India is the world’s largest emitter of Sulphur dioxide, says Greenpeace

As per the data released by Greenpeace, India is the world’s largest emitter of SO2 in the world. As per the study, India emits over 15% of all the anthropogenic sulfur dioxide (SO2) in the world. As per the OMI (Ozone Monitoring Instrument) satellite, India has several sulfur dioxide hotspots in the world.

Why is this a concern?

• Sulfur dioxide is a toxic gas which is responsible for acid rain.
• This causes corrosion in pipes and is a major health hazard for living organisms.

Sulfur dioxide in India

• In India, sulfur dioxide is emitted by the burning of coal.
• In India, the major spots where a lot of coal is emitted are Singrauli in Madhya Pradesh, Neyveli and Chennai in Tamil Nadu, Talcher and Jharsuguda in Odisha, Korba in Chhattisgarh, Kutch in Gujarat, Ramagundam in Telangana and Chandrapur and Koradi in Maharashtra.
• Most of the emissions are due to the old coal-burning powerplants in India which lack good quality scrubbers and other accessories for the removal of sulfur from the air stream.

What is Greenpeace?

• The Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization which is mainly involved with environmental protection.
• It has its headquarters in Amsterdam and has associated offices in over 39 countries.
• The primary goal of Greenpeace is to “ensure the ability of the Earth to nurture life in all its diversity”.

Greenpeace primarily focuses its campaigning on worldwide issues such as climate change, deforestation, overfishing, commercial whaling, genetic engineering, and anti-nuclear issues.