Hyderabad: Bring out your gas mask, because 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 from the urban commute. No surprise that capital city Delhi tops the list. The city’s close neighbour Vijayawada, is the country ’s second lowest in harmful emission and energy consumption. Bhopal stood first for overall low carbon mobility.
Hyderabad’s total particulate emission load from urban commuting is around 900 kg per day which is highly alarming. The city is also the 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.
India’s think tank, Centre for science and environment (CSE), diagnosed 14 most Indian populous cities on parameters such as the quantum of toxic emissions of particulate matter (PM), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and heat-trapping carbon dioxide (CO2) and energy consumption and has put Hyderabad in the 11th slot (4th from the bottom), while Vijayawada stands 2nd (from the top).
The CSE analyses titled ‘The Urban Commute’ that was released on Friday, studies how some cities that hold a sizeable share of India’s urban population, and position that in a scale for clean and low carbon mobility. Cities that pollute and guzzle more are put in the last.
The other cities include Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad (henceforth called megacities); and Ahmedabad, Pune, Jaipur, Lucknow, Kochi, Bhopal, Vijayawada and Chandigarh (grouped as metropolitan cities). Initially, it took 60 years for India to cross the mark of 105 million registered vehicles.
