Harish V 16blb1039 Mridula Royan 16blb1015

1. AN OVERVIEW OF AIR POLLUTION
IN INDIA – THE NEED FOR
URGENT REFORMS
BY
V.HARISH (16BLB1039)
S.MRIDULA ROYAN (16BLB1015)
UNDER GUIDANCE OF
PROF. VASUGI K

2. INTRODUCTION
NITROGEN, 78
OTHER GAS, 0.17
ARGON GASES, 0.9
CO2, 0.03
OXYGEN, 20
COMPONENTS OF AIR
NITROGEN OTHER GAS ARGON GASES CO2 OXYGEN

3. HEALTHY LIFESTYLE CLEAN AIR
AIR IS A MIXTURE OF GASES IN THE ABOVE PROPOTIONATE
WHEN THE PROPOTIONATE CHANGES
AIR POLLUTION OCCURS

4. AIR ( PREVENTION AND CONTOL OF POLLUTION ACT) 1981
MAN MADE (ANTHROPOGENIC) NATURAL
It may have various harmful effects on humans, nature and other living organisms
CAUSES FOR POLLUTION

5. OBJECTIVES
• To analyse the impacts and effects of air pollution
• To study the current legal position for handling air
pollution in India
• To explore the arena and to recommend future
developments needed in the arena.

6. METHODOLOGY
LITERATURE
REVIEW &
COLLECTING
MATERIALS
ANALYSING THE
CAUSES, EFFECTS
AND IMPACTS
ANALYSING THE
CURRENT AND
PAST LAWS IN
INDIA
COMPARING
WITH
INTERNATIONAL
LAWS AND
PRINCIPLES
CONCLUSIONS
RECOMMENDAT
IONS

31. HISTORY OF LEGISLATION IN INDIA:
• 1. The Oriental Gas Company Act, 1857
• 2. Indian Penal Code, 1860
• 3. Indian Explosive Act, 1884
• 4. The Bengal Smoke Nuisance Act, 1905 5. The Bombay Smoke Nuisance Act,
• 1905 6. The Indian Boilers Act, 1923
• 7. Indian Petroleum Act, 1934
• 8. The Motor Vehicles Act, 1939

32. PRESENT SCENARIO
1. The Industrial (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957
2. The Mines Act, 1952
3. The Inflammable Substances Act, 1952
4. The Atomic Energy Act, 1962.
5. The Environment (Protection) act, 1986

33. PRESENT SCENARIO
6. Motor Vehicle Act, 1988
7. The Ozone Depleting Substances (Regulation and Control) Rules, 2000.
8. The Municipal Solid Waste (Management and Han dling) Rules, 2000
9. The Factories Act, 1948
10. The Noise Pollution (Regulation and Control) Rules, 2000

34. ENVIRONMENTAL PRINCIPLES
• POLLUTER’S PAY PRINCIPLE
• SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
• PRECAUTIONERY PRINCIPLE

35. THE AIR (Prevention and Control of
Pollution) ACT, 1981
• The Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981, was the first act which was formulated with the sole purpose to
provide prevention and control of air pollution.
• The boards were established under this act and they conferred and assigned certain powers and functions relating to the
matters concerned
• The act makes provisions, for the central and the state boards, and these boards have the power to declare pollution control
areas and restrictions on industrial units.
• The boards have the authority to limit the emission of air pollutants, the power of entry, inspection, taking samples and
analysis, and even penalties and offences made by the companies or governments etc.
• The Act explicitly enables State Government to assign air contamination regions and to recommend the kind of fuel to be
utilized in these assigned regions.
• As indicated by this Act, no individual can work specific sorts of industries including the asbestos, cement, fertiliser and
petroleum industries without assent of the State Board. The Board can predicate its assent upon the satisfaction of specific
conditions.

36. • The Government passed this Act in 1981 to clean up our air by
controlling pollution .
• It expresses that sources of air pollution such as industry, vehicles, power
plants, and so on., are not allowed to discharge particulate matter, lead,
carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, unpredictable natural
mixes or other toxic substances past a recommended level.
• To ensure this, Pollution Control Boards was set up by Government to
gauge pollution levels in the environment or the atmosphere and at
specific sources by testing the air. This is estimated in parts per million or
in milligrams or micrograms per cubic meter.
• The main objectives of the Act were to provide the prevention, control
and abatement of air pollution and to establish the pollution control
boards both in the central and state levels and especially for it confer on
the boards power to implement the provisions of the act and assign to the
boards function relating to pollution.
• The pollution control boards was set up in every heavily populated and
urbanized states to monitor the various pollutants discharged because of
emissions.

37. ENVIRONMENTAL BOARDS
REGARDING AIR POLLUTION:
• The Powers and Functions of the Boards,
• Central Pollution Board, the principle capacity of the Central Board is to execute enactment or
legislations made to improve the quality of air and to forestall and control air pollution in the
nation.
• The-Board prompts the Central Government on issues concerning the improvement of air
quality and furthermore arranges exercises, gives technical assistance and direction to State
Boards and sets down norms or standards for the quality of air.
• And the State Pollution Control Board, have the power to advice the State Government on
any issue concerning the prevention and control of air pollution.
• They have the right to inspect at all reasonable times any control equipment, industrial plant,
or manufacturing process and give orders to take the necessary steps to control pollution.
They are required to inspect air pollution control areas at proper intervals or at whenever
necessary.
• They are engaged to give guidelines to emissions to be laid down for various industrial plants
as to amount and composition of discharge of air pollutants into the atmosphere.

38. Vellore Citizens' Welfare Forum case,
• The supreme court declared the polluters pay principle is
part of thr environmental jurisprudence of India. The
court held that the polluting tanneries were liable to pay for
the past pollution generated by them, which resulted in
environmental degradation and suffering to the residents of
that area. And also a fine of rs.10,000 from each of the
tanneries and the money along with the compensation
amount was directed to be deposited in the Environment
protection fund. The Court interpreted the meaning of the
Polluter Pays Principle as the absolute liability for harm to
the environment extends not only to compensate the
victims of the pollution but also the cost of restoring the
environmental degradation. Remediation of the damaged
environment is part of the process of 'Sustainable
Development' and as such the polluter is liable to pay the
cost to the individual sufferers as well as the cost of
reversing the damaged ecology."

39. The Oleum Gas Leak case
• the principle was also laid down in this case, in this case a
subsidiary fertilizer and food company of Delhi cloth mill
ltd , which manufactured caustic soda and oleum at a plant
which was surrounded by habited colonies. The nature of
process involved polluting the environment and affected
the residents nearby. The Court laid down that an
enterprise engaged in a hazardous or inherently dangerous
industry which poses a potential threat to the health and
safety of persons working in the factory and to those
residing in the surrounding areas, owes an absolute and
non-delegable duty to the community to ensure that no
harm results to any one on account of hazardous or
inherently dangerous nature of the activity which it has
undertaken. The enterprise is absolutely liable to
compensate for such harm and irrespective of all
reasonable care taken on his account. The larger and more
prosperous the enterprise, greater must be the amount of
the compensation payable for the harm caused on account
of an accident in the carrying on of the hazardous or
inherently dangerous activity by the enterprise

40. The Taj Trapezium case ,
• Taj Trapezium, is a trapezium shaped area around Taj
Mahal covering five districts in the region of Agra, this case
was filed as the monuments marble was found changing
colour and it was stated in the pleadings that the reason was
because of the pollutants from nearby industries. Acid rain
in this area has a corroding effect on the gleaming white
marble. The Supreme Court after examining the reports
from various boards and committees, directed that the
industries in the Taj Trapezium Zone were the active
contributors of air pollution. The Court relied on Vellore
Citizens Welfare Forum v. Union of India and Ors., to
define the “Precautionary Principle” and “The Polluter pays
principle”. The Court accepted both the principles as the
law of the land and consequently applied them to the
present case.

41. OTHER CASES
• Delhi air pollution case
• Pollution by industries in Delhi: M.C.Mehta Vs Union of India and Ors Case
• Union Carbide Corporation vs. Union of India (Bhopal CASE )
• Air pollution from Chembur, Mumbai, India case

42. DRAWBACKS
TWO TYPES OF DRAWBACKS
• TECHNICAL
• NON TECHNICAL

43. CONCLUSION
1. Is there a proper efficient method in India to prevent vehicular emissions?
• Some of the major drawbacks is that there is no availability of proper and efficient
technology to prevent vehicular emissions, clearly the present technology is not
effective.
2.Is the CPCB working effectively in a way to calculate the particulate matters ?
• The Central Pollution Control Board though is executing national wide programmes
like National Air Quality Monitoring Programme, there seems to be no proper
facilities to calculate the particulate matters like other countries, Delhi being called
the most polluted city in the world needs proper facilities like labs, tools to monitor
and control pollution. And the policies which are brought up by the authorities
should also include in their policy the economic losses endured.

44. CONCLUSION
3. Do people in India have proper education on indoor air pollution ?
• And another main drawback is that the people in India do not have a proper knowledge about the indoor air pollution and
its effects, this is because the government or the proper regulation authorities haven’t spoken about it or brought it in any
of the policies.
• And the approach to the policy formations should be changed, the whole of the issue should consider from the smallest of
the cause to the biggest impact of it, and not just address part of the problem.
4. Is the public aware of all the new policies which is brought in terms of the pollution acts ?
• The public mostly don’t know about any new policies or the amendments made to the acts, as the government don’t make
the public aware of it. Public awareness of policies needs to be brought in.
• Most important factor is implementing the already enforced policy, rules, acts etc and this is not said to work properly
because of again lack of awareness and the authorities in power lack the willingness to do their work and especially public
participation despite of the variations in cultural and economic variations.

45. 5.Is the acts in our country enough to deal with all the issues regarding pollution?
And another major drawback in the whole of Indian laws regarding the environment or anything for that matter is that
they are fixed and old, they are not broad enough to deal will more than one issue at a time, which should be brought.
6.Is PIL’S regarding environmental issues effective?
Another major concern being time taken up the courts to give orders regarding the PILS about environmental issues.
As time being a very important factor in such PILS, this is a crucial concern to be addressed by the government of
India.
CONCLUSION

46. CONCLUSION
7.Do cities follow the particulate matter standards and is the initiatives of central government enough ?
• More than 80% of the Indian cities violate the PM10 standards. Only 31 cities meet the standard of 60 ug/m3 for PM10
out of 204 cities for which data exists. It can be said that the air in Delhi is polluted mainly because of the particulates.
Based on studies, it is said that more than 70 % of the total air pollution in Delhi is because of the vehicular pollution, but I
think all other factors are equally responsible. Though the central government has taken a lot of initiatives , the pollution is
still on the rise and most of the initiatives taken failed or didn’t yield the result as expected because of so many reasons
including no serious laws to regulate the people and the efforts which are taken are very small and hence, they don’t create a
major impact or change and also whatever little is happening lacks efficacy. And there are so many issues which is to be
addressed judiciously as soon as possible.
8. Is it necessary for new reforms to be brought in regarding air pollution ?
• The urgent need for reforms to be brought are obvious because of the drawbacks. Though the Air (Prevention and Control
Pollution) Act, 1981 covers all sources of pollution as stated there is no effective implementation of rules. Clean air is the
foremost requirement and pollution at this rate is expected to increase in the coming centuries if the present conditions
prevail.

47. SOME SUGGESTIONS
• Some ways to tackle the problems and to reduce the health risks in India, the
vehicles owned by a person or a family can be restricted and proper parking areas
for vehicles in any type of buildings. fines can also be imposed on people who park
their vehicles on roads. And a strict restriction or banning old vehicles which cause
more pollution. Especially the pollution under control certificates should be made
stricter. Traffic regulations should be properly improved so that there is free flow of
traffic. A proper regulation for burning of solid waste to avoid the concentration of
particulate matters from a single area. Taxing companies or industries based on their
pollution rates and also subsidies can be given to the same who keep their air
pollution rates in check.