It's about once a year that we seriously think about pollution here in India. That's in these winter months, when we're bombarded by photos of smog-filled skies in Delhi. But it's not like the rest of us are safe. In fact, studies say we're slowly killing ourselves with pollution.
Images courtesy: Reuters
The Air Quality Life Index (AQLI), developed by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC), is a good demonstration of this. It's a measure of how pollution, and the measures we take to control it, can affect our life expectancy. And surprise surprise, India's situation doesn't look good.
According to the AQLI, anyone living in the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) region shouldn't expect an incredibly long life. That's because, thanks to our polluting ways, the average person can expect to lose maybe seven years of their life.
The researchers behind the study say this massive drop in life expectancy is due to the decline of our atmospheric quality between 1998 and 2016. Specifically, there's been a 72 percent increase in air pollution, which means you can just write off seven years of your life in 2019. Compare that to 1998, when our life expectancy was reduced by 3.7 years
That's still not great, but clearly the situation was a lot better 20 years ago. "Air pollution is a challenge through much of India. However, the high levels of particulate pollution in the Indo-Gangetic Plain region, which includes Bihar, Chandigarh, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, stand out," the researchers said.?
In fact, back in 1998, people living outside of the region in question would have only had their lives cut short on average by 1.2 years. Today, that number is 2.6. The Indo-Gangetic Plain is clearly the worst-affected though.
There is hope though. If we seriously make efforts to meet the goals of the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) and reduce our sustained air pollution by 25 percent, we could get back at least 1.3 years on average.?
We could live to see our grandchildren instead of succumbing to lung disease, cancer, and the like in our late 60s. And all we have to do is not be polluting numbskulls.