If you are smoking in a public place, you are committing a crime. That is what India’s Bureau of crime statistics - NCRB - says.

As per NCRB’s latest report, there has been a 790% rise in environment-related offences between 2016 and 2017. 42,143 environment crimes were committed in 2017 in comparison to 4,732 in 2016.

But that rise is not due to poaching of animals, deforestation or illegal mining. The reason behind this eight-fold increase is that offences under The Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products Act, 2003 are included in the category of the environment-related crime for the first time.