NEW DELHI: Lutyens' Bungalow Zone, the 26-sq-km zone populated by ministers, generals and judges, is a big culprit behind air pollution in the city. The gardeners here routinely break the law by burning dry leaves, which is banned under the Environment Protection Act and is punishable with up to five years of imprisonment and Rs 1 lakh fine.
Every morning the area is under a pall of smog due to the emissions overnight. Ashes from these bonfires can be spotted outside the bungalows. Most of the gardeners don't know they are breaking the law when they burn leaves. Nor do they know that they are harming themselves the most as they are the closest to the smoke.
It would appear our top ministers, law-makers and judges haven't taken the trouble to educate their gardeners--that they are committing an illegality when they burn leaves and harming themselves in the process. Nor have they told their staff about composting dry leaves which doesn't require any expensive technology.
According to Chintan, an NGO working on waste management, composting can be laid in layers in the parks and covered with a wire mesh so that these don't fly around. Water can be sprinkled at regular intervals to enable it to mulch. This is already being done at the Neeti Bagh community centre. It can also be just buried in pits in the garden or avenues.
The list of VVIPs in LBZ is long. Narendra Modi, Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh, Rajnath Singh, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Mayawati, SC judges A K Sikri, V Gopala Gowda and Fakir Mod Ibrahim, attorney-general Mukul Rohatgi and additional solicitor-general L Nageswar Rao, election commissioner Nasim Zaidi--to name just a few. They run the country and yet allow an illegality right under their nose.
According to an emissions inventory prepared by the System of Air Quality Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR) under the ministry of earth sciences, emissions increase by at least 15% due to waste burning in a 50km radius of Delhi. While dry leaves, twigs, paper and cardboard are often set on fire to create winter bonfires in the city, in surrounding rural areas tyres, plastics and tubes are burnt releasing carcinogenic emissions like dioxin. Burning of dry leaves can contribute to PM2.5 (fine, respirable pollution particles) significantly.
The problem is that when VIPs break the rules, enforcement agencies look the other way. However, NDMC secretary Nikhil Kumar promises action. "We have directed our staff to check burning of green waste in the New Delhi area. We will take stringent action against people if they are found doing so,'' said Nikhil Kumar, secretary, NDMC.
