On the eve of World Environment Day, the Capital does not score very high on the environmental report card going by the views of environmentalists and conservationists based in the city. While successive governments have long debated on what needs to be done to clean the Yamuna, the river has only steadily deteriorated, being reduced to a stream of waste passing through the Capital. The 22-km stretch of the river, which makes up 2 per cent of the length of the river basin, accounts for 80 per cent pollution load of the river in its entire stretch, notes the Centre of Science and Environment in its policy paper ?State of Pollution in the Yamuna? in 2009. Experts say the pollution levels as recorded by the Central Pollution Control Board show no signs of revival of the river. ?There are some positive signs after the National Green Tribunal?s interventions but we cannot say what the effects will be over the long term. After NGT set a fine of Rs.5 lakh in 2013, there has been no solid waste dumping on a large-scale or encroachments by the government. The Millennium Bus Depot planned close to the river bank is being relocated. So there is some hope,? said Manoj Misra, who petitioned the green tribunal in 2012 and 2013 to intervene to stop dumping of debris into the river. The air quality too has deteriorated. Last month, the WHO report based on a study of air quality in 1,600 cities categorised Delhi as the world?s worst city in air pollution. It said Delhi has an annual average of 153 micrograms of small particulates of 2.5 micrometers per cubic metre. Delhi?s levels were put at nearly three times that of Beijing that recorded an annual average of 56 micrograms of small particulates per cubic metre.

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