Who are p.a.l.s?

• According to research conducted by the World Health Organization, around 2.4 million people die every year because of air pollution.
• In India, air pollution is believed to cause 527,700 fatalities a year.
• Engine exhaust (diesel and gas) contains more than 40 hazardous air pollutants.
• Traffic areas around schools - where vehicles are often left idling - show significantly higher pollution levels outside (and inside) their buildings.
• Emissions from vehicles are producing around 70% of the air pollution. There are about 500 million cars on the planet and by 2030, that number is expected to double to 1 billion cars.
• Under standard Indian driving conditions, a standard petrol-vehicle is expected to emit over 8000 grams of carbon dioxide per day while travelling. For a usual commuter that amounts to over 1.92 tonnes of carbon dioxide emitted annually by a single vehicle.
• Under standard Indian driving conditions, a standard petrol-vehicle is expected to emit over 800 grams of carbon dioxide per day just while idling.
• Many industries are still dumping their waste in water bodies like lakes, oceans or rivers. Bacteria born because of industries dumping their waste in water bodies are responsible for causing of about 250 million water borne diseases annually. Due to these diseases 5 to 10 million deaths are occurring every year.
• An estimated 14 billion pounds of trash, much of it plastic, is dumped in the world's oceans every year.
• A staggering 250 million Indians make their living in some form from the forests. At present, India has 70 million hectares of forest cover. But 40% of that cover is sadly, 'open degraded forest'.
• The cost of one nuclear weapons test alone could finance the installation of eighty thousand hand pumps, giving third world villages access to clean water.
• Combined with industrial runoff, the garbage thrown into the Yamuna totals over 3 billion liters of waste per day.
• According to the World Health Organization, each year an estimated four billion people get sick with diarrhea as a result of drinking unsafe water, inadequate sanitation, and poor hygiene. Nearly two million people die from diarrhea each year, and many of them are children under the age of five, poor, and living in the developing world.
• Vapi in Gujarat and Sukinda in Orrisa is among the world's top 10 most polluted places, according to the Blacksmith Institute, a New York-based nonprofit group.
• Air pollution caused by the burning of fossil fuels like coal and diesel has contributed to a worrisome slowdown in rice harvest growth in India in the past two decades
• India, the world's third-largest coal producer, is among the world's top CO2 emitters. - National Geographic
• India has been ranked as the seventh most environmentally hazardous country in the world by a new ranking released recently. The study is based on evaluation of "absolute" environment impact of 179 countries, whose data was available and has been done by researchers in Harvard, Princeton, Adelaide University and University of Singapore on January 12, 2011.(http://www.gits4u.com/envo/envo4.htm)
• Vehicle emissions are responsible for 70% of the country's air pollution. The major problem with government efforts to safeguard the environment has been enforcement at the local level.
• Air pollution from vehicle exhausts and industries is a worsening problem for India. Exhaust emissions from vehicles has increased eight-fold over levels of twenty years ago; industrial pollution has risen four times over the same period. The economy has grown two and a half times over the past two decades, but pollution control and civil services have not kept pace. Air quality is the worst in big cities like Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, etc.
• Bangalore holds the title of being the asthma capital of the country. Studies estimate that 10 per cent of Bangalore's 60 lakh population and over 50 per cent of its children below 18 years suffer from air pollution- related ailments.
• Chennai: Exhaust from vehicles, dust from construction debris, industrial waste, burning of municipal and garden waste are all on the rise in the city. So are respiratory diseases, including asthma.
• Mumbai: The air pollution in Mumbai is so high that Mumbai authorities have purchased 42,000 litres of perfume to spray on the city's enormous waste dumps at Deonar and Mulund landfill sites after people living near the landfill sites complained of the stench.
• Pune: According to a study by Environment Status Report (ESR) in July 2010, air pollution in Pune has become a serious problem. The respiratory suspended particulate matter (PM 10) in the air is more than the standard national level. About 93,000 commercial properties which include hotels, malls and hospitals emit 204 tonne PM10 every year
• Delhi: According to a study conducted in June 2011 by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), Delhi has high levels of air pollutants and ozone, and the latter has a harmful impact on health and agricultural yield. TERI found that cities like Delhi and Ghaziabad violate annual ambient air quality standards for particulate matter concentrations.
• Indoor air pollution: Indoor air pollution is the most important cause of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in India, says a prevalence study conducted by Pune based Chest Research Foundation (CRF) and the Imperial College, London in November 2010. Over 700 million people in India suffer from high levels of indoor air pollution affecting women and young children as 75 per cent homes use biomass fuel like wood, crop residue and dung cakes.
• The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) is working to understand how exposure to environmental agents trigger diseases such as Asthma, and how these diseases can be prevented, diagnosed and treated.
• Municipal solid waste: With India's urban population slated to increase from the current 330 million to about 600 million by 2030, the challenge of managing municipal solid waste (MSW) in an environmentally and economically sustainable manner is bound to assume gigantic proportions. The country has over 5,000 cities and towns, which generate about 40 million tonnes of MSW per year today. Going by estimates of The Energy Research Institute (TERI), this could well touch 260 million tonnes per year by 2047.
• Taking a cue from the finding, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) formulated NAAQS and checked the air quality, which led to the revelation about air quality in leading cities.
• According to the report, Gobindgarh in Punjab is the most polluted city, and Ludhiana, Raipur and Lucknow hold the next three positions. Faridabad on the outskirts of Delhi is the 10th most polluted city, followed by Agra, the city of the Taj Mahal. Ahmedabad is placed 12th, Indore 16th, Delhi 22nd, Kolkata 25th, Mumbai 40th, Hyderabad 44th and Bangalore stands at 46th in the list. The Orissa town of Angul, home to National Aluminium Company (NALCO), is the 50th polluted city of the country.

Keeping our promise of planting one tree for each PAL that joins us, the first phase of plantation of over 5lac trees will be conducted nationwide on 12th of September, 2011. The assignment to plant and maintain these PAL trees for two years has been awarded to a consortium of globally renowned NGOs supported by Indian and locally credible NGOs, under the Zee News Initiative "My Earth My Duty". This initiative was chosen after carefully considering hundreds of proposals. The national reach of the program, highly credible and expert partners as well as their commitment to environmental education and not just plantation makes them our ideal partners. Last year this initiative was awarded the Rashtriya Rajiv Gandhi Award and the best CSR campaign award by Sustainability in Construction India and also entered the Limca Book of Records .

Find schedule details below >>

The partner NGOs are: United Nation Development Program (UNDP), United nation volunteers (UNV), World Wildlife Fund (WWF), National Service Scheme (NSS), Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan (NYKS), Eco Task Force (ETF), National Cadet Corps (NCC),Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP),

Five lac PAL trees will be planted and maintained by these organizations across 30 cities and 50 villages across the country to ensure best survival rate. A six monthly audit of the same will be conducted and additional trees will be planted in phase two for the non-surviving numbers.

The survival of the plants and benefits to the eco-system are higher in semi-urban and rural areas, however in an attempt to bring it as close to our PALS as possible we have attempted to strike the right balance between urban, semi-urban and rural locations for these plantations. We aim to bring these trees to all PAL states at least if not all PAL cities.

Benefits of planting trees:

When you plant a tree, it goes beyond just the tree it results in powering a complete eco-system by improving air quality, conserving water, recharging the water table and harbouring wild life. You are also creating habitat for other species, starting a food source for humans and animals, providing carbon sinks to extract one of the major greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, stabilizing the soil to prevent erosion, creating natural water filters, and much more.

Specific to PALS and pure air, trees greatly improve the quality of air. Trees filter the air we breathe by removing dust and other particulates. Leaves absorb carbon dioxide from the air to form carbohydrates that are used in the plant's structure and function. In this process, leaves also absorb other air pollutants-such as ozone, carbon monoxide, and sulphur dioxide-and give off oxygen.

Important considerations for Tree plantation:

Suzlon understands that the real benefit of tree plantation is not just by planting the trees but by maintaining them and ensuring maximum survival of the trees. It is therefore critical to ensure:

• Selection of the right sites as survival rates of trees in cities is much lower than in the wilderness. However, we need more trees near cities so a careful balance has to be struck.
• Correct selection species of trees to be planted as per geographic conditions
• Planting the trees during the most conducive season to ensure their survival
• Preparing the saplings correctly
• Maintaining the trees for at least two years to ensure better survival

Keeping all the above in mind, agencies with the right knowledge, bandwidth and expertise in not just plantation but maintenance need to be assigned the task for maximum impact.

Best season for tree planting:

The best season to plant trees is mid June to end September. For early monsoon areas it is 15th July median and for late monsoon areas it is 15th August.  Since there are specific seasons and time of the year when tree plantation should be done for maximum impact and viability, we will plan our plantation accordingly.PAL tree plantations will be done in two phases. The first phase of 5 lac trees will be done now in September, 2011 and the second phase of whatever number of additional PAL registrations we have by then will be done around August/September 2012.

12 Sept' 11- MEMD Nationwide Plantation Drive

S No.	City	Address	Date
1	Mumbai	Shewle College, Thana District, Kalyani	12 september 2011
	Pune	Gliding Centre, Separ Area, Solapur road
	Ahmedabad	Sector-15, NCC Centre, Gandhinagar
	Vadodara	Nalanda International School, Sevasi Road, Baroda Gujrat Public School, Old Padra Road, Vadodara
	Indore	Tejaji Nagar, Panchayat Bhawan
	Bhopal	Palwalia Sadak, on the way to Narsinghad, 4 km from Gandhinagar
2	Chandigarh	Dhanas Village, nearby Punjab University, Chnadigarh, Sec-14	12 september 2011
		ITBP Ramgarh,BTC Bhanu, Panchkula,  Chandigarh
	Shimla	Tattapani
	Amritsar	Govt Elementary School, Pandari Vadhaich Village, Majitha Road
	Patiala	Sr. Secondary School, Devigarh, Patiala Pehowa Road
	Jalandhar	Vill Gehalran, Near Bhogpur Block Headquater, Bhulwal Road
3	Mount Abu	Bhramkumari Shanti Road, Abu Road	12 september 2011
4	Bangalore	Reitha Shikshan Samiti, Heanakera, Madya Talukan District	12 september 2011
5	Hyderabad	Youth Hostel, Budha Bhawan Election Office, Near Boat Club	12 september 2011
6	Delhi	Bhatimines, Chattarpur, New Delhi	12 september 2011
8	Lucknow	Village Banthar, Distt. Unna, Kanpur Highway	12 september 2011
9	Raipur	ITBP Battalion 38, Kharora Road New Raipur, Raipur	12 september 2011
10	Dehradun	ITBP Centre, Seema Dwar, Dehradun	12 september 2011
11	Ranchi	ITBP Battalion 40, Kakka Road, New Ranchi	12 september 2011
12	Jodhpur	Chopathi School, Chopathi	12 september 2011
13	Chennai	Patadiram, near Ambattur, Chennai	12 september 2011

More cities to come soon.