Sulphur dioxide gas was mainly emitted by coal-fired power plants, and the manufacturing and construction industries.. Credit: Alamy Stock Photo
Analysis reveals that atmospheric sulphur dioxide concentrations in India have been decreasing steadily in the past decade1.
The decrease is due to environmental regulations and effective control technologies, proving that technological advances and policy decisions can improve air quality in India, says a team at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur in West Bengal.
The scientists, led by Jayanarayanan Kuttippurath, monitored changes in sulphur dioxide concentrations in the four decades from 1980 to 2020. They found that the gas was mainly emitted by coal-fired power plants, and the manufacturing and construction industries. Their analyses reveal that sulphur dioxide concentrations increased between 1980 and 2010 because of high coal burning and a lack of novel technology to control emissions.
But the data showed no increase in sulphur dioxide concentrations from 2010 onwards. Sulphur dioxide emissions decreased between 2010 and 2020, and the majority of Indian cities showed sulphur dioxide concentrations decreasing from 2013 to 2020.
Control technologies such as the use of scrubber and flue gas desulphurisation at power and industrial plants might have contributed to this dip, say the researchers. Since 2015, renewable energy production has also increased substantially, playing a vital role in reducing sulphur dioxide pollution in India.
But although there has been a relative reduction in the past decade, concentrations of the gas are still very high in the Indo-Gangetic Plain, and Central and Eastern India.
