Air quality in Delhi had raised concerns in Kathmandu: Nepal judge

Mehta said the government was of the view that the technology can be put to use to eradicate air pollution in the NCR. (Express photo by Prem Nath Pandey)

ADDRESSING A session on environmental laws at the Global Law Conference held in Chandigarh University, Justice Anand Mohan, a judge in the Supreme Court of Nepal, said the rising pollution levels in New Delhi had led to concerns about whether “the polluted toxic air will flow to Nepal and particularly Kathmandu”.

He further said, “The threat was diffused when the department of meteorology stated that the mountains should prevent it, but others of different opinion said, it actually depends on the direction that the winds take and their intensity.”

Justice Ajay Tewari, a judge in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, who was co-chairing the event, also said, “More comprehensive and regional cooperation will help much more and have a greater effort if we work together. Efforts would get exponentially stronger.”

While Mohan claimed that Nepal operates without any thermal power now, Tewari said India is far from it, being 70 per cent dependent on coal for production of electricity.