Ways to tame air pollution
Notwithstanding the Supreme Court’s assertion that the right to breathe is a fundamental right, India’s air quality has not improved much
- Notwithstanding the Supreme Court’s assertion that the right
to breathe is a fundamental right, India’s air quality has not improved much.
The fact has come to light in a recent report published by a Swiss technology
company on air pollution in which 16 Indian cities have prominently figured in
the list of 50 most polluted cities of the world, even after spending thousands
of crores so far through the National Clean Air Policy (NCAP) in the last eight
years. The utter failure of this ambitious project is clearly indicative of the
fact that not much efforts have been made to implement the anti-air pollution
programme as ten out of 16 Indian cities that have been declared as most
polluted, are under NCAP, despite the fact that it is the most expensive initiative
that the country has taken up to combat air pollution. The failure raises a
question mark about our ability to ensure sustainable development in the
country.
-
- In the said study, it has been found that the presence of PM
2.5 in the air has risen alarmingly in many cities including national capital
Delhi although more than INR 11 thousand crore have been allocated to NCAP
since 2019 with the aim to clean the air of 130 cities of the country. Despite
such a huge allocation it’s a pity that India stands at the fifth place among
the most polluted nations’ list. As NCAP has failed to produce any positive
outcome, various questions are also being asked about its viability, besides
demands to scrap it at once. In absence of any sincere efforts to reduce the
numbers of hazardous particles in the air, India may turn into a gas chamber
sooner than later, where large-scale deaths can occur due to various lung
alignments.
-
- It is no gainsaying that if we are really interested in
combating global warming, we will have to make an all-out effort to clean the
air first as air pollution creates greenhouse gasses which are responsible for
the rising temperature of the earth. In the modern era, the largest air
polluter is the emissions from fossil-fuel driven vehicles. All big cities of
India have not been able to tame vehicular pollutants so far, despite adopting
various plans like odd-even schemes or investing in mass rapid transport (MRT)
projects. It is time now to reduce the numbers of private vehicles operating on
our city roads every day. People should be encouraged to avail MRTs as much as
possible. At the same time, the use of electric vehicles should be encouraged
by reducing their prices. For instance, two varieties of electric cars are now
available in India at present which are priced below INR 10 lakh, while the
prices of fossil fuel driven cars start from INR five lakh. Efforts should be
made to reduce the price gap as much as possible. At the same time, the
authorities should keep a close watch on other air pollutants like industries,
construction sites, etc. as proper policy and strict vigil seems to be the key
to clean air.
