Jairam Ramesh highlights air quality crisis, calls it "assault on brains and bodies"

New Delhi [India], October 26 : Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Sunday raised concern about India's air quality crisis and termed the pollution a "full-blown assault on our brains and bodies", highlighting alarming statistics that reveal its devastating impact on public health.
In a post on X, Ramesh said, "India's air pollution crisis is no longer just a respiratory issue. It's now a full-blown assault on our brains and bodies. In 2023, approx. 2 million deaths in India were linked to air pollution--a 43 per cent jump since 2000. Nearly 9 in 10 of these deaths were attributed to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as heart disease, lung cancer, diabetes and now even dementia."
He added, "India records around 186 air-pollution deaths per 100,000 people, over 10 times the rate in high-income countries (17/100,000)."
The Congress leader also pointed out that exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) has been linked to brain damage and accelerated cognitive decline, with globally around 6,26,000 dementia deaths in 2023 tied to air pollution.
Despite the launch of the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) in 2017, Ramesh claimed PM2.5 levels have continued to rise, and "shockingly, now every single person in India lives in areas where PM2.5 levels far exceed the WHO guidelines."
"Our present standard for PM2.5 is eight times the WHO guideline for annual exposure and four times the guideline for 24-hour exposure. Despite the launch of the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) in 2017, PM2.5 levels have continued to rise, and shockingly, now every single person in India lives in areas where PM2.5 levels far exceed the WHO guidelines. We need to radically revise the NCAP and also urgently update the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) that were last promulgated after a careful exercise in November 2009," a Congress leader claimed in his X post, quoting the link of the State of Global Air Report 2025.
Meanwhile, as Delhi continues to grapple with deteriorating air quality, Chief Minister Rekha Gupta on Friday said that cloud seeding has become a necessity for the national capital and termed it a pioneering step in addressing the city's persistent environmental crisis.
Speaking to ANI, Rekha Gupta said, "Cloud seeding is a necessity for Delhi and is the first experiment of its kind. We want to try it in Delhi to see if it can help us control this very serious environmental problem."
She added, "So the blessings of the people of Delhi are with the government, and we feel that this will be a successful experiment, and in future, we will be able to overcome these environmental problems."