Environment is no longer a non-issue in the country.I am clear that we all understand why it matters to worry about the state of our rivers and the excreta that fills them;or the air that is poisoned with toxins from the spit of our vehicles or the garbage that is taking over our cities.We know we must worry about what we are doing to our planet.We know this as we begin to see climate change its manifestations in extreme and changing weather at our very doorsteps.
But this is not enough.We need to do something about it as well.This is a more difficult task because the answers are not simple or easy.
Take the question of air pollution in our cities.In the mid-1990 s,we all discovered,living in Delhi was toxic hell because of foul and dirty air.The city had a choice.It could move incrementally to improve its fuel and vehicle technologies to catch up with the rich world.Or it could reinvent answers to leap ahead.It decided to change the fuel it used moved to compressed natural gas (CNG) which had much lower emissions than even the cleanest diesel currently available in India or most parts of the world.It got a jumpstart.It cleaned up its air.
But this was temporary relief.Very soon pollution levels started going up again.The city adds as many as 1,000 vehicles a day.So,even as each vehicle has become cleaner,the sheer number of vehicles it adds on the roads makes this a zero-sum game.This is not Delhis story alone.All cities of India are fighting a losing battle against the bulge of growing vehicles and deadly toxic air.
So what do we do We have a choice once again.Should we follow the technology-pollution control pathway of the rich world This would require recurring investment in mitigating the adverse impacts of growth,without full stops.Let us be clear.The industrialized world has never contained its pollution problems.It solves one say the problem of respirable suspended particulate matter,which is emitted from vehicles but creates another,this time of growing levels of oxides of nitrogen in its air.And all this time,the sheer numbers of vehicles on rich city roads keep adding to deadly greenhouse gas emissions,threatening our very survival.
So,their way is expensive and it simply does not work.We also have additional challenges of growth for all.Stay with the example of cars in our city.We know that still much of India is not rich enough to own a car.Cars commute roughly 10% of people in the rich city of Delhi.In fact,much of urban India is so poor that it must walk to work because it cannot even afford to take a bus.So,we will have to invest in growth for all and then spend much more in managing the environmental fallout of this growth.No wonder we have foul air today.
The question is if we do things differently Can we reinvent what we mean by mobility itself This will mean more than platitudes for the need for public transport and clean air.It would require policies so that we pay the price of motorization.Currently,policies are designed so that people who use cars are taxed less than those who use buses.This is because buses pay an annual road tax they are treated as commercial vehicles while car owners pay only once at the time of registration.Cars also never ever pay the price of parking on crowded roads with high real estate values.
Therefore,in our case,car restraint measures along with massive investment in public transport are the environment answers for our future.We have to reinvent the answer itself.Not look for small solutions to big problems.
