---
title: "Pollution: Air, Water, Soil, Plastic, E-Waste"
description: "Understand India's pollution regime across air, water, soil, plastic and e-waste, including the CPCB and NGT architecture, key rules, standards and PYQ-tested."
url: "https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/lessons/upsc-environment-ecology-pollution-air-water-soil-plastic-e-waste"
---

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Pollution: air, water, soil, plastic & e-waste

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# Pollution: air, water, soil, plastic & e-waste

India's pollution regime across air, water, soil, plastic and e-waste: the CPCB/NGT architecture, key rules, standards and PYQ-tested facts.

## The Statutory Spine

Pollution control in India rests on three foundational statutes. The **Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974** created the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs), and introduced the consent mechanism (Consent to Establish, Consent to Operate). The **Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981** extended this machinery to air, was enacted under Article 253 to implement the 1972 Stockholm Conference decisions, and empowers states to declare 'air pollution control areas'. The umbrella **Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 (EPA)**, enacted post-Bhopal (December 1984), is the parent legislation under which most subsequent rules — plastic, e-waste, hazardous waste, noise, CRZ — are notified.

## Air Pollution: Standards and Programmes

The CPCB notified **National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) in 2009**, prescribing limits for 12 pollutants including PM2.5 (annual 40 µg/m³, 24-hour 60 µg/m³), PM10, SO2, NO2, ozone, lead, CO, ammonia, benzene, benzo(a)pyrene, arsenic and nickel. The **National Air Quality Index (AQI)**, launched in 2015, collapses eight pollutants into six categories from 'Good' (0–50) to 'Severe' (401–500).

The **National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), launched January 2019**, originally targeted a 20–30% reduction in PM2.5/PM10 by 2024 over a 2017 base, later revised to **40% reduction by 2025–26** for 131 non-attainment cities. The **Commission for Air Quality Management in the NCR and Adjoining Areas Act, 2021** created a statutory CAQM, subsuming the earlier EPCA, with power to issue binding directions across Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and UP — a direct response to stubble-burning and the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP).

## Water Pollution and the Namami Gange Mission

Water pollution is governed by the 1974 Act plus effluent standards under the EPA. The **Namami Gange programme (2014)**, implemented through the **National Mission for Clean Ganga**, was given statutory teeth by the **Ganga River Basin Authority order (2016)** under the EPA. The Supreme Court in *M.C. Mehta v. Union of India* (the Ganga Pollution / Kanpur tanneries case, 1987–88) established the principle that the right to clean water flows from Article 21, and ordered closure of polluting tanneries. The **National Green Tribunal (NGT)**, created by the **NGT Act, 2010**, adjudicates environmental disputes and applies the **Polluter Pays** and **Precautionary** principles, both read into Indian law in *Vellore Citizens Welfare Forum v. Union of India* (1996) as part of sustainable development.

For groundwater contamination, fluoride, arsenic (notably the Gangetic plains) and nitrate remain the dominant chemical pollutants; the Central Ground Water Authority regulates extraction. Candidates must connect these statutes to constitutional anchors: **Article 48A** (Directive Principle, environment protection) and **Article 51A(g)** (Fundamental Duty), both inserted by the **42nd Amendment, 1976**.

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