India Study Group

http://www.karmayog.org/urbandvlp/urbandvlp_12922.htm

MUMBAI  AND Delhi are among the 25 dirtiest cities in the world while the four Indian metros and Bangalore are among the 20 densest cities, according to the Forbes magazine. The US business magazine also lists Sukinda in Orissa and Vapi in Gujarat among the 10 most polluted places globally.
While Mumbai is the seventh dirtiest city, Delhi at No.24 fares little better. But it gets drubbing for the pollution in Yamuna river, which is devoid of marine life and where “garbage and sewage flow freely, creating a rich environment for the growth of water-borne diseases contributing to extremely high rates of infant morbidity.” The top slot as the dirtiest city in the world is taken by Baku in Azerbaijan, suffering lifethreatening levels of air pollution emitted from oil drilling.
The list, now on the magazine’s website, is based on Mercer Human Resource Consulting’s ranking of over 200 cities worldwide on levels of air pollution, waste management, water potability, hospital services, medical supplies and the presence of infectious diseases. New York was used as the norm. Living in a dense place affects quality of living, unless you have loads of money and the place is gentrified like Tokyo and New York, the magazine commented. Dense is, however, a relative term. “A Mumbai native visiting New York is bound to feel like a New Yorker vacationing on a Wyoming dude ranch,” it added.
In Forbes’ list of 10 most polluted places on earth, two Indian towns figure. In Sukinda, Orissa, large swathes of the area’s surface water and drinking water contain very high covalent chromium levels, potentially affecting 2.6 million people, the magazine said. Sukinda is home to almost all of the country’s chromite ore. However, some reports said Sukinda was not that polluted. In Vapi, the pollutants are chemicals and heavy metals from industrial estates, potentially affecting over 70,000 people. Mercury in the groundwater here is reported to be 96 times higher than the World health Or ganisation standards.