Combating air pollution in Delhi and NCR

High level of Air Quality Index (AQI) in Delhi and other places has again become the talking point among people of the region – many in Delhi and neighbouring towns like Gurugram after Dipawali. AQI has crossed 400 level. Daily average AQI hovers around 300, indicating very quality of air as very poor. It is likely to increase further at any time up to 25th December. Thereafter, increase in wind velocity with occasional showers may bring down AQI to an average level of 200. The issue then, as in the past, will be buried under the carpet for ten months till October next year.

There is hardly any country in the world other than India and Pakistan where AQI exceeds even 200 in any month of the year. In developed countries, AQI rarely exceeds 60. Besides India and Pakistan, two cities notorious for traffic jams and poor air quality are Mexico and Sao Palo (Brazile). Even there, AQI rarely exceeds 200 and normally remains around 170.

In upper half of India, two months from 20th October to 25th December present the worst scenario of air pollution and smog in the urban areas. Because of increasing air density, low wind velocity and falling temperature, called inversion effect, dust and other particles remain hanging in the air at threshold levels causing poor visibility and smoggy conditions. At times in December, AQI goes up to 900 in areas like Gaziabad, Shahdara, Mayur Vihar and Karkardooma areas.  Surprisingly, people in general, remain calm and do not create much noise even in such suffocating environment and it is a tribute to their resilience.

Silence of people even in such public health emergency is probably because of their ignorance about the damaging impact of polluted air on human health. Chemically, dust is an inert material and should not cause any harm to any part of human body. But ultra-fine or colloidal dust particles are able to pass through the nose and get deposited in the lungs, thus severely affecting the oxygen transfer capacity of lungs to different parts of the human body, particularly the brain resulting in reduced cognitive power and dementia. Vehicular emissions, on the other hand, react chemically with different organs of the human body, resulting in deleterious effects on human health. Exhausts from petrol vehicles affect kidney functions while smoky emissions from diesel vehicles directly affect the lungs. Consequently, lungs and allergic complications are quite common among young children and old people in densely populated towns and cities.

PILs are filed every year in the Supreme Court, praying for directing the State governments of Delhi, Haryana,Panjab and U.P. to take remedial measures to mitigate the problem of severe air pollution in Delhi and the NCR (National Capital Region encompassing and neighbouring towns of Haryana and U.P.). During the arguments,the thrust of Supreme Court has been mostly on stopping the burning of parali in Panjab. Farmers do burn the parali in Panjab but that practice is over by 15th November and AQI does not show any sign of abating even after that.

Haryana farmers mostly sell parali to Rajasthan traders at the rate of Rs.4000 per acre and consequently, incidents of burning are very rare.

On 7th November, a big news report appeared prominently in the media, stating that a new PIL had been filed this year by Luke Christopher Coutinho, a wellness expert seeking urgent measures to tackle the “persistent and systematic failure” in curbing rising air pollution levels across the country and that air pollution levels had assumed proportions of a “public health emergency” severely impacting the health of citizens in both urban and rural areas. The petitioner further revealed that as per government reports, 22 lakh school children suffered irreparable damage in lungs in Delhi alone. The PIL sought a direction to Centre, Delhi and other State governments to take steps to meet the targets set under NCAP (National Clean Air Programme). The National Clean Air Programme launched in 2019 with the targets of reducing particulate matter by 20-30 per cent by 2024 and subsequently extended to 40 per cent by 2026 but the States have miserably failed to meet its modest objectives. Surprisingly, the PIL was not taken up for urgent hearing.

The case is being heard by the bench of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India. It has been heard thrice till 20th of November but no direction has been issued so far. Strangely, another Judge of the Supreme Court advised the Bar Council and the advocates to appear virtually as the quality of air has been deteriorated to dangerous levels. Consequently, it is very much hoped that the Supreme Court will proceed with this case to logical conclusion this time.

It is an accepted fact that 40-45 percent air pollution in NCR is due to dust particles, 40-45 per cent due to vehicular emissions and remaining 15-20 percent pollution is contributed by factories, restaurant exhausts and burning of solid wastes. Therefore, the problem of severe air pollution can be considerably solved provided Delhi, Haryana and U.P. governments concentrate on tackling dust and vehicular pollution in their respective towns and cities. Dust pollution can be reduced to very low levels while vehicular pollution can be reduced at least by half if following doable and simple measures are taken up by the respective governments.

1. Measures to control dust pollution
2. Dust pollution in developed countries is negligible because the urban areas are entirely either paved or grassed. Therefore, the governments should pass a strict order directing all the house owners, vacant plot holders and shopkeepers to pave the surface area between the boundary line of their houses or shops and the road edges within four months and keep it neat and clean on daily basis. This step alone will reduce the dust pollution by 70 per cent.
3. Owners of vacant plots should be directed to build boundary walls around their plots alongwith a gate and keep the surface green with grass to avoid any dust generation.
4. In new constructions, the contractors should be directed to put the building material well inside the boundaries of the plots.
5. Municipal corporations should ensure complete sweeping of roads and streets (particularly along the edges) and swept material should be picked and disposed simultaneously at designated sites. Frequent sweeping will not be required once all the areas are either paved or grassed.
6. Municipal Corporation Indore has achieved complete sanitation in the city of 20 Lakhs population and reduced dust pollution to insignificant levels. Therefore, the Central government should direct the State governments to replicate Indore Model to keep their cities neat and clean.
7. Measures to control vehicular pollution
8. Odd-even formula should be applied to restrict vehicular movement along all the major or sector dividing roads in Delhi and NCR towns. This measure, though causing slight inconvenience, will significantly reduce traffic jams and attendant air pollution.
9. Shop owners should not be allowed to park their cars before their shops. This step will encourage them to travel by Mass Transport.
10. Cars should not be allowed to enter narrow streets in the markets.
11. Plying of three wheelers using diesel oil should be banned in congested parts of the city or the town. Instead, people should be encouraged to ply electric three-wheelers to carry the passengers from one place to another.
12. As a long-term measure, Central government should guide and help State governments to initiate metro rail projects in towns with population more than 6 lacs in the first phase.
13. Time has come when Central government should frame policies so that more and more people are encouraged to replace their vehicles with electrical ones.

These are simple measures which any state government can take and achieve NCAP goals in four months. There are no short-cuts to mitigate this very serious problem of air pollution in the National Capital region other than taking the aforesaid measures.