Chhattisgarh: Mineral resources including coal, iron ore, and dolomite, of which Chhattisgarh is a key producer, have boosted the state’s mineral-based businesses and increased people’s earnings significantly. While this has worsened air and water pollution and created solid waste management difficulties, the Chhattisgarh Environment Conservation Board (CESB) has been in the forefront of the fight. The government has established 18 air quality monitoring stations. Under the National Clean Air Programme, Raipur, Bhilai, and Korba, three of the most polluted municipal corporations, have developed micro action plans. The average daily content of sulphur dioxide (SO2) in the air has decreased by 37%, from 26.02 ug/m3 in 2016 to 16.34 g/m3 in 2020. During that time, the daily nitrogen dioxide (NO) content dropped by 17%, from 24.11 ug/m3 to M 19.88 ug/m3.
Under the National Water Quality Monitoring Program, the state has installed 27 water quality monitoring stations along seven important rivers. The water quality of five major rivers, the Kharun, Mahanadi, Hasdeo, Kelo, and Shivnath, was confirmed to be drinkable. Another ten stations are being built. Six million people live in urban areas of Chhattisgarh, which has a population of 28.8 million people. Every day, roughly 1,650 tonnes of solid trash are generated in metropolitan areas. Based on the successful decentralised trash segregation/recycling strategy in place in Ambikapur, the government has launched Mission Clean City across the state.
Hazardous trash is disposed of in a separate facility in the Balodabazar area. Four biomedical waste treatment units are in the works. The state’s forest cover, which accounts for 41% of the total area, works as a carbon sink. Plantations must cover 30% of any industrial area, according to the law. According to the India State of the Forest report, forest cover grew slightly between 2015 and 2019, rising from 41.12 percent to 41.14 percent of the total area.