Pollution level in 10 industrial hubs alarming: study

Pollution level in 10 major industrial hubs in the country, including some in Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh has reached to a "very alarmingly" level, according to a study.

The hubs in the top-10 list are located in Ankleshwar and Vapi in Gujarat, Ghaziabad and Singrauli (Uttar Pradesh), Korba (Chhattisgarh), Chandrapur (Maharashtra) and Ludhiana in Punjab, Vellore in Tamil Nadu, Bhiwadi in Rajasthan and Angul Telcher in Orissa.

"Many of these areas have already exhausted their capacity. We might put on hold new approvals in these 10 polluted hotspots till their environmental health is restored," said Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh after releasing a report on "Comprehensive environmental assessment of industrial clusters" here.

The study, a first of its kind, has been prepared by IIT-Delhi along with the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), ranking the 88 industrial clusters across the country on Comprehensive Environment Pollution Index (CEPI) on the basis of water, land and air pollution.

The clusters have been ranked on a scale of 0-100, based on their sensitivity towards the environment with ten of them topping the infamous list by scoring above 80 indicating the high level of metals and effluent discharged by them in the nearby rivers and region.

Thirty-three industrial hubs have scored between 70-80 and categorised as "critically" polluted, at least 32 others scored between 60-70 and tagged as "seriously" polluted clusters while 10 in the score of 50-60 are in the "warning" zones.

"The idea is to identify them in order to take concerted action and to centrally monitor them at the national level to improve the current status of their environmental components such as air and water quality," Ramesh said.

Subsequently, the CPCB along with State PCBs have been asked to prepare an action plan for the 43 industrial clusters including 10 "very alarmingly" and 33 "most severely" polluted areas within next three months, he said.

Such environmental assessment will be done once in a two year.

The scientists who have developed yardsticks have assessed all available data on issues like water and air pollution, biodiversity conservation, land degradation, ecological damage and waste management.

"I will soon approach the Finance Commission for fund for clean-up programmes in these clusters," Ramesh said, adding that efforts are also on to study the health impact from such critically polluted clusters.