Vehicular pollution highest in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: Stemming the unabated increase of vehicles in Hyderabad could vastly downsize its carbon footprint as new research estimates that nearly 57 per cent of Hyderabad’s carbon footprint is contributed by vehicular emissions.

Though Hyderabad doesn’t rank very high in the list of Indian metropolises with large carbon footprints, the proportion contributed by vehicles in the city is the highest in the country.

The study on carbon footprints of individual metros in the country was carried out by Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru. The carbon footprint of a city is the total amount of greenhouse gas emissions, methane, carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide, caused by all greenhouse gas emitting bodies in the city.

According to the study by scientists led by Dr T.V. Ramachandra from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Delhi had the highest carbon footprint followed by Mumbai while Hyderabad had the sixth largest carbon footprint, only ahead of Ahmedabad.

Researchers estimated that the transport sector in Hyderabad contributes a whopping 57 per cent to its entire carbon footprint. In Delhi, vehicular emissions only contribute 32 per cent of the city’s total emissions while in Mumbai, vehicles contribute about 17 per cent of the greenhouse gas emissions.

The proportion in Bengaluru is 43.5 per cent. Researchers said that vehicles are adding a huge burden of air pollution to cities and that the quantum of emissions due to vehicles in Hyderabad is only behind New Delhi and Bengaluru. Researchers say that the use of public transport is markedly higher in cities like Chennai and Mumbai where non-polluting local trains is a major mode of city public transport. But in almost every city, vehicular emissions far exceeded industrial emissions.