Villages choking: Rural India ignored in clean air agenda

There was a time when popular Hindi films romanticised the pristine air quality of villages, contrasting it with the pollution of cities. But today, that notion no longer holds true. According to the environmental consulting group Climate Trends, the levels of PM 2.5—the most insidious and harmful air pollutant—are nearly identical in rural and urban areas. 

Despite this alarming reality, mainstream media continues to focus primarily on air pollution in metropolitan cities like Delhi and Mumbai.

Climate Trends, in its analysis of two distinct datasets, has revealed that the difference in pollution levels between cities and villages is negligible.

Data from the SAANS tool, developed by Dr. Sagnik Dey and Dr. Dilip Ganguly of IIT Delhi for estimating PM 2.5 levels, was analyzed alongside data from the Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL) to classify urban and rural areas. The analysis revealed that in 2022, the average PM 2.5 concentration in cities was 46.8 μg, while in rural areas it was 46.4 μg—a negligible difference, underscoring the similar pollution levels in both settings.

According to data presented in the Parliament, PM10 has been the biggest pollution factor in rural areas of the country. The monitoring stations have been set up only in rural areas of Punjab, Dadra Nagar Haveli, and Daman & Diu. The data from 2019 to 2021 of the total 26 villages established there was presented in Parliament. According to it, the level of PM 10 has been the highest in each of these three years.

Simply put, smoke and dust particles in rural areas are polluting the air here the most. Jayanarayanan Kuttippurath, a professor at IIT Kharagpur who has researched rural air pollution, says,

'Pollutants include particles and gases like nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), carbon monoxide, and others. The sources vary by region but include road transport, natural sources like dust storms, biomass burning, coal mines, and small-scale industries in rural areas.' 

Stubble burning continues; MP topped the country

According to the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), 17003 incidents of stubble burning were observed in six states of the country between September 15 and November 10 this year. During this period, the maximum stubble burning took place in Punjab (6,611). Madhya Pradesh was second in the country with 5,818 cases.

The data also shows that from September 15 to November 30 this year, Madhya Pradesh topped the country with 37,602 incidents of stubble burning, accounting for 44% of the total. This is 44% of the total incidents in the country.

It is important to note here that even though the increasing pollution in Delhi due to stubble burning is a national headline, its first victims are the people of the villages where it is burnt.

In the last days of the Rabi and Kharif seasons, stubble burning poses a threat to the Indian countryside. But dust from the roads is a major cause of pollution in every season except the monsoon.

According to a study by IIT Delhi and IIT Kanpur, 55% of Indian states have road dust levels higher than the World Health Organisation (WHO) standards. Road dust contributes to 30 to 60% of PM10 and PM2.5 level pollution in major cities of the country. However, there are not enough studies available on the pollution caused by it in rural areas.

But in December 2023, while presenting its report in Parliament, the parliamentary panel expressed concern over the poor condition of roads in rural areas. The panel said in the report that the roads built under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana should last for at least 10 years, but these roads do not withstand even one monsoon season.

Under this scheme, launched in 2000, more than 7 lakh km of roads have been built across the country. In Madhya Pradesh, 72,972 km of roads have been constructed under this scheme.

Another study has pointed out that dust from vehicular traffic becomes more dangerous due to chemical reactions. 

Pr Kuttippurath, in one of his studies with his colleague Mansi Pathak, argued that transportation is the biggest contributor to air pollution in rural areas.

Nitric oxide is emitted from transport, fossil fuels, power plants, biomass fuels, and electricity. The researchers pointed out that 41% of the country's nitrogen dioxide (NO2) emissions come from rural areas.

50% of the total NO2 emissions in the country come from industrial units. Researchers cite transport as the main source of NO2 pollution from villages. He says 45% of NO2 pollution in the village is from traffic.

In his paper, he further states that NO2 is 25.25 times more dangerous than sulphur dioxide (SO2). Its concentration above 53 ppb in the environment can cause asthma, bronchitis, and pneumonia.

Brajesh Sharma, regional officer, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board, said open burning of garbage in rural areas, winter heating fires, and biomass used as fuel are also major sources of pollution.

An estimated 3 billion people around the world use solid fuels for cooking. At the same time, according to the 2011 census, 86.5% of the population living in rural areas depends on solid fuel for energy.

According to the central government's data, 10.33 crore gas connections have been given under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana. Replying in Parliament, the government also claimed that people have shifted from solid fuel to LPG due to the scheme. However, they did not provide any data to support their claim.

Brajesh Sharma says that brick kilns set up here are also responsible for pollution in rural areas. About 30,000 (300 billion) bricks are made every day in South Asia, and 75% of these bricks are manufactured in India.

The industry uses about 30 million metric tonnes of coal and 10 million metric tonnes of biomass fuel every year. It emits about 6-8.4 crore (66-84 million metric tonnes) of carbon dioxide and one lakh metric tonnes of black carbon.

Sharma says that in Madhya Pradesh, potters, scheduled castes, and tribes do not need any permission to make 50 thousand bricks. He says chimneys and zig-zag patterns are mandatory for brick kilns, and polluting agents such as polythene cannot be used.

How dangerous is pollution in rural areas?

According to Prof. Kuttippurath's research paper, 42 lakh (4.2 million) people died due to poor air quality worldwide in 2016. The government was also asked for the number of deaths due to it. The government then replied,

"There is no conclusive data available to establish a direct correlation of deaths with air pollution.”

But according to a Boston College study, air pollution killed 16.7 lakh (1.67 million) people in India in 2019. It accounted for 17.8% of the total deaths in the country this year.

According to the ‘State of Global Air’ report by the Health Effects Institute (HEI) of the US, 464 children under the age of 5 die every year in india due to factors related to air pollution.

Researchers at Colorado State University and IIT Bombay estimate that more than 10.5 lakh people die prematurely every year due to heart and lung diseases caused by exposure to PM 2.5. 69% of these deaths occur in non-urban areas.

This means more than 7 lakh people die prematurely every year due to air pollution in rural areas. The study, published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, compared the incidence of stubble burning and cases of acute respiratory infection (ARI) in north India.

The study revealed that the risk of ARI increased three times in the districts where more than 100 stubble-burning incidents were reported in a day. Children under the age of 5 are the most affected.

What is the government doing?

The central government launched the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) in January 2019, focusing on improving air quality in 130 cities with an allocated budget of ₹16,539 crore.

India has 1,449 air pollution monitoring stations across 516 cities, but only 26 are located in rural areas. This neglect aligns with the government's stance, often reiterated in Parliament, that air pollution is primarily an urban issue.

However, in FY 2022–23, the government had asked each state pollution control board to plan 10 rural monitoring stations. But the regional officer of Bhopal told us that there is no plan to set it up in the rural areas of Bhopal.

“The cost of running a monitoring station for 1.5 years is around Rs 5 crore, but we do not have the budget to set up these in rural areas.”

Manish Chandra Mishra, an environmental journalist at Mongabay India, calls for better data collection from rural areas to address air pollution. He advocates for solid waste management, stubble burning control, and the effective implementation of schemes like Ujjwala to provide clean fuel to rural communities.

According to Pr. Kuttippurath,

"Rural populations are particularly vulnerable due to limited healthcare facilities and financial constraints, unlike urban areas where hospitals and emergency services are more accessible," 

Previously, there was a lack of sufficient studies on rural air pollution. The media and policymakers have addressed air pollution with an urban gaze only. But recent studies and the above-mentioned facts answer the question of why India needs to address rural air pollution.

Story Edited by Diwash Gahatraj

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