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The adverse effects of the long-term use of inefficient combustion techniques may be finally showing up.
Scientists had some time back discovered a three kilometre thick blanket of pollution hovering over the Indian land mass and the Indian Ocean, called the 'Asian Brown Cloud'.
According to the results of a recent study, announced in London last week, the 'cloud' affects climate changes in the region and plays havoc with the rainfall patterns, and is responsible for hundreds of deaths a year from respiratory diseases.
"It contains an appreciable amount of black carbon, an aerosol that absorbs sunlight cutting down the amount that reaches the ground by 10-15 per cent, and heats up the atmosphere," said Dr A P Mitra of the Kolkata-based National Physical Laboratory.
Mitra, along with Prof V S Ramanathan of the US-based Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen of the Max Planck Institute of Chemistry, Germany, was part of a United Nations Environment Programme team, which conducted this study.
The presence of black carbon, Mitra explained, heats up the atmosphere affecting the evaporation pattern in the ocean and the rainfall pattern.
The black carbon is emitted from inefficient combustion engines used in vehicles and industries, and by cooking systems used in rural areas, he said.
Scientists fear the 'cloud' will have an adverse affect on the agricultural yield and pose a grave threat to the health of millions, he said .
"It is going to reduce the yield of India's winter crop by at least 10 per cent. Further, since the 'cloud' is made up of particulate matter like aerosols, soot, ash and other particles, it is directly connected to respiratory infections," he said.
"It has an impact not just on the pollution level in urban areas, but also in villages, where people use inefficient furnaces to cook food exposing families to harmful smoke," he added.
The haze is also altering the hydrological balance causing floods in Nepal and northeastern India while creating drought-like conditions in north-western India, Mitra said.
"Water reserves, especially in north-western India and Pakistan, are gradually drying up," he explained.
The 'cloud', which lies over the Indian subcontinent and extends to East and South East Asia, has global implications too as it can travel round the world in two weeks, Mitra said.
But the scientists say there is room for hope as aerosols have a very short life span. "If the new emissions are checked, the impact of the 'cloud' can be reduced," he said.
However, the Indian Meteorological Department is officially indifferent to the findings of the study with its director H R Hatwar declining to comment on the issue.
EXTERNAL LINKS News in Science: Huge pollution haze over Indian Ocean Max Planck Society: Impact of Pollutants on Climate Processes Over the Indian Ocean National Geographic: Pollution Cloud Over S Asia
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