Hyderabad air most polluted after Delhi's

Hyderabad: After Delhi, the most affected city due to air pollution is Hyderabad. A Bengaluru-based non-profit organisation commissioned a survey that found that 78 per cent of respondents from Hyderabad, the highest after Delhi, said their family and friends suffered due to poor air quality. About 78 per cent confirmed that they suffered from health complications due to bad air.

The survey studied 2,000 Indian drivers, owners and those who planned to purchase a car between 2017 and 2018. 

It was found that most drivers and vehicle owners were personally affected by poor air quality. Out of the 2000 respondents, 76 per cent said their neighbours, family and friends including themselves suffered from poor air quality every day. While (39 per cent) felt that they had slowly begun to feel the effects of poor air quality.

The highest number of respondents who had health complications were from Delhi (91 per cent) followed by Hyderabad (78 per cent). From the responses, the most common symptoms were ‘shortness of breath, trouble breathing’ (55 per cent), headaches (51 per cent) and coughing (51 per cent). These symptoms were more common in Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai and Bengaluru  and other urban areas and less common in rural areas. Those in the age group of 30- 50 suffered from the above symptoms, said the survey.

The results showed that drivers and vehicle owners were even more concerned about air quality than they were about the cost of petrol or diesel.  Of the total, around 81 per cent were ‘very concerned’ about the air they breathed compared with 74 per cent who were ‘very concerned’ about the cost of petrol or diesel. Respondents in every category (urban, rural, young, middle-aged, 2-wheeler, 4-wheeler) were more concerned about the air they breathed than they were about the cost of petrol or diesel.

Professor W.G. Prasanna Kumar, an expert in pollution control said, “The prime source for carbon emission is transportation.  Hyderabad’s total particulate emission load from urban commuting is around 900 kg per day which is highly alarming. The city is also a leader in high toxic emission based on per travel trip emission and energy consumption. The Energy consumption from urban commuting is 40,000,00 Mjoules per day”.

The harm from pollution is not new in Hyderabad. Among India’s 14 most populous cities, ‘Hyderabad’ is the fourth ‘worst’  in the overall emission of high toxic particulate matter from vehicles and energy used for the urban commute, while Capital city Delhi tops the list.

India’s think tank, the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), diagnosed 14 most Indian  populous  cities  on parameters such as  quantum of toxic emissions of particulate matter (PM), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and heat-trapping carbon dioxide (CO2 ) and  energy consumption and put Hyderabad in the 11th slot(4th from bottom).

According to the World health organisation 2018, as many as 14 of the world’s top 20 most polluted cities are in India.