India is poised to incur the dubious distinction of surpassing China as the world’s most polluted country. The denouement must be much too dire for the political class to take cognizance of in the midst of the starry-eyed electoral season.

In the context of the report titled “State of Global Air 2019”, crafted by the Health Effects Institute, it will be a decidedly depleted inheritance for the next dispensation. Both countries have recorded no fewer than 1.2 million deaths caused by air pollution in 2017, reducing to irrelevance the hi-falutin pledges in Copenhagen, Cancun and Paris.

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For all the gloomy projections that the two countries account for one-fourth of the 5 million such deaths the world over, the report has acknowledged that China has in recent years controlled the menace of air pollution. “In recent years China has begun to move aggressively to reduce air pollution. Its PM2.5 (inhalable particulate matter sized 2.5 microns) pollution has dropped markedly.”

Not so, however, in India where despite the signal of intent emitted by the Ganga Action Plan ~ more like a political manifesto ~ the authorities have failed and failed miserably to cleanse the river, generally hailed for its supposedly sacrosanct character.

And the river, that meanders through several states and is integral to the map of India, represents but one aspect of a forbidding challenge. It is a challenge that has over the years been compounded by a welter of other factors.

Of a suitable response, there is virtually nil; of action taken even less. At another remove, PM2.5 levels have relentlessly risen in India, resulting in 1.2 million deaths ~ a marked rise from 1.1 million. Equally marked has been the drop in air pollution related deaths in China.

The health hazard is dangerously real given that PM2.5 is quite the most dangerous air pollutant, that can enter the lungs. The risk factor can be contextualised with the prescient foreboding of the Centre for Science and Environment ~ “Although certain measures have been taken in India, we still need to be much more aggressive to counter air pollution, both in terms of policy and implementation”.

In the immediate perspective, pollution can reduce longevity and deaths resulting from diabetes. Ergo, the danger to public health ~ a critical index of welfare ~ is considerable. Only a drastic reduction in pollution levels can act as a tonic and lead to significant benefits to health.

Not wholly unrelated is the National Green Tribunal’s directive to the West Bengal government to reduce air and garbage pollution in Kolkata within six months. The time-frame is significant and will bear on such issues as air pollution, solid waste management, and river pollution, most particularly in the season of immersion.

Implicit is the message that the West Bengal Pollution Control Board has been largely ineffectual. It is fervently to be hoped that the state authorities will eventually put their shoulder to the wheel.