Every year on June 5 we celebrate World Environment Day with a vision to make the world a better place to live in. Sadly, that vision will not be realised in our country very soon. India made global headlines by beating all other countries in one sphere. The World Health Organisation, in its latest global report on air pollution, listed the 20 most polluted cities in the world, and the top 14 are in India. Sri Lankan cricketers had to wear pollution masks during the third Test against India at Delhi’s Feroz Shah Kotla cricket ground in December 2017, with the game stopping for nearly twenty minutes after the visitors complained of breathing difficulty. This speaks volumes of how much we have neglected the problem of air pollution, thereby letting it escalate to epic proportions. Adding to the severity, the changing weather conditions have locked the pollutants in the air and made the situation worse. Doctors are warning people of dire consequences and discouraging them from stepping outdoors. In fact, schools had to be shut down temporarily so that children are safe from air pollution. Let us also not forget the equally devastating water and soil pollution that pose life threatening challenges to the ordinary citizens of this country.
So the question remains, “Is there any way we can escape this hell”? Shall we ever be able to breathe clean air or drink clean water in the near future? The answer is a resounding ‘yes’. We cannot prevent an earthquake or a tsunami from happening because they are natural disasters. But pollution is a man-made disaster. And since we have caused it, we can definitely fix it. We just need to be a little proactive in our approach to combat pollution.
Charity begins at home and therefore we should start our anti-pollution crusade from there itself. Improper waste management is one of the biggest reasons for pollution. The waste that is accumulated every single day in our homes ends up in landfill sites and dumping grounds. This waste is a conglomerate of fruits and vegetable skin, leftover food, shards of glass, plastic, rubber and the like. On one hand this waste generates toxic gases that are inflammable and on the other hand the decomposition of this waste produces a toxic liquid called Leachate which is destroying the groundwater and the crops in the adjoining areas. In order to prevent this mayhem from causing further destruction, the first thing we need to do is segregate our waste products into dry and wet waste. Wet waste will include all biodegradable waste that can decompose quickly without causing any collateral damage. They can also be used for composting purposes. The dry waste can be used for multiple purposes as well. Plastic happens to be one of the major constituents of this dry waste. We might think that plastic is indestructible and cannot be disposed of easily. One man, however, has found an ingenious solution to dispose plastic. Prof. Vasudevan from the Thiagarajar College of Engineering in Madurai has devised a process of making roads with the help of plastic, in which plastic is used to strengthen the combination of stone and charcoal thereby making the roads more long lasting than those made by conventional means. These roads require less maintenance and therefore a lot of money is saved that can be directed to other important areas.
Stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana has been cited as a major cause of air pollution in Delhi. From late September through October of each year, farmers mainly from Punjab and Haryana burn an estimated 35 million tons of crop waste from their wheat fields after harvesting, as a low-cost straw-disposal practice to reduce the turnaround time between harvesting and sowing for the second crop. Smoke from this burning produces a toxic cloud of particulates in Delhi, resulting in declaration of an air pollution emergency. This too can be handled with ease. The crop residue can be fed to bovine animals, which can turn this waste into organic manure by means of their excreta as devised by Dr. Srinivasan Chandrasekaran, the former Dean of the Faculty of Science at IISc, Bangalore. Instead of just burning things that are no longer of any use to us we can employ the above methods as these not only reduce pollution but also provide us with such benefits. Burning the waste only gives us a temporary solution but eventually it scars the cities and villages permanently. We think that since burning waste material is working efficiently in the West, it must work here in India as well. We must understand that India and the West are two completely different geographies and therefore blind emulation will only cause mayhem.
Another major source of air pollution in metropolitan areas is the construction industry. Be it high rise buildings or roads, there is a constant emanation of particulate matter that just adds to the pollution level. These machines need to be equipped with sprinklers in order to prevent pollution.
Schools need to inculcate in children the concept of the 3Rs—Reduce, Reuse and Recycle—so that the young minds of our country grow up with an anti-pollution mindset. It is often seen that although children take deep interest in such things their enthusiasm deflates the moment they try to involve their parents. Therefore it is important for parents to take an equal responsibility in order to keep our environment clean. We have to reduce using plastic bags that are a major cause of pollution. We must reuse whatever we can and not throw it away the moment we are done using it as it just adds to the unstoppable mountain of waste. The same goes with recycling. We need to have workshops regarding these practices that have the potential to improve the situation partially if not completely.
Finally, we come to what is possibly the greatest and the gravest source of pollution, vehicular emissions. This is a complex situation because one cannot just ban all vehicles plying on the roads to curb pollution. We have to approach the entire thing with minimal collaterals. The first thing that we have to think of is using fuel that is efficient and yet less polluting. Apart from CNG, biodiesel happens to be a suitable alternative to conventional fuel. The emission of particulate matter as a result of using biodiesel is comparatively lesser than conventional fuel. Car pooling is another way of reducing pollution. Car pooling results in two benefits—firstly the level of pollution decreases a lot and secondly a lot of fuel is saved which can be used for other purposes. As we keep progressing we need to devise the usage of more and more alternate forms of energy. Afforestation is also a solution to many problems. The need to plant more trees for higher absorption of carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas released due to burning of fuels) from the atmosphere is imperative. The fundamental cure to smog is to create a ring of forests around the cities. This will not only modify the weather within the cities like Delhi, but also absorb a major portion of airborne dust from across the neighbouring states that further adds to the levels of air pollution in the capital city. More forests mean more rain that also improves water quality by filtering pollutants out of rainwater.
We have to be a little more proactive in our research in order to find suitable alternatives to non-renewable fuel as the pollution caused by it is on the rise. Many of us think that even if we are affected by health hazards because of pollution, we can cure it by taking medicines. But that is a selfish move indeed. After all, not everyone can afford medicines. Moreover, medicines cannot cure everything. Pollution not only affects human beings but also birds and animals. Prolonged water pollution has posed a massive threat to aquatic creatures. Air pollutants have caused a marked decrease in local animal populations. The major effects of industrial air pollution on wildlife include direct mortality, debilitating industrial-related injury and disease, physiological stress, anaemia and bioaccumulation. What we need to strive for therefore is cleaner air and cleaner water. As the old adage goes, “Prevention is better than cure”.
All the aforementioned measures to combat pollution are very much realisable. It is not even one of those “difficult yet not impossible” tasks. We have the adequate resources to combat pollution and if put in the hands of creative and industrious minds, this country will shine like never before. It is really a matter of shame that people from around the world, who come to visit our country have to battle it out with pollution first. One of the wonders of the world, the Taj Mahal, is in danger because of pollution. Let us take an oath to make our country clean again, not just for our guests and our heritage sites but also for our forthcoming generations. It is time that we stop taking our environment for granted. Only then can we realise our dream of a SWACHH BHARAT.