"Asia and Africa today"
- is a scientificl monthly journal (in Russian)
of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Included in Russian Science Citation Index on
WoS platform, and EBSCO Publishing.
ISSN 0321-5075. Published since July 1957.

"Asia and Africa today" № 4 2020

Title

ECOLOGICAL CATASTROPHE THREATENS INDIA

DOI

10.31857/S032150750009088-8

Аuthor

Valeriy P. KASHIN
PhD (History), Leading Research Fellow, Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences ( This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. )

Abstract:

   According to the author, industrialization and the green revolution in India sacrificed ecology to five-year plans. Plants and factories constructed without treatment facilities have filled cities and their surroundings with waste. Herbicides and pesticides from fields have spoiled water and soil. One can only see thick forests in the Himalaya foothills. In the end of the XX – the beginning of the XXI centuries the country became one of the least favorable ones for living.

   The ecological crisis in India is connected with the fast economic development, the ‘demographic pressure’, high rates of the urbanization, the global warming and the change of climate. The modern India is clean from waste and free from the open defecation, which used to be practiced by the half of the population. These days India’s main eco-problems are air and water pollution. India has one of the lowest positions in the world rating of drinking water quality. 80 % of India’s water bodies are highly polluted. The underground water resources are decreasing. 163 million Indians do not have access to drinking water. Despite all the measures like ‘Swachh Bharat’ (‘Clean India’) and ‘Namami Ganga’ (‘Clean Ganges’) campaigns water scarcity in India is being worsened.

   The Greenpeace reports the air pollution in the capital of India and other northern cities as the ‘Airpocalypse’. In November 2019 the level of air pollution PM 2,5 (particulate matter) hit 999 micrograms per cubic meter in some districts of New-Delhi and its satellite cities while the safe limit is 25 micrograms per cubic meter. The smog could be caused by the burning of paddy harvest residue in the neighboring states of Haryana and Punjab. The authorities do not know how to fight against the smog and place their expectations on face masks and the wind.

Keywords:

India, Ganga, ecological crisis, open defecation, air pollution, water pollution

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