International Symposium on Air Pollution held at Amity University on Friday saw the participation of noted scientists, environmentalists and the other experts from across the globe .
Phasing out diesel and petrol vehicles, bringing in electrical vehicles, accelerating the use of solar energy, making national network of air quality monitoring more smart and introduction of low cost sensor technologies to democratise pollution monitoring were some of the suggestions made at the symposium.
The day-long event on “Air Pollution — Causes, Mitigation and Strategic Planning” held discussions on potent causative factors for the threat of air pollution to the modern civilisation and its rational curbing and remedial measures.
Chairing the event, Amity University chancellor Assem Chauhan said the institute was committed to bringing together the best experts from around the world to talk about solutions to air pollution. He said that they had identified key sources and pollution solutions through their centre over the past few years. An AQI measurement system had also been established at the university for constant monitoring of air quality in Delhi-NCR.
Speaking at the event, IIT-Delhi professor Mukesh Khare said they had devised a mechanism to predict the cause, source and pollution levels for a place to help agencies take preventive measures and four hotspots had been identified in Delhi.
Kirk R. Smith from Berkeley University said that cutting down household pollution effectively could alone solve much of the air pollution problem in India. He also emphasised the need to emulate some of the best practices in China, Singapore and New York to tackle air pollution.
Arthur Frank, Drexel University, Philadelphia, said air quality had a direct bearing on human health and should be given the top priority in India since air pollution had assumed alarming proportions.
