New Delhi:  The Supreme Court is likely to pronounce the interim directions on Wednesday on banning registration of diesel vehicles in the capital. Ahead of this important judjement, here are a series of reports that came out today underlining pollution concerns and the poor air quality in the Delhi- NCR region.

1) Air pollution responsible for upto 30,000 deaths annually in Delhi

Air pollution is responsible for 10,000 to 30,000 deaths annually in Delhi and is the fifth leading cause of death in India, a report by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) released today said.  

The publication ‘Body Burden 2015: State of India's Health'  also said that climate change is leading to greater frequency and intensity of extreme weather events.

The publication, which comprehensively examines the linkage between environment and health, said that a number of public health catastrophes arising out of environmental reasons are staring people of India in the face.  

“The report has gone into areas such as vehicular pollution, industrial pollution, polluting cook stoves that cause indoor pollution, and related issues. The report states that death toll due to uncontrolled air pollution-related illnesses alone has increased worldwide by a whopping 300 per cent in the last decade.

“...from 800,000 in year 2000 to 3.2 million in 2012. In Delhi, which was named as the most polluted city of the world by WHO in 2014, air pollution is responsible for 10,000 to 30,000 annual deaths,” it said.

2) Air pollution levels above prescribed limits in 15 of 17 Indian cities with NAQI stations

The report said that Delhi's levels over the eight months of data were 12 times as high as the WHO annual guideline and three times as high as the national standard.

Another six cities Lucknow, Faridabad, Ahmedabad, Kanpur and Varanasi -- had average levels at least 10 times as high as the WHO annual guideline, it said.

Comparing the situation in China and India, Delhi's PM2.5 levels in July-November were almost twice as high as the levels in Beijing over the same period (132 vs 69 g/m3), and were even higher than the levels in the most polluted provincial capital - Jinan in Shandong, the report said.

3) Growing air pollution in India, China: NASA

India, China and the Middle East, with their fast-growing economies and expanding industry, have seen growing air pollution, according to NASA scientists who tracked the trends over the last decade in various regions and 195 cities around the globe.

According to the findings, US, Europe and Japan have improved air quality owing to emission control regulations.

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