BENGALURU: India is the world's largest emitter of anthropogenic sulphur dioxide (SO2) a direct result of coal burning, the burning of fossil fuels in power plants and other industrial facilities, Greenpeace said in a study Monday.
According to an analysis by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration released by environmental NGO Greenpeace, India has more than 15 per cent of all SO2 hotspots in the world detected by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument satellite.
The major SO2 emission hotspots in India are Singrauli in MP, Neyveli and Chennai in TN, Talcher and Jharsuguda in Odisha, Korba in Chhattisgarh, Kutch in Gujarat, Ramagundam in Telangana and Chandrapur and Koradi in Maharashtra. The vast majority of plants in India lack flue-gas desulfurization technology to reduce air pollution.
During December 2015, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change had introduced SO2 emission limits for coal power plants with an initial deadline to retrofit technology.
