The National Pollution Control Day is celebrated every year on 2nd of December in India in order to give the honor and memorialize the thousands of human beings who had lost their existence because of the Bhopal gas calamity. Bhopal gas tragedy was happened in the night of 2nd and 3rd December in the year 1984 because of the unintentional discharge of the poisonous chemical known as Methyl Isocyanate (also called MIC) as well as some other chemicals released from the Union Carbide Chemical Plant positioned in the city.
According to the report, more than 500,000 people (of which around 2259 were died immediately) were exposed to the poisonous gas of MIC. Later, it was declared by the government of Madhya Pradesh that around 3,787 deaths were related to the gas tragedy. In the next 72 hours, around 8,000 to 10,000 people were died whereas around 25,000 people were died later because of the gas-related diseases. It was identified as the biggest industrial pollution disaster of the history worldwide which needed serious preventive measures suddenly in order to stay away from such type of disaster in the future.
National Pollution Control Day 2019
National Pollution Control Day 2019 or National Pollution Prevention Day 2019 will be celebrated on Monday, 2nd of December.
Last year, it was celebrated by spreading awareness among people regarding how to fight and prevent pollution.
Three students from IIT Delhi launched their product named as ‘Pollution Net’ on the occasion of National Pollution Control Day on 02nd December. The net will help to stop the particulate matter ranging from PM 2.5 and PM 10 from entering the house. They also took the help of two professors from the textile department for the invention. The Nano-Fibre mesh net will block the entry of the pollutants coming from outside and improve the quality of indoor air.
Various awareness programmes were also organised on 02nd December in educational institutions by the Pollution Control Department. Many government and non-government organisations also joined hands to spread the awareness via ‘Rallys’ and ‘Walks’ on the ill effects of pollution and how it can be prevented.
Factors of Causing Gas Tragedy
- Storing MIC in the big tanks in place storing in to many smaller drums.
- Use of more dangerous chemicals (MIC) in place of lesser ones.
- Poor preservation of the gas after the stoppage of production in 1980s by the plant.
- Presence of corroding material in the pipelines
- Malfunctioning of the various safety systems.
- Manual dependence for the operations, shortage of expert operators as well as lack of disaster management plans.
Other Tragedies
Other big tragedies in the history of world are:
- The Three Mile Island tragedy of the year 1979 of the American nuclear power station. It was the big tragedy of the history which occurred at the Nuclear Generating Station of the Three Mile Island in the Dauphin County, Pennsylvania (near the Harrisburg)
- Another big tragedy of the history was the Chernobyl disaster of the year 1986 in the Ukraine.
- After Bhopal Gas tragedy in India, the other immediate disaster was the Oleum gas leak which occurred in the Shriram Food & fertilizes Ltd complex in Delhi.
Why National Pollution Control Day is celebrated
One of the leading factors of celebrating the national pollution control day every year is to manage and control the Industrial Disaster as well as prevention of the pollution (created by the industrial processes or manual negligence) of water, air and soil. Varieties of laws are declared by the Government all over world in order to seriously control and prevent the pollution. National pollution control day is celebrated every year on 2nd of December to make aware the people and most importantly to aware the industries about paying great attention towards the need of Pollution Control Acts.
What are the Prevention Methods taken by the Indian Legislation?
Indian government has launched the variety of serious acts and rules for the control and prevention of pollution all over the India. Some of are:
- Water (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act of 1974
- Water (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Cess Act of 1977
- Air (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act of 1981
- Environment (Protection) Rules of 1986
- Environment (Protection) Act of 1986
- Manufacture, Storage and Import of Hazardous Chemical Rules of1989
- Hazardous Waste (Management & Handling) Rules of 1989
- Manufacture, Storage, Import, Export & Storage of Hazardous Micro- Organisms Genetically Engineered Organisms or Cells Rules of 1989
- Chemical Accidents (Emergency, Planning, Preparedness and Response) Rules of 1996
- Bio-Medical Waste (Management & Handling) Rules of 1998
- Recycled Plastics Manufacture & Usage Rules of 1999
- Ozone Depleting Substances (Regulation) Rules of 2000
- Noise Pollution (Regulation & Control) Rules of 2000
- Municipal Solid Waste (Management & Handling) Rules of 2000
- Batteries (Management & Handling) Rules of 2001.
- Maharashtra Bio- Degradable Garbage (Control) Ordinance of 2006
- Environment Impact Assessment Notification of 2006
National Pollution Control Board
The well functioning or malfunctioning of all the laws and rules are checked by the National Pollution Control Board (NPCB) or Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) which is the governing body in India for the prevention of pollution. It always checks that whether the environment friendly technologies are utilized by all the industries in the right way or not. Maharashtra has its own control board called Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) as it urgently required the pollution control methods as it is one of the big states where the rate of industrialization is increasing very rapidly. The natural resources like water, air, land or forest are being affected speedily by the different types of pollution which are very necessary to stop immediately by implementing the rules and regulations in the right way.
What are the Control Measures?
- Urban Waste water treatment and reuse project
- Scientific treatment of solid waste and its management
- Reduce generation of waste
- Sewage treatment facility
- Reuse of waste and producing energy from the waste
- Biomedical waste treatment facility
- Electronic waste treatment facility
- Water supply projects
- Resources recovery project
- Energy saving projects
- Hazardous waste management in urbanized areas
- Projects on the Clean Development Mechanism
There are many other efforts as well taken by the state government by making the pollution controlling Policy, proper implementation of rules and all the preventive measures of pollution. Industries are the first who must follow all the rules and regulations launched by Authority to control and reduce the pollution.
For Students:
Essay on Pollution due to Urbanization
Essay on Pollution and its Effects
