The Bombay High Court (HC) on Thursday said authorities cannot attribute Mumbai’s deteriorating air quality to ash clouds from the volcanic eruption in Ethiopia, observing that the city’s Air Quality Index (AQI) had been poor well before the incident, news agency PTI reported.
A bench of Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Gautam Ankhad was urged to begin hearing a group of petitions filed in 2023 regarding the city’s worsening air pollution.
Senior counsels Darius Khambata and Janak Dwarkadas, appearing for the petitioners, submitted that the AQI in Mumbai has remained consistently poor and above 300 throughout this month, PTI reported.
Additional government pleader Jyoti Chavan argued that air pollution levels had worsened due to the volcanic eruption in Ethiopia two days ago.
The court, however, rejected this explanation, noting that the city’s pollution levels had been alarming long before the eruption, reported PTI.
“Even before this eruption, if one stepped out, visibility was poor beyond 500 metres,” the bench observed.
Referring to Delhi, which is witnessing severe AQI levels, the bench asked what effective measures could be taken to tackle the issue.
“What can be the most effective measures? We are all seeing what is happening in Delhi. What is the effect of that?” the court questioned.
The matter has been posted for hearing on Friday.
Hayli Gubbi, a shield volcano in Ethiopia’s Afar region, erupted on November 23, producing an ash plume rising nearly 14 kilometres (45,000 feet) into the sky. The plume drifted eastward across the Red Sea towards the Arabian Peninsula and the Indian subcontinent.
Courts don’t have magic wand; all causes must be identified: SC on Delhi air pollution
The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to examine the issue of rising air pollution in Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) on a regular basis starting Monday, ANI reported.
A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi concurred with submissions made by amicus curiae, Senior Advocate Aprajita Singh, who sought an urgent hearing, stressing the immediate need for intervention.
While acknowledging that air pollution is “definitely an issue that every resident in Delhi-NCR is facing”, the apex court remarked that it does not possess a magic wand to fix the problem instantly, especially since it stems from multiple causes, ANI reported.
The bench emphasised that each reason behind the worsening pollution must first be identified before effective solutions can be devised.
“We will take up the matter. We don’t have a magic wand which courts can use to find quick solutions on this. The problems we have identified, solutions are what we need. We will have to identify all the reasons. There is no one reason for the problem. People may be thinking there may be only one reason, but there are various factors. Only domain experts and scientists can find out solutions to deal with each reason (for the causes of increasing air pollution). We hope and expect that the government may have come up with something. We’ll take up the matter on a regular basis. List on Monday,” the CJI said.
Earlier, former CJI BR Gavai, while hearing the air pollution matter, had directed the governments of Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, and Rajasthan to implement preventive measures to curb pollution and to ensure regular reviews. The top court had also ordered that these matters be monitored by the apex court on a continual basis.
(With PTI and ANI inputs)
