The Bombay High Court said that “authorities cannot attribute Mumbai’s air pollution to Ethiopia’s volcanic ash clouds,” stressing that responsible agencies must focus on local causes and adopt concrete measures instead of offering speculative explanations for rising pollution levels.
The Bombay High Court stated that authorities cannot attribute air pollution in Mumbai to the ash clouds resulting from the volcanic eruption in Ethiopia.
The court noted that the air quality index (AQI) in the city has been poor long before this event.
A bench consisting of Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Gautam Ankhad heard a series of petitions from 2023 regarding the air pollution issue.
Senior counsels Darius Khambata and Janak Dwarkadas, representing the petitioners, pointed out that this month the AQI in the city has consistently remained above 300.
In response, additional government pleader Jyoti Chavan claimed that the recent volcanic eruption in Ethiopia, which occurred two days ago, has exacerbated the air pollution.
However, the court rejected this assertion, emphasizing that air quality had been poor well before the eruption.
The court remarked,
“Even before this eruption, if one stepped out visibility was poor beyond 500 metres,”
The bench also referenced the situation in Delhi, which is facing critical AQI levels, questioning what effective measures could be implemented to tackle the issue.
They asked,
“What can be the most effective measures? We are all seeing what is happening in Delhi? What is the effect of that?”
The court scheduled the next hearing for Friday.
Hayli Gubbi, a shield volcano in Ethiopia’s Afar region, erupted on Sunday, sending a significant ash plume approximately 14 kilometers (about 45,000 feet) into the atmosphere.
This plume has since spread eastward across the Red Sea, reaching toward the Arabian Peninsula and the Indian subcontinent.