Maharashtra Pollution Control Board
Dr. Dilip Boralkar is senior environmental scientist possessing about 50 years of experience in the field of pollution control, assessment, regulation and environment protection at national and international levels. He held important positions at CPCB and MPCB, Mumbai. Most of us know Dr. Boralkar for his eventful stint as Member Secretary of MPCB where he promoted public-private partnership in creating common environmental infrastructure and set an example of proactive approach for pollution control and environment protection in the State of Maharashtra.
Dr. Boralkar has been Member of the Indian Delegation to the United Nation’s Basel Convention on Hazardous Wastes and made contributions as Expert Member of several high-level technical committees appointed by the State Government(s), Central Government, High Court and the Supreme Court as well.
Dr. Boralkar has done pioneering and original research work on development of air quality index for Mumbai based on comparison of responses of green plants and AAQ data using physico-chemical methods. Commonwealth Youth Research Scholarship was awarded for presentation of this work at International Society of Tropical Ecology at Kuala Lumpur as early as in the year 1978.
The Air (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 provide basic regulatory framework for (a) to provide for prevention, control and abatement of air pollution in India (b) for the establishment, with a view to carry carrying out the aforesaid purposes, of Boards (c) for conferring on and assigning to such Board powers & functions relating thereto and (d) functions relating thereto and (c) for matters connected therewith.
Even after about 45 years it is not uncommon to see that most of the cities are gasping for the clean and healthy ambient air and millions of people are suffering from respiratory related illnesses. Indoor air quality is not satisfactory. Millions of deaths are attributed to the deteriorating air quality. Plants, animals and property are also not spared from adverse impacts of air pollution.
Time has come to assess effectiveness of policy & program implementation so far, review achievements and shortfalls and work on way forward to achieve the goals of air quality systematically over a period of time. Of course, most important in this regard is support of political will and ability of regulator to convert political decisions in reality. The speaker is proposing to deliberate some of these aspects in this lecture.
© 2025 10th INDIAN INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON AIR QUALITY MANAGEMENT
