By Shruti Appalla
The term ‘enlightened despotism’ may mean very little to most Delhiites, but it has everything to do with the attempts of state structures in India to solve the increasing problem of polluted air in the national capital region. The recent attempts by the Supreme court and the Delhi government have to no extent led the people in solving the problems of pollution. All measures have been short-term knee-jerk reactions without ideological basis and unaided by environmental data. The recent report submitted by the Central Pollution Control Board claims that the cracker ban had no effect on the health of people. In light of this report, it is pertinent to ask why the authorities in power have dismissed the need for public participation as a tool to solve the environmental crisis despite it being a far more sustainable move.
The cracker ban
In October last year, the Supreme Court of India passed a judgement banning the sale of all firecrackers less than a week before Diwali. The firecrackers were said to cause large-scale pollution and smog. The move was taken to prevent a deterioration in public health and reduce the chances of a recurrence of smog that descended over Delhi after the Diwali festivities in 2016. The day after Diwali it was clear that although a lesser number of firecrackers had been burnt, there was still no reduction in the pollution in the air. In fact, the smog, by many statistics, had only intensified as compared to the year before.
On a closer look, it was found that firecrackers were still being sold online—a loophole the Supreme Court had not anticipated. Despite these loopholes, environmental experts in the region predicted that had the same number of firecrackers been burnt as the previous year, pollution would not have increased and instead remained the same. This pointed to the fact that pollution and smog in the NCR during the month of October and November was largely independent of cracker sales and rules, but far serious aspects regulated its increase and decrease.
The real problem of crop burning
One of the biggest factors of this annual smog can be traced as far back as the Green Revolution in the 1960s and 1970s. Every year, during the months of October and November, farmers in Haryana and Punjab burn the crop residue that remains after harvesting the summer crops. Large fields just a few kilometres from Delhi are set on fire to burn the leftovers and prepare the land for a new season of crop planting. Political leaders in North India are at their wit’s end trying to find a solution to the problem. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had met Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, and asked him to enforce, and if necessary raise, the fines on stubble burning as an immediate measure. He has also been trying to meet Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh for days but to no avail. The dilemma they face was highlighted by the Aam Aadmi Party’s chief in Punjab, Sukhpal Singh Khaira, when he defied the state government’s order and ceremonially burnt crop stubble on 15th October.
The health effects of the smog
The threat pollution poses to people has for a long time been considered intangible or unaccountable. Even in cases where it could be proved that pollution and polluted air were causing major respiratory diseases, the problem was considered to affect all equally. However, contrary to what some environmentalists would have people believe, it is an unequally distributed threat. The impact is minimal amongst teens and adults up to the age of 50 years when they are healthy, active, and regularly do physical work. Infants and the aged are most susceptible to cold and cough and become far more prone to having asthma. Both the very young and the elderly cannot be treated with antibiotics, or for very long without causing complications. So the smog prevents their lungs from healing and turns these into factories for the growth of bacteria. Pollution, therefore, kills mercilessly at both ends of the spectrum of life. As infant mortality dwindles and the aged live longer, the threat from pollution becomes more severe.
Has the cracker ban helped improve health?
A report submitted by the Central Pollution Control Board in the Supreme Court in the first week of January this year failed to spot any unusual variations in respiratory illnesses or a significant dip in public health before and after Diwali. The Board, however, said the air quality worsened post-Deepavali. In a short-term study, the report indicated the result of a health impact assessment of bursting firecrackers during Dussehra and Deepavali in 2017. It stated, “The respiratory system-related symptoms and signs were not much different pre- and post-Dussehra and Diwali. Although there was some increase in cough and breathlessness, this did not translate into any significant illness requiring immediate medical attention. Other system related complaints were also not much different during pre- and post-Dussehra and Diwali.”
The scope of the study included respiratory, skin, ear, and eye ailments and relevant symptoms of the festive season, a clinical study of lung functions, and urine samples of randomly selected subjects and data analysis. Increased values of barium and strontium were found in the urine samples of many subjects. This, the report said, could be due to exposure to the bursting of firecrackers, reiterating that many had found loopholes in the ban passed by the Supreme Court like the online sales. The report also claimed that considering the study was a short-term assessment, although air quality deteriorated after Diwali, there was not enough significant data to link these directly to the bursting of firecrackers. However, the Board found that presence of pollutants in the air was considerably lower in 2017 than during Diwali 2016. The report hinted that a long-term study would be required to understand the impact of firecrackers on the human system.
The way forward
A recent article in The Hindu asked readers to suggest solutions for the problem of pollution in the national capital region. Innovative solutions ranging from carpooling to a total ban of diesel vehicles, vertical gardens to moving industries out of Delhi, creating vertical moss Metro pillars to installing Smog Free Towers like China, tapping renewable energy like Iceland and learning to effectively use public transport from Curitiba (Brazil) were suggested. Singapore’s strict enforcement of laws, cloud seeding of Bengaluru, going clean energy way like Tasmania were also some popular suggestions. This exercise goes to show that people are aware of the problem and are willing to work towards a solution. Thus, the government must prioritise public participation and not petty political battles to ensure better health for the people of Delhi.
Photo by rante_to4ak on VisualHunt.com / CC BY-NC under Attribution-NonCommercial License
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