation and road dust as the biggest contributors to air pollution in Bengaluru city. These studies were conducted under the aegis of KSPCB and supported by The Bloomberg Philanthropies and Shakti Foundation, to generate scientific data and contribute to India’s National Clean Air Programme (NCAP).

A study by the Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy (CSTEP)—a Bangalore-based think tank—on the climate of eastern India underscores the need for climate risk mapping and climate action. The study ‘District-Level Changes in Climate: Historical Climate and Climate Change Projections for the Eastern States of India’ projects changes in temperature and rainfall patterns in Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, and West Bengal—the eastern states of India—over the next three decades compared to the historical period (1990–2019).