“We are so close to the red line that we may wake up tomorrow and discover that there is nothing left to save.”
-Maneka Gandhi
‘New Delhi, choking on toxic air, declared health emergency’, said Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA). Unfortunately, this was the headline blazing on the front page of the national repute newspapers. Then, subsequently many questions were clattering in my mind. Was it a brisk result? Or an amalgam of series of different factors leading to such a sensitive situation? Is there anything that we can do to eliminate or at least reduce this pollution? Has the government done anything significant in this regard? If yes, then why hasn’t the pollution level gone down? And what can be the possible future remedial measures to cure this ever-growing problem?
Concern for environment protection in India can be traced back to the period of 321 BC to 300 BC. The ancient convention for environment protection is found in kautilaya’s arthashastra, in which stated that it is the dharma of each individual of society to protect the nature’. It was further elaborated by Guru Nanak ji through Guru Granth Sahib. People worshiped the objects of nature i.e. the trees, water, land etc. so, the cultural and religious heritage of India shows deep concern for protection and preservation of environment.
But then, you might be thinking that what went wrong that we started digging pit for our own grave! Homo sapiens/ humans have been considered to be the most intellectual gene among the gods’ creations. Moreover, these are placed at the top of food chain, and logic behind this is most obvious, they have the ability to reason, to use intellectual skills, the ability to question. Eventually, if these very abilities are not used wisely, the results could be disastrous to the mankind itself. Ultimately, the primary result is right in front of us!
The concept of Air Quality Index (AQI) was launched in New Delhi on 17th of September 2014, under Swatch Bharat Abhiyan. This index is used by the government agencies to measure the current quality of air and forecast for its future possible implications. It must be noted that public health risk increases with the rise in AQI.
It measures the quality of air in different categories as:-
AQI (Range) Remark
0-50 Good
51-100 Satisfactory/moderate
101-150 Unhealthy for sensitive groups
151-200 Unhealthy
201-300 Very unhealthy
301-500 Hazardous/severe
500+ Very severe
Since Deepawali weekend, the AQI has been deteriorating in major parts of north India. It mainly struck New Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, out of which New Delhi and Haryana are falling under “very severe” category. However, Punjab and U.P. are not very far.
In order to keep a check on the same, even judiciary had to intervene by exercising Judicial Activism. It called the most senior officials of all these states, Chief Secretaries, and stringently directed them to take the most possible remedial steps to curb pollution level.
Keeping in view the above, the emergency measures announced under GRAP (graded response action plan) are as follows: –
o Stop entry of trucks into Delhi (except essential commodities)
o Stopping construction work.
o Introduction of odd/even scheme for private transport (except for two wheelers, vehicles of PM, President and 29 categories)
o Task force to decide additional steps including temporary shutting of schools
o Distributing face mask to masses.
o Banning stubble burning from immediate effects and imposing handsome penalties for the violators.
If we try to locate the real cause of such hair triggering issue, the reasons are crystal clear:- change in demographic, vehicular emissions, garbage burning, burning of crackers, stubble burning (leading to a question of Right to Living v/s Right to Breathe) , untreated discharge of industrial gases, rapid growth of concrete jungles, etc. As the consequence of above, people are bound to face asthma, strokes, lung cancer, heart ailments, allergies, difficulty in breathing etc. According to a recent study, breathing in Delhi (single day) equals to smoking 5-6 cigarettes on daily basis! And to our dismay, kids, elderly people and women expecting are the most affected ones. These were the damages to the social aspect. On the other side, it is greatly damaging the economic functioning as due to the stoppage of work in industries companies are suffering losses, apart from this the potential tourism sector is also getting affected, thereby damaging the image, reputation and goodwill of the country. No matter what injuries have already been done, there is always some scope for future improvement. And some of the possible steps could be taken in this regard are:-
Plantation Accountability: Photographic plantation campaign alone are not sufficient to meet the desperate need of the land. It is often found that most of the sapling don’t even last for 10 days. Consecutive government emphasised on massive plantation drives but never bothered to check its progress. Now, it’s the time for its proper maintenance through Plantation Accounting at district and state levels.
Decarbonisation of transportation sector: By switching to some renewable sources of energy, and reducing role of non-renewable sources. India has recently installed renewable energy capacity of 80 gw, and is planning to achieve 175gw by 2022. It is based on zero emission mobility eco-system. But India has the potential to meet 400gw by 2025, if its resources are utilised to its optimum.
Gorilla marketing of e-vehicles: It’s the appropriate time to extensive push the sale of e-vehicles in the market by providing considerable promotional subsidies. It is significant because it will ultimately give a two-faced benefit. Firstly, it will be a leap step towards reducing pollution, and secondly it would reduce the dependency of import of crude oil thereby reducing fiscal deficit targets.
Stop burning stubble: One of the major reasons behind deteriorating air condition in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi are stubble burning. These stubbles can be used for renewable bio-mass and framing cardboards, if provided with SMS (super straw management system) machines at subsidised rates. It can also help the government to fulfil the dream of doubling farmers income by 2022.
Cloud-seeding techniques: India of 21st century is seeking all the prospects available to tower the economic growth to meet the desired objectives of $5 trillion economy by 2024. For this purpose, we can simply forecast that all the prospective executives will lubricate the manufacturing sector to deliver unprecedent results. It will further deteriorate the environment. So, it is the demand of the arena to look for the option of cloud-seeding. Through this, artificial moderation can be made in the environment in the interest of the society.
Proper and effective treating emissions from vehicles and industries before releasing them in the environment.
Carpooling can be promoted to reduce energy consumption; public transport should be used more often.
At last, we must remember that it is our moral collective responsibility to ensure appropriate environment scenario in the country and pass a liveable environment for our next generation. Blaming game can be played in the future but it’s the last chance to preserve the mother nature and if we didn’t, our next generations will never forgive us for such ruthless & irresponsible exploitation of the environment. Let’s recall- “We may utilise the gift of nature just as we choose/wish … but in her books the debit is always equal to credit.”
Writer-Swati Kumari
Student of B.Com (1st year)
University of Allahabad