Enough blame-game, shift focus towards damage limitation
Come October and November, the capital city of India is always shrouded in controversy over the Air Quality Index. The political blame-game is least surprising. Social media is flooded with sudden re-appearance of environment conscious citizens. All of these above noted reactions are an annual event. Consequently, media houses emerge as the winners, given how they have a field day reporting reactions from the public. Absolutely, the situation is definitely bad and there is no solution in sight. At least for now. However, it is time we all think, what are we doing over the other 10 months in a year about the problem we are so “deeply concerned”. Oh yes, we are busy with our personal lives, our professional lives and our social media blitzkrieg on issues that has nothing to do with pollution or air quality. My intention of writing on this topic is to drive our thoughts towards how to contain the issue and ensure other parts of India does not recreate the problems faced by the Northwestern part of India.

The crux of the issue is undoubtedly the stubble burning activity conducted when farmers switch crops for the season. A few of us would refute this claim given how various committees and conglomerates have presented data on contributors of pollution to be automobiles and domestic activity. Yet, we forget the role of catalyst in the form of stubble burning. Burning crop residue is a crime under Section 188 of the IPC and under the Air and Pollution Control Act of 1981. However, government’s implementation lacks strength. The Delhi high court had also ordered against burning residues, while Punjab government imposed a penalty of Rs 73.2 lakhs on farmers in 2016 for burning of crop residue. Instead of burning of the stubble, it can be used in different ways like cattle feed, compost manure, roofing in rural areas, biomass energy, mushroom cultivation, packing materials, fuel, paper, bio-ethanol and industrial production. A study estimates that crop residue burning released 149.24 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2), over 9 million tonnes of carbon monoxide (CO), 0.25 million tonnes of oxides of sulphur (SOX), 1.28 million tonnes of particulate matter and 0.07 million tonnes of black carbon. These directly contribute to environmental pollution, and are also responsible for the haze in Delhi and melting of Himalayan glaciers. Yet, we wait until October to be worried. Are we doing enough? absolutely not.

A year ago, when the Delhi government implemented the second edition of the odd-even vehicle restriction to fight air pollution, the Central Pollution Control Board, to everyone’s surprise, found that the pollution levels had increased during the experiment. This put a question mark on the efficacy of the emergency measure. Clean air campaigners and members of the Environment Pollution Authority (EPCA), a body appointed on the Supreme Court’s directive to oversee environmental issues in the National Capital Region, went through volumes of data to understand this paradox. That answer came from an image sent by a NASA satellite. The image showed that the smoke from crop residue burning in Punjab and Haryana had traveled to the national capital, causing the rise in air pollution. No, this is not shifting of blame to the farmers, not at the very least. But a testament to the efforts our leaders are investing in ensuring the pollution spikes do not re-occur. And evidently there has been no substantial measures in place and no explicit support to curb crop burning process except a few subsidies launched by the state and federal governments. Former Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh had said that the government is providing subsidy at 50–80 per cent for crop residue management machinery. A provision of Rs 1,151.80 crore for two years has been made under this scheme for states like Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and the National Capital Region. However, do we have data to prove farmers can afford the expensive machinery? again, no. Disappointing and an apathy.

No, I do not intend on providing solutions and quick fixes, since I am not well versed with the problem at hand and the technical data collection methods. However, I am certain that if Delhi can be made to face the air quality issue year after year, other states and cities will not be far behind. So here are a few well-known solutions that I could find on the internet,
- Installation of solar panels should be encouraged at homes, multi-storey buildings and commercial establishments.
- Grow vegetables organically when possible. If you need any inputs on how to start, please let me know and I can put you in touch with my aunt Ms. Asha Shenoy, who has been a pioneer for homemade compost. As they say, change begins at home.

- Be mindful of the city you are in and ensure you do the little things that help keep the city clean and devoid of pollution. Of course I am guilty of not being mindful of the environment as well, and when I say ‘be mindful’, I include myself to take note of the situation as well.
- Stop looking down on public transport, they are doing more for the city than your brand new car, which I believe is running air conditioning almost all the time — well, air conditioning contributes to CFC’s and global warming.
- Ensure you dispose batteries and hazardous waste responsibly. Batteries disposed off in the waste often cause fires at landfills and spew toxic gases into the atmosphere.
- Ensure you carpool often with friends, families and colleagues.
- Ensure you sow more plants than the trees you may have to chop down.
- Hold your local political representatives responsible for waste management and water conservation.
- Reduce use of plastics, and if you do use plastic bags, re-use them.
- Be vigilant about landfills and management of it thereof by the government to ensure there are no fires there. And please, report any fires at landfills to the fire department. (Call 101!)
- And last but not the least, stop being the magnificent hero with photos of smog and the empathetic messages to Delhites. They can do nothing with your concern now, and it cannot help them one bit. And if you feel social media will pile pressure on government officials, think again.
Let us all be mindful that problem faced by Delhi and neighboring states can easily transcend on to your city and you townships. If we do not take proactive measures today, we might be left with just social media blitzkrieg for the world to see. Let us all stop being vigilant for 2 months in a year, rather let us all be responsible citizens round the year. If we fail to save planet earth due to our recklessness, our future generations will remember us for the evil we were.
