New Delhi: The Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has launched PRANA, a national portal for regulation of air pollution in non-attainment cities and inaugurated a smog tower in Delhi to mark the International Day for Clean Air for Blue Skies. .
The PRANA portal will provide all the information related to various policies/ programmes/ schemes/ activities of the stakeholders along with the progress made towards improving the air quality across the country. This portal will be a platform for monitoring and feedback on all efforts made for air quality improvement.
Inaugurating the portal, Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupendra Yadav announced that through his Nagar Van Yojana (Urban Forest Scheme), his ministry has created 200 urban forests across the country with a focus on people’s participation. planned to develop.
Yadav said, these forests will act as the lungs of the cities and will help in improving the air quality of these cities. In 2018, only 6 out of 132 cities had a particulate (PM) concentration lower than the national ambient air. Quality standards, which increased to 11 cities in 2019 and 28 cities in 2020.
In addition, 86 cities showed better air quality in 2019 as compared to 2018, which increased to 104 cities in 2020, he said.
The dashboard has been developed by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change along with GIZ, an arm of the German government working on environmental and sustainable issues in collaboration with several Indian ministries and states.
The Minister said, the Smog Tower in Delhi was dedicated to assess the effectiveness in achieving the desired results in further reducing the air pollution levels in the city of Delhi.
Joint Secretary Naresh Pal Gangwar, German Ambassador to India Walter J Lindner, WHO Representative Peden, UNEP India Head Atul Bagai and Central Pollution Control Board Chairman Tanmay Kumar also spoke on the occasion. .
The United Nations General Assembly designated 7 September as the International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies to emphasize the need to make serious and serious efforts to improve air quality around the world.
