Study Warns of 20% Rise in Indo-Gangetic Plain Air Pollution, Himalayas and Northeast Bear Brunt
मुख्य बातें
- •Particulate pollution across the Indo-Gangetic Plain rose by over 20% between 2010–2019 compared to 2000–2009, based on NASA satellite data analyzed by Bose Institute researchers.
- •Eastern IGP—including Bihar, southern West Bengal, and parts of Bangladesh—recorded the highest aerosol optical depth (0.71), marking it the worst-affected pollution hotspot.
- •Biomass burning, from crop residue and wood burning, has become the leading source of particulate pollution, especially in eastern IGP and Northeast India, where organic carbon and sulphate levels increased by nearly 50% in the 2010s.
- •Pollution plumes from Punjab, Haryana, and western Uttar Pradesh are traveling into the Himalayas, while Northeast India’s aerosol levels are worsening due to slash-and-burn agriculture and biomass use.
A comprehensive new study published in *Atmospheric Environment* by researchers from the Bose Institute in Kolkata has revealed a sharp 20% increase in particulate matter pollution across the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) during 2010–2019 compared to the previous decade. The decade-long analysis, led by Professor Abhijit Chatterjee and conducted by primary researcher Soumen Raul, used NASA’s MODIS and MERRA-2 satellite datasets to track aerosol pollution from 2000 to 2024 across the IGP, Northeast India, and the Himalayas.
