National Clean Air Programme(NCAP)

To tackle the air pollution problem with a target to achieve the 20% to 30% reduction in Particulate Matter concentrations from 2017 levels by 2024, a national-level National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) was launched in the year 2019. It is initiated against the backdrop of Indian cities continuously failing to meet air quality standards. This has impacted human health as well as ecosystem and agricultural production.

Pollution Tackling Measures

India derives its commitment to creating a clean environment and pollution-free air and water from Article 21 Right to Life of the constitution. The Stockholm Conference of 1972 was the starting point when India embarked on a journey of conserving our environment. Since then, the government has taken several steps to manage the problem of air pollution. These include:

1. Establishment of Central Pollution Board (CPCB) under the Water Act September 1974. It was later entrusted with the implementation of the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981, which was enacted to bring into effect the provision of the 1972 Conference.

2. National Air Quality Monitoring Programme (NAMP) for determining the status of ambient air quality.

3. National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for providing uniform benchmarks of air quality across the country.

4. National Air Quality Index (AQI) for spatial and temporal comparison of air quality.

5. Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA) and Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) for dealing with an air pollution problem in Delhi NCR.

6. Skipping BS-V vehicle emission and fuel quality standards, leapfrogged to BS-VI in 2020.

7. Voluntary Vehicle Fleet Modernization Programme announced in Budget 2021-22 for scraping unfit old-vehicles in India.

8. Introduction of CNG as automobile fuel.

9. Improving public transport with the introduction of metro-rail and CNG based comfortable buses in selected cities.

10. Ujjawala scheme for increasing LPG penetration.

11. Electrification for reducing kerosene consumption.  

12. Energy-efficiency labeling scheme for energy-intensive Home appliances

13.  New stringent standards for diesel generator sets

Need for NCAP

In recent years, air pollution has spiked in medium and small towns and cities as well. Many sectors are associated with air pollution like transport, power, agriculture, construction, unsustainable waste management. Hence need was felt to intensify the efforts to clean the air comprehensively. With this aim in mind, NCAP was launched to meet the prescribed norms in a time-bound manner. NACP is a 5-year mid-term action plan, which is to be further extended for 20-25 years in the long term after the mid-term result’s review. The objective of the NCAP is to ensure strict implementation of air pollution mitigation measures, enhance the air quality monitoring network and augment public awareness. 

Approach of NCAP

NCAP will follow a collaborative approach among the three tiers of Government – Centre, State, and local bodies. The idea is to mainstream the existing climate policies including the five initiatives of the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) viz-a-viz Solar Mission, Green India Mission, National Mission on Sustainable Agriculture, National Mission on Sustainable Habitat, and National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency. Even if these are already part of the current action, these may need a change in direction or a push to accelerate the achievement of targets. NCAP is thought of as a dynamic framework, which will keep evolving as and when scientific evidence comes to light necessitating such a change.  

Implementing Agencies

CPCB is tasked with the implementation of the NCAP strategy across India. The relevant ministries are given the responsibility of institutionalizing the NCAP framework. For example, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highway will execute the provisions for mitigating air pollution. Other relevant ministries like the Ministry Of Power, Environment Ministry, and Ministry of Agriculture will implement provisions in their sectoral policies to control air pollution.  

Non-attainment cities

Since air pollution is a local phenomenon, CPCB under NCAP has identified 122 non-attainment cities, which are violating NAAQS norms, using the data from 2014-18 from NAMP. A separate action plan is to be developed for each non-attainment city, ensuring local sources of air pollution are addressed.

Mitigation Measures

Some of the mitigation actions under the NCAP framework are as follows:

1. Strict enforcement of provision using technology.
2. Plantation drives under Green India Mission at pollution hotspots in non-attainment cities.
3. Promoting technological solutions for air pollution.
4. City-specific and state action plans for air quality management in 102 non-attainment cities.
5. Regional and transboundary plans for effective dealing pollution sources beyond the city limits, as seen in the case of winter pollution of Delhi.
6. Various sectoral interventions are to be undertaken for:

• Dust from roads and construction and demolition (intervention includes mechanical sweepers, wall-to-wall pavement of roads, recycled water for sprinkling along roads, etc)
• Power sector emissions (intervention includes stringent compliance of emission norms by thermal power plants, exploring renewable power and fly ash utilization in non-attainment cities, etc.)
• Industrial emissions (interventions include elimination of DG sets by providing power 24/7, introduction of gaseous fuels, etc)
• Transport sector emissions (interventions include 20℅ ethanol mixing in fuel, promoting electric vehicles, etc)
• Agriculture emissions (interventions include exploring the feasibility of ex-situ crop residue management options, etc)
• Emissions from unsustainable waste management practices (interventions include source segregation of wet and dry waste, integrated solid waste management strategy for transitioning towards zero waste pathway, etc)
• Indoor air pollution (Intervention includes building design with proper ventilation to be integrated with Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna, etc)

Air Quality Monitoring

Under NCAP, the network of air quality monitoring is one of the key components. The existing network needs to be reassessed and augmented using an optimum blend of techniques such as manual, continuous, sensor, and satellite-based techniques. The focus is also on developing rural monitoring networks. The air pollution source identification study and international cooperation including sharing of best practices are also envisaged under the programme. The formalization of the Comprehensive National Emission Inventory for better policy population and implementation will also be done.

Conclusion

Indian philosophy since ancient times has been about respecting and conserving the environment. However, a vast country like India with its enormous population and an emerging economy, India faces a tough time balancing the environmental conservation goals with its other major commitments for poverty eradication and hunger. Industrial growth and urbanization have picked up in the last three decades and so has the associated pollution. Though India is implementing a cocktail of programmes being executed by different central ministries, state governments. Hence, it is difficult to establish synergy among the different programmes. This leads to cost and time overruns and most of the time desired output is not obtained even after putting in a lot of money and effort. Hence, a comprehensive framework like NCAP is required to establish synergy among different efforts undertaken by different stakeholders and ensure that efforts are moving in the right direction so that the demon of air pollution could be tamed and brought to justice.