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India's Pollution Control Boards Face Staffing Crisis
15 Dec, 2025
Summary
- Over 16% of positions at pollution control boards are vacant.
- Thousands of scientific and technical roles remain unfilled.
- State governments are responsible for filling vacancies in their regions.
India's primary environmental monitoring agencies are facing a severe staffing crisis, with over 16% of sanctioned positions remaining vacant. This shortfall significantly hampers the capacity of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and numerous state pollution control boards (SPCBs) to effectively safeguard air and water quality.
The total number of vacant scientific and technical roles across these organizations has reached over 3,100. This situation is particularly concerning given the ongoing challenges with air pollution in regions like Delhi-NCR. Experts have previously raised alarms about the capacity crunch within these boards, questioning their ability to adequately monitor environmental compliance.
While the Union environment ministry has introduced new environmental auditing frameworks, the minister of state for environment indicated that filling vacancies within SPCBs and pollution control committees is the responsibility of the respective state governments and union territory administrations. This decentralized approach appears to contribute to the chronic manpower shortage.
