Environment

KEY POINTS

·         Indian Medical Association (IMA) declared a state of public health emergency in National Capital Region, since pollution is at an alarming level.

Causes

·         Construction dust

·         Vehicular pollution

·         Domestic and industrial emissions

·         However, burning of bio-mass in adjoining areas constitutes the major reason for the prevailing condition in New Delhi.

·         Also, it is seen as a result of adverse meteorological conditions that, two winds — one carrying pollutants from stubble burning in Punjab and the other bringing in moisture from Uttar Pradesh — that are colliding above the national capital.

·         This, combined with the near-still wind conditions near the ground level, has effectively trapped the pollutants, leading to the smog.

Governmental measures

·         The ban on Deepavali crackers

·         The shift to compressed natural gas for commercial vehicles

·         Restricting car use to odd and even number plates on alternate days

·         Empowerment of EPCA (Environment pollution Prevention and Control Authority) to impose Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) on emergency situations.

Solutions

·         The EPCA and the Delhi government should devise a coordination mechanism between various governmental bodies to ensure the timely implementation of various policy initiatives.

·         Shifting more of the city’s travel to comfortable public transport can cut fine particulates in congested areas and improve the air for residents.

·         Unpaved surfaces which raise dust levels should be addressed.

·         The crop stubble burning practice in neighbouring states should be stopped, in keeping with the National Green Tribunal (NGT) ban on the practice.

·         New Delhi alone could not be possible to find a solution for the stubble burning, because the issue includes other states also.

·         So, it needs to rope in various stakeholders to discuss the issue and conclude best practices which will not affect the environment and as well benefit the stakeholders.

·         E.g. Bathinda (Punjab) district administration's use of MGNREGA to drive construction of compost pits in farm land.

·         This aims at encouraging farmers to use the crop stubble as raw material for composting.

·         Such inclusive, innovative and feasible practices could be implemented in other states as well, to address the multi-rooted air quality problem of Delhi.

As a Fast developing Nation It is hard to believe our capital has became the most polluted city in the world. The main causes of the pollution owing to the nearby agricultural states such as Haryana,Punjab and UP are did not have any techniques to solve the stubble(biomass) burning post monsoon.Vehicular pollution and construction dust are also attribute to this severe index. Besides the above causes, geographic location of Delhi which stablize the air,having more humidity and low wind speed also contribute its part for the severe index. The measures taken by the govt such as school closing ,ban on construction are temporary measures which will not yield results as far as severe index is concerned.

Apart from the measures taken by the govt the need of the hour is

1.Masks should be given from the Govt side to all schools and colleges.

2.Public should cooperate with the govt on using Public transport to avoid accidents as well as to control pollution

3.Emergency equipments to tackle respiratory health problems have to be deployed in Govt.hospitals

4.Long term measures to be taken with immediate steps by the Govt of Haryana,Punjab & Delhi to analyse the situation well and to get the ideas followed by the country like china which they used to tackle these pollutikn problem.

5.the biomass from stubble should be cleared in such a way to make this to use as a renewable energy should be kept in mind while working on it.

6.slashing public transports fares

7.Schemes similar to Odd or Even should be welcomed from the college and school students innovation.