Delhi air heavy with pesticides, says study

Carcinogenic pesticides used in neighbouring states pollute Delhi's atmosphere, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Updated on: Nov 3, 2007, 03:08:09 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Rich farmers around Delhi who use pesticides rich in carcinogenic pollutants like Endosulfans are poisoning the capital’s air. This can affect human health and the food chain, a United Nations study has revealed.

In the first global study of its kind, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and United Nations Economic Commission for Europe has found a heavy concentration of Endosulfans in the Capital’s atmosphere especially during July-September 2006. So far, there are no air quality standards for persistent organic pollutants (POPs) like Endosulfan.

Both maximum and minimum concentration of Endosulfan is highest in Delhi, the figures have revealed. Endosulfans are used in pesticides for wheat and sugarcane farming.

Professor SK Sinha, who is coordinating the study in India, said the statistics clearly demonstrated that Endosulfan-rich pesticides were being extensively used in Delhi’s neighbouring states of Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh.

The high concentration of Endosulfan was noticed as a phenomenon peculiar in northern India because there the farmers cannot afford this high cost pesticide. “Farmers in belt around Delhi are richer and therefore, they can afford bio-nondegradable Endosulfan,” Sinha said.

Endosulfan is in the ‘breathing air’ zone of Delhi, as samples were analysed at a level of 10-15 feet above ground. “POPs accumulate in human bodies and a high concentration can cause cancer,” Sinha said. It also pollutes the exposed food chain, thus indirectly harming human body. They remain in air for a much longer time than other pollutants like sulphur dioxide, generated from vehicular pollution, he said.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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