New Delhi: Quality of air has worsened in eight major Indian cities including Delhi and Mumbai, a survey on environment has said.
The TERI Environmental Survey 2014 was conducted in Delhi, Mumbai, Coimbatore, Guwahati, Indore, Jamshedpur, Kanpur and Pune to gauge the perception, awareness, opinion and behavior of people towards environment in India.
“A vast majority of respondents (90 percent) felt that climate change was a reality,” it said.
In Delhi, over 90 percent of the respondents stated that climatic changes were occurring. 95 percent felt that temperature was increasing and 64 percent stated that rainfall was declining.
The response on wind patterns were mixed with 39 percent stating a decline and 36 percent stating extreme patterns.
A large percentage of respondents in Delhi stated that they did not see any change or expressed their ignorance on the intensity and frequency of extreme events in the city.
Only 15 per cent citizens viewed that there was no conflict between the objectives of environmental protections and development.
Over 50 percent favoured prioritizing environment over development. Air quality, however, was stated to have worsened by over 50 percent of the respondents in the city.
