High Air Pollution: Over half of India’s population – 660 million people – live in areas where fine particulate matter pollution is above India’s standards for what is considered safe, said the study by economists from the University of Chicago, Harvard and Yale published in this week’s ‘Economic & Political Weekly’.
The new figures come after the WHO estimates showed 13 of the 20 most polluted cities in the world were in India, including the worst-ranked city, Delhi. India has the highest rate of death caused by chronic respiratory diseases anywhere in the world.
Vellore Citizens’Welfare Forum v. Union of India and Ors., [1996] 5 SCC 647:
The Central Government shall constitute an authority under Section 3(3) of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 and shall confer on the said authority all the powers necessary to deal with the situation created by the tanneries and other polluting industries in the State of Tamil Nadu.
- The authority shall compute the compensation under two heads namely, for reversing the ecology and for payment to individuals.
- The amount of compensation to be recovered from each polluter.
- An industry may have set up the necessary pollution control device at present but it shall be liable to pay for the past pollution generated by the said industry which has resulted in the environmental degradation and suffering to the residents of the area.