Comprehension: (Que No. 1 - 5) Read the following passage carefully and answer…
2025
Comprehension: (Que No. 1 - 5)
Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below.
A new report from the World Heath Organisation highlights not only how widespread air pollution is in urban India, but also how deficient air quality monitoring is. The report, which summarised 2016 data for 4,300 cities, ranks 14 Indian cities among the 20 most polluted ones globally. While Delhi comes in at number six, Kanpur, Faridabad, Varanasi, Gaya and Patna are ranked ahead of it, by PM 2.5 levels. And yet, Kanpur, Faridabad and several other pollution-choked cities have only one PM 2.5 monitoring station each, while Delhi has several. WHO researchers get around this problem by using alternative data sources such as satellite remote sensing and chemical transport models, along with ground-monitoring stations. The outcome of this exercise makes it clear that air pollution is not a problem of large metropolises alone, even though they have traditionally been the focus of mitigation efforts. Such wide variations in data quality exist across the world. While Europe has the most extensive monitoring network, countries in Africa and the Western Pacific region perform poorly. This means data from these regions are of poor quality, and likely underestimates, resulting in an under-count of the disease burden as well. The report puts the global death toll from air pollution at seven million a year, attributable to illnesses such as lung cancer, pneumonia and ischemic heart disease. In 2016 alone, it says, around 4.2 million people died owing to outdoor air pollution, while 3.8 million people succumbed to dirty cooking fuels such as wood and cow dung. About a third of these deaths occurred in Southeast Asian countries, which include India. Once monitoring improves in these regions, the numbers will likely be revised upwards. There are silver linings, however. The report had words of praise for India's Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana scheme, which has provided 37 million women living below the poverty line with LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) connections. Such schemes will also help cut the indoor air pollution that plagues much of rural India, which is not covered in the WHO analysis.
Question:
Why does the author think that the air pollution monitoring system in India is not up to the mark?
- A.
Because Government's smart city scheme has led to cutting down thousands of trees without monitoring its effects
- B.
Because entire India has only one PM 2.5 monitoring station, in Kanpur
- C.
Because government is increasingly trying to choke already polluted areas with more industries instead if looking for new locations
- D.
Because cities with most polluted air like Kanpur have only one PM 2.5 monitoring station
Attempted by 12 students.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: D
Key reason: The most polluted cities often have only one PM2.5 monitoring station, so monitoring coverage is inadequate.
The passage lists Kanpur, Faridabad, Varanasi, Gaya and Patna as ranked ahead of Delhi by PM2.5 levels, yet Kanpur, Faridabad and several other heavily polluted cities have only one PM2.5 monitoring station each.
Delhi has several monitoring stations, so its data are more reliable; the limited number of stations in other cities leads to poor-quality and likely underestimated data.
WHO's use of satellite remote sensing and chemical transport models to supplement ground stations indicates that ground monitoring networks are insufficient in many places.
Therefore, the correct answer is the statement that cities with the most polluted air, like Kanpur, have only one PM2.5 monitoring station, which shows monitoring is not up to the mark.