The invisible colony

BøthOfUs AB
Nov 6 · 3 min read

Shut down of India Gate

Close your eyes &

“Imagine a person smoking 40 to 50 cigarettes a day”

Do you feel sad for that person? or does it sounds hopeless?

What if, it is not a person? & if it is the state of a Capital city in a country ?
Yes , thats the level of air pollution in Delhi, over past few days.

Photo credit: the digital works, source — instagram

PM 2.5

PM2.5 are small dust particles in the air which are smaller than 2.5 micro meter in size.

EU guidelines recommends, 25 micro gram or less in a meter square area, is safe environment for human to breath.

In Delhi, PM 2.5 was 450 to 530 micro gram.

What caused it?

Diwali was celebrated few days before the incident (Diwali is a festival of light in India, fireworks are used to celebrate)

Secondly, the main culprit is, burning of farmland waste.

Who will suffer?

Young kids, pregnant women, patients & people who are in low income group are the people who suffer most out of this.

In 2016, 1000000 Child died prematurely because of air pollution related breathing diseases in India according to an Indian news channel.

Picture credit Meow Pictures, Source — Instagram

The Dark secret

After cultivation of each season, the farmers remove farm waste to produce crop for next season.

The total expense for a farmer to remove waste from 1 acre land is 5000 INR (€ 65) however the government imposed fines for burning waste in farm land of 1 Acre land is 2500 INR (€ 33) so it is obvious what a farmer will choose to do to save money.

Who is responsible?

There are 31 million registered cars in Delhi and surrounding area in total.

140 million INR (€ 1.7 million) collected as penalties from private individuals and car driver for violating air quality standards, over past few days by Delhi Municipality.

Every time, when we discuss about air pollution the state points out the finger to public and the people point out the finger to state and municipalities.

The shocking fact is that, this happens every year in India around same time of each year, there is a pattern with no proactive steps.

The fight against this invisible problem requires team effort from public and state with lot of self discipline in micro level.

What is the solution ?

People and state authorities needs to take proactive steps, not retroactive.

Believing, that nature is powerful than human being and there is no Planet B.

Using technology, data, design, art to create promotion and awareness.
one such example is http://cocopuff.org/ which allows city planner to plan smart and Individuals to live healthy life style giving priority to air

Conclusion:

To conclude this article, I would like to quote few lines from the beautiful mind of London Mayor Sadiq Khan:

“Air pollution is a global public health crisis, it is also an issue of social justice with the poorest people suffering the worst impacts”

If we do not act now, we will not be there to act in no time.

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