ANNOUNCEMENTS
By Ranjana Ray Chaudhuri, Associate Professor and Head of the Departments of Natural and Applied Sciences and Regional Water Studies, TERI School of Advanced Studies
Air pollution is one of India’s deadliest health threats, causing 1.5 million deaths in a decade. A coordinated, science-led strategy is now reversing the trend, with strict regulations, biomass use, and cleaner fuels improving air quality—though much work remains.
In India, air has become a public health disaster, challenging both governance and public resolve. A slow, unseen threat that deprives people of years before their time, air pollution caused 1.5 million deaths in India between 2009 and 2019, as per the Lancet Planetary Health study. This accounts for nearly one in every six deaths nationwide. It is one of the country’s deadliest health threats, claiming more years of life lost than even cardiovascular or infectious diseases. Particulate pollution alone shortens the average Indian’s life by 5.3 years. In the Northern Plains, the worst-hit region, the number increases to about 8 years of life lost for nearly 521 million residents.
In 2019, the economic costs from premature deaths and illnesses linked to air pollution reached $36.8 billion, or 1.36% of India’s GDP 4 . This is a multi-faceted attack on health, society, and the economy, in the guise of an environmental issue. The problem looms over India like Damocles’ sword—a scepter that haunts our national productivity, stunts children’s growth, hampers adolescents’ lung and cognitive development and burdens hospitals.
CAQM as a Panacea
Faced with such a crisis, piecemeal interventions are no longer enough. India needs a science-backed authority with the mandate to cut across state lines and enforce tough decisions. The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM), set up in 2020 and given statutory powers under the CAQM Act, 2021, has emerged as that very institution. Its jurisdiction spans Delhi-NCR and neighbouring states, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan, where it can issue binding directions to state agencies, impose environmental compensation, and prosecute non-compliance.
CAQM’s strategy has zeroed in on two critical fronts in the fight against air pollution: managing agricultural residue to curb stubble burning and driving industrial decarbonisation to cut emissions at the source.
In agriculture, CAQM has created Parali Protection Forces for district-level oversight, satellite-based burnt area tracking with ISRO, and the legal empowerment of District Magistrates to prosecute violations. Together, these measures have driven a dramatic decline in crop residue fires. Punjab saw incidents fall from 71,304 in 2021 to 10,909 in 2024, while Haryana dropped from 6,829 to 1,315 . To create a sustainable outlet for farm waste, the Commission has also advanced biomass co-firing in coal-based power plants, blending paddy straw with coal to reduce coal consumption and avoid open burning. This began in 2021, when 11 thermal plants within 300 km of Delhi were directed to co-fire 5–10% biomass.
In June 2025, the mandate expanded to brick kilns in non-NCR districts of Punjab and Haryana, with a phased plan to achieve 50% paddy straw-based biomass use by November 2028.
In 2023, CAQM strengthened industrial decarbonisation by mandating strict and immediate compliance with emission limits for particulate matter, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, mercury, and water use in coal- and lignite-based thermal power plants, in line with standards set and periodically updated by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. This regulatory push has strengthened compliance across the industrial and power sectors. CAQM has also boosted biomass pellet production, including the once-scarce torrefied type, through access to technology, training, and subsidies provided by the Central Pollution Control Board and state governments.
More read:-
https://fehealthcare.financialexpress.com/blogs/caqms-blueprint-for-breathing-easier-in-indias-most-polluted-regions
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Across seven multi-season surveys, Wildlife Institute of India researchers searched for bird carcasses within a 150-m radius of 90 randomly selected wind turbines and found 124.
In the first half of 2025, India added around 3.5 GW to the wind sector – an 82% year-on-year growth – taking the total installed capacity to 51.3 GW. Even so, India’s wind power remains largely untapped. According to the National Institute of Wind Energy, India’s gross wind power potential is 1163.9 GW at 150 m above ground level.
At the Global Wind Day Conference in June, Union Minister of New and Renewable Energy Pralhad Joshi urged States to address land availability and transmission delays post-haste.
India’s ambitious climate goals and surging energy demands mean renewable energy development will continue to accelerate. Experts are concerned, however, that the addition of wind power capacity has been coming at the expense of avian welfare.
Bird mortality at wind farms
For years, researchers have raised concerns about the impact of wind turbines on fauna, particularly birds. A study by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), published recently in Nature Scientific Reports, has estimated globally high bird mortality rates at wind farms in the Thar Desert.
The study was conducted in a 3,000 sq. km desert landscape in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, home to around 900 wind turbines and 272 bird species, including the critically endangered great Indian bustard. Across seven multi-season surveys, WII researchers searched for bird carcasses within a 150-m radius of 90 randomly selected wind turbines and found 124.
The estimated annual bird mortality per 1,000 sq. km came up to 4,464 birds after correcting for non-detection due to vegetation cover or carcass degradation during the survey and due to carcass scavenging before the survey.
The researchers conducted similar surveys at 28 randomly selected control sites (between 500 and 2,000 m of any turbine) to account for the natural mortality of birds and found no carcasses.
“Very few studies have robust data to have accurate assessments that correct for detection issues and have controls for comparison,” Yadvendradev Jhala, one of the authors of the study, said.
The WII study isn’t the first to examine bird mortality in wind farms in India. A 2019 study documented bird deaths at wind farms in Kutch and Davangere. However, the estimate of 0.47 bird deaths per turbine per year at both sites now pale in comparison to the 1.24 bird deaths per turbine per month in the Thar Desert.
“It’s quite a high estimate, but that’s quite possible,” Ramesh Kumar Selvaraj, an independent consultant and author of the 2019 paper, said. “[Mortality rate] will vary depending on geography, season, and other factors.”
Bird density, infrastructure density, and configuration are crucial factors, according to Jhala. The Thar Desert is part of the Central Asian Flyway — a major migration route for birds across Eurasia — and a prominent wintering destination.
The desert mortality estimates also included bird collisions with power lines linked to the wind turbines. The Gujarat and Karnataka study didn’t include this cause.
Per both studies, raptors were the most affected group of birds, echoing findings worldwide. “Raptors are long-lived species that lay fewer eggs, and any additional mortality can lead to population-level impacts,” Selvaraj said. “Their flight altitude and soaring flight behaviour means they are more vulnerable while manoeuvring rotating wind turbines.”
Organisations like Birdlife International have proposed several mitigation measures to reduce bird collisions with wind turbines, including painting one of the turbine blades to increase visibility and shutting turbines down at a certain time of day or season. However, Selvaraj said he believes the most crucial step in mitigation is to carefully select the site of a wind farm.
Avian Sensitivity Tool for Energy Planning (AVISTEP) is an open-source platform developed by Birdlife International that helps developers identify and avoid sites where renewable energy could affect birds. Selvaraj, previously with the Bombay Natural History Society, coordinated India’s map for AVISTEP.
“The whole of India, including offshore areas, have been divided into different categories of avian sensitivity such as ‘low’, ‘moderate’, ‘high’, and ‘very high’,” Selvaraj said. “While AVISTEP can serve as a guide, ground-level studies are crucial before installing wind farms,” he added.
However, onshore wind energy projects in India aren’t mandated to conduct an environmental impact assessment (EIA) before installation.
From land to ocean
Offshore wind farms are emerging as a valuable renewable energy resource worldwide. According to the Global Wind Energy Council, operational offshore wind capacity worldwide is currently around 83 GW.
India has also turned its attention offshore and aims to install 30 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030. In June, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy launched offshore wind energy bids totalling 4 GW in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu.
The primary motivation is to look beyond land-based resources, which are becoming increasingly “complex” and “time-consuming” to procure for renewable project development, Disha Agarwal, senior programme lead, Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), New Delhi, said.
With a coastline stretching across 7,600 km and exclusive economic zones covering 2.3 million sq. km, India has considerable offshore wind energy potential.
According to CEEW research, the addition of offshore wind to the renewable energy pool in Gujarat will benefit power system operations in the State. “We saw that offshore wind will aid in system adequacy and help meet reliability requirements during peak load hours,” Agarwal said
However, despite the growing interest, there has been limited research on the environmental consequences of offshore wind farms.
Offshore wind energy is a complex infrastructure asset that requires detailed marine spatial planning exercises to assess environmental and social impacts, according to Gopal K. Sarangi, head of the Department of Policy and Management Studies at the TERI School of Advanced Studies, New Delhi.
“As observed in other countries, there are numerous environmental risks for offshore wind farms,” Sarangi said. “They could disturb marine biodiversity, create noise pollution for marine habitats, and pollute the ocean water at various stages of project development.”
According to the National Offshore Wind Energy Policy, unlike other renewable energy developments in the country, EIAs are essential for offshore wind energy.
The rapid EIA report of the proposed offshore wind farm in the Gulf of Khambhat in Gujarat documented five marine mammals, including dolphins and sharks, and a reptile within the study area. While the report recognised that increased turbidity and noise levels during the construction phase of the wind farm may drive away highly sensitive species, it deemed the noise and vibrations during the operation phase to be “limited”.
Selvaraj said he doesn’t agree with the report’s inference that there are very few bird species passing through the study region. “Gujarat and its coasts are a key area within the Central Asian Flyway and the African-Eurasian Flyway,” according to him.
Per AVISTEP as well, the proposed location has a high avian sensitivity score. Thus, Selvaraj urged a longer, more thorough study to understand how migratory bird species use the area and the possible effects of wind farms on these birds.
Nikhil Sreekandan is an independent journalist.
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The ripple effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been felt across the globe, including the rise in prices of crude and sunflower oil. For countries dependent on importing oil, like India, how has this impacted local markets and the pockets of consumers? Does it also reveal India’s precarious geopolitical position in global trade?
That chicken in Telangana and the Russia-Ukraine War could belong in the same sentence seems unlikely. Yet, when Russian forces began missile and artillery attacks on Ukrainian forces on 24 February 2022, it sent ripples across the globe—when the supply of chicken feed from Ukraine was hit, India stepped in to meet global demand. This raised the price of feed, and consequently chicken for Indians. Fertilisers met the same fate as chicken feed with Russia’s export capabilities being hampered, as did the world’s liquid gold—crude oil. With Russia being one of the leading exporters of crude oil, the war’s impact was quickly reflected in global prices.
https://infogram.com/crude-oil-1h7k230wpkmlg2x
Such global volatility—and the unique shocks it creates across markets worldwide—encapsulates just how interlinked the world we live in is. But for a country like India which imports up to 80% of its oil, this moment is a reminder of its precarious dependence on conflict-afflicted countries for crude oil. How does the Russia-Ukraine war and the subsequent rise in crude oil prices impact India, and what does it reveal about India’s geopolitical position in the global oil trade?
Supply Hit in Russia, Inflation Felt in India
Of the heavy import dependence India has on oil, its dependence on Russia is only about 1%. The highest import —23%— comes from Iraq, followed by Saudi Arabia, UAE, USA, and Nigeria. Nevertheless, the global shocks to oil prices followed by the war are bound to have domestic impacts. With every $1 per barrel increase in crude, an estimated 60-70 paisa per litre increases in retail fuel prices in India. After an election season wherein fuel prices remained stable, the impact of rising crude prices is now being felt by the Indian consumer—the last ten days of March saw six hikes in petrol and diesel prices, leading to an increase by ?4-4.10 per litre.
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/oil-proved-reserves?country=~OWID_WRL
The distribution of oil reserves across the world shows Russia as one of the dominant oil holders | From OurWorldInData
“The rising crude oil prices of course hamper India’s supply chain of oil, but this prolonged disruption in energy also has other severe consequences, like the depreciation of the rupee,” says Vaishali Basu Sharma, Former Consultant at National Security Council Secretariat. Sharma is right. A recent report by Crisil states, “with the rising demand for dollars to pay for expensive oil imports, the depreciation pressure on the rupee will intensify.” The rupee has indeed seen a rise in the last few weeks, from 74.5/$ before the war, to crossing 76/$ as of 18th March this year. The Crisil report also estimates that the depreciation is here to stay. Combined with the Russia-Ukraine war, other factors like rate hikes by the US Fed would ensure that the rupee depreciates further before settling to 77/.5$ by March 2023. “With the depreciation, one can expect a slight inflation, and that will have an effect on employment and livelihoods of people in the country,” Sharma adds.
Another impact is on a resource that is a popular find in most Indian homes—sunflower oil. India imports 175,000 to 200,000 tons of this household necessity every month, a majority of which comes from Ukraine. But since February, only about 152,000 tons have arrived in India, owing to the war. Indian households are already facing the brunt of this, as a litre of the edible oil now costs ?195 in the retail market, as opposed to early February’s price of ? 141.
In the face of the crude oil rises—and as a “resolve to stand up against Putin” — the United States took a strong stance and banned any import of Russia’s oil, natural gas, or coal into the country. India took a route of its own, it is one that also sheds light on the long-term relationship between India and Russia.
India-Russia Energy Deals: A Thing of Recent Past
“This is a significant action…that will further deprive President Putin of the economic resources he uses to fund his needless war of choice,” said the White House statement, after enforcing the ban on oil imports from Russia on 8 March. Soon after, reports surfaced of Russia offering India and a few other importers discounted prices on crude oil. As Canada, Japan, New Zealand, and Italy became few of the many nations who imposed sanctions on Russian energy, banking, private wealth, and technology—right from stopping operations of Starbucks in Russia to Paypal blocking Russian Banks— India mulled over these discounted prices. Three days later, reports confirmed that Indian Oil Corporation bought as much as 3 million barrels of crude oil that were offered by Russia at steep discounts of $20-25 per barrel. Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited soon followed suit.
Not all companies have signed similar contracts. Some companies whose assets are exposed to the United States, like Reliance, are consciously not getting into contracts because that would be a complete violation of the US-imposed sanctions on oil imports.
– Dr Gopal Sarangi, an economist and faculty at TERI School of Advanced Studies
Why India chose to make use of the oil discounts becomes clearer looking at recent energy decisions that the two nations have committed to. When Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on his 2019 visit to Russia, he signed a Memorandum of Intent on developing a new trade route to transport oil amongst other goods from Russia to India. This 5600 nautical mile route between Vladivostok in eastern Russia and Chennai in India would take only 24 days, as opposed to the 40 days currently taken via the eastern Europe trade route.
Prime Minister Modi and President Putin discuss increasing trade and people-to-people linkages between India and Russia in 2019 | From Twitter
With 2020 came another such development. Public enterprise Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) signed a contract with the Russian oil exploration and processing company Rosneft for the supply of two million tonnes per annum of crude oil to India through the port of Novorossiysk on the Black Sea. This was seen as Russia’s attempt to focus on strengthening trade ties with India through oil and gas—a resource that India lacks in domestic reserves—besides the already existing trade for defence systems.
“Considering these developments that would benefit India’s import basket of oil, it becomes understandable as to why India chose to abstain from voting in the UN General Assembly on demanding an immediate end to the Ukraine invasion,” Sharma adds. “But, the current war is also a reminder that India’s import dependence puts it in a constantly volatile and precarious situation to global shocks. India needs to look for oil import options that are stable, cheaper, and closer. Be it Russia, USA, or OPEC, India should maintain a diverse mix of suppliers in the interest of its energy security. As a second goal, it needs to look out for its own economy, and therefore [account for] discounts, long-term if possible. India has significant investments in Russian energy and that relationship should continue.”
Exposing India’s Volatile Position
This is not the first time that India has been at the centre of rising oil prices due to political uncertainty. In June 2019, two oil tankers were damaged by explosions in the Gulf of Oman, as tensions between Iran and the US escalated. As this route fell under the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most important oil chokepoint, it hiked oil prices, as international trade was impacted. India faced the brunt—of the 83% of total oil it imports, a huge 65% comes through the Strait of Hormuz. With such geopolitical uncertainties and volatility of oil prices, the “Indian economy is and will become even more exposed to such risks,” a 2020 International Energy Agency review stated.
One way to reduce the shocks that India faces due to its high import basket of oil is to diversify the basket with other resources, like natural gas. Compared to other petroleum products, natural gas is known to have lesser carbon and is also considered a ‘bridge fuel’ to transition from fossil fuels to clean energy. Amit Bhandari in his book India and the Changing Geopolitics of Oil states that India imports natural gas from Qatar, Australia and the US—not India’s traditional energy suppliers. “Widening the supplier base automatically reduces supplier risk… Moreover, Australia and the US are stable democracies – they don’t face instability that is common to oil-rich countries in West Asia, Africa and South America,” he continues in his book.
But, even diversifying to natural gas does not escape the impacts of geopolitical instability, as is evident in natural gas pipeline plans that India has initiated with its neighbours. An Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) pipeline to transport gas was preliminarily signed in 1995 but fizzled out over the decades. A major reason, as Sanket Sudhir Kulkarni discussed in his 2016 paper, was the constraints in attracting risk capital for the project—India found it difficult to find insurers for its crude oil imports from Iran, which is considered as hostile territory. Moreover, Iran had earlier shown lukewarm interest in the IPI pipeline, owing to the fact that Iran needed gas resources to meet its own domestic demand.
The route of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline via Wikimedia Commons
Decades later, another pipeline deal backed with investments made headway, which could aid India in reducing its dependence on Saudi Arabia. A Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline was envisioned, and a groundbreaking ceremony was held in Turkmenistan in 2015. Estimating a delivery of 90 million metric cubic metres per day of gas from Turkmenistan to South Asia, the pipeline would cover nearly 1700 km of distance. Unlike the IPI project, attracting investments for this project became easier after the Asia Development Bank (ADB) extended firm support backed by the US. However, after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan last August, ADB refused support until the Islamic Emirates of Afghanistan is recognised, proving yet again the impact of geopolitical instability on India’s oil supply.
Apart from pipelines, diversification to other energy sources can help reduce India’s import dependence. And that is not the only strategy.
Reducing India’s Energy Import Dependence
“Diversifying is an important long-term strategy but equally challenging,” Sarangi mentions. “For instance, many Indian states are promoting electric vehicles (EVs), but we need to also work to change the energy mix [a breakdown of primary energy sources for a country]. With EVs then, we should be prioritising its use in public transport, while most of the policies currently still focus on private transport, which would change the energy mix only minimally.”
To increase our domestic production and reduce import dependence by 10% by 2022, India also launched the Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy (HELP), a policy to boost the production of oil and gas in India. It envisions doing so by making exploration of all hydrocarbons smoother through steps like uniform licences for exploration and production. Sarangi mentions another exploration India can benefit from. “India is also home to basins of shale gas, which can diversify from oil demand. But fracking shale gas comes with concerns of large water requirements for the process, as well as the water pollution it leads to… we have to be mindful of it,” he adds.
The current Russia-Ukraine war goes to reveal India’s volatile position in the oil market, which has persisted through history and may well be here to stay. Yet, even as India gears up to reduce its import dependence when it comes to oils, especially crude, it should not come at the cost of diluting environmental norms, or we will be staring in the face of a vulnerability of a different kind, comprising ecological and climate exposures.
