5 Lakh Deaths In 2015: Is India Losing The Battle Against Pollution?
Did the deadly PM2.5 pollutant kill half a million or 5 lakh Indians in 2015? That's the alarming finding of a major new report by the Lancet Countdown. The report estimates that the ultra-fine PM2.5 pollutant was responsible for 1.9 million deaths in Asia and one out of every four of those deaths was right here in India. The report also says that indoor air pollution was the single largest cause of deaths killing over one lakh people in India that year. On The Buck Stops Here, we debate: is India losing the battle against pollution? Will the government take on board the findings of this latest report or dismiss it as another academic exercise as it has done with other alarming reports in the past? Will it share its own data to allay the concerns that this report generates?