It is not a moment too soon that India has launched its National Air Quality Index. People will be told in real time what the current pollution levels are in their cities — 10 to begin with — and they can take a call to stay indoors or risk going out in a country which rates 174th out of 178 countries in the environmental preference index. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s angst at the Western world lecturing India on climate change but fighting shy of supplying fuel for clear nuclear energy is understandable, what is not quite clear is what the cities are going to do about the measurably poor quality of their air.
Having earned the dubious honour of being the world’s most polluted city last year in a WHO survey, New Delhi has got off the blocks in banning diesel vehicles of more than 10-year vintage. The norms for new vehicles have also to be made more stringent by pegging them to international standards. The problem lies in enforcing the ban on polluting vehicles and in convincing autorickshaw drivers and two-wheeler riders to check the levels of pollution their engines are causing. However, any serious talk of enforcing strict standards in tending to public service vehicles is immediately drawn into livelihood issues.
The environment minister speaks of how the air quality index will help drive awareness on pollution in cities, which in the future will be some of the world’s biggest urban agglomerations in terms of population as India’s villagers join the big push to the cities for opportunity. India has failed in enforcement, be it controlling vehicle pollution or regulating the building industry, which, in making the whole country a work in progress, is freely adding to the respirable suspended particulate material (RSPM) count, acknowledged as health’s deadliest enemy.
Unless a national policy decision is taken to remove the incentive for the use of diesel and promote cleaner petrol and CNG, the low-grade fuel will freely spread its carcinogens. Aggressive planning is needed by way of executive action to tackle a very grave crisis. Beijing managed it with great difficulty despite its government being in a far better position to pass edicts that must be obeyed.
With 13 of the world’s 20 worst polluted cities, India has to do a lot more in terms of reining in polluting industries, managing construction waste and dealing with the consistently substantial loss of forest cover, besides tackling the ingrained preference for diesel that has seen dizzying growth in the last two decades. The Prime Minister’s call to change the perception that India does not care for the environment is promising. It is time for action to take up what could be one of the biggest challenges of modern India.
