India is witnessing bird flu outbreaks in multiple states, as the infectious disease rears its ugly head once more. Thousands of birds are to be culled to stymie the bird flu outbreaks which have resulted in numerous birds across the country dying. Two strains of bird flu – H5N1 and H5N8 – are in the […]
Haryana
Crop burning: Will it continue?
![Burning of crops in southeast Punjab - a major driver of northern India's pollution crisis. (Image credit, Neil Palmer (CIAT) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)]). Stubble burning concept.](https://www.healthissuesindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/NP_India_burning_70_6314806011-150x150.jpg "The cost of crop burning")
The practice of crop burning is among the drivers of the pollution crisis which has enveloped the National Capital Region (NCR) in India. However, even as the Supreme Court has taken a stringent line against it, will it continue? The practice of burning crop residue leads to between seven and eight million metric tonnes of […]
Road accident deaths: Who leads the nation?
Delhi is still leading Indian cities in the number of road accident deaths, recording 106 more such fatalities in 2018 compared to 2017. Uttar Pradesh, meanwhile, leads the states. Fortunately, the same was not true of some other populous cities. Chennai, Kolkata, and Maharashtra all witnessed declines in their road accident deaths in 2018 compared […]
Delhi pollution: Supreme Court fumes as the city chokes
Delhi pollution has reached “unbearable” levels in the words of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, amidst plummeting air quality and the worst smog the National Capital Region has witnessed in almost three years. According to the Central Pollution Control Board, Delhi pollution – based on a 24-hour average – stood at 494 on the Air Quality […]
Supreme Court to hear on pollution Monday
As pollution in the National Capital Region (NCR) reaches emergency proportions, the Supreme Court will hear a report on the issue prepared by the Environment (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA). The Supreme Court constituted the EPCA to monitor air quality and effect improvements in the NCR. As the Air Quality Index (AQI) score for Delhi […]
Air quality plummets to emergency levels in Delhi
Air quality in the national capital has plummeted to emergency levels, with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal once again likening the city to a ‘gas chamber’. In declaring the emergency, the Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA) ordered that schools be shuttered in the National Capital Region (NCR), imposed a moratorium on construction activities, and […]
Share SAFAR tech to help fight against pollution: Delhi to Centre
The Delhi government has appealed to the Centre to share System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR) technology in the fight against pollution, as the national capital grapples with a deterioration in its air quality. Ahead of Diwali, air quality in numerous parts of Delhi has been ranked as “very poor” with […]
Sex determination racket bust points to a national issue
![Sex ratio at birth. Sex determination ban in India to prevent imbalanced sex ratio. By Melanurya (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](https://www.healthissuesindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Sex_determination_ban-150x150.jpg "Sex determination ban in India and freedom of speech")
In Haryana’s Panchkula district, a clinic has been raided by the state health department over allegations of a sex determination racket operating there. The Siddharth Clinic in Swastik Vihar, located in the Mansa Devi Complex, claimed to perform “infertility, gynae and ultrasound”, despite being unregistered with local authorities, and that equipment for procedures it was […]
An alternative medicine boost from the Centre
India is taking a big leap to promote alternative medicine and opening 12,500 centres is a significant step in this direction, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said. Promoting alternative medicine practices has been a major tenet of the Central government’s vision for healthcare since the BJP came to power in 2014, with the Union Ministry […]
Haryana cracks down on online e-cigarette sales
Haryana authorities are taking steps to block websites selling e-cigarettes and other electronic nicotine delivery system (ENDS) devices, which are prohibited in the state. The move came following a Times of India exposé which revealed that sales of e-cigarettes were ongoing in Haryana and Punjab as well as the union territory of Chandigarh despite all […]