印度的致命空气

Nov 13, 2018 Shashi Tharoor

新德里—我的一位外交官朋友驻印度工作不到三年后回国，在回国体检时被问一天抽几包烟。他抗议说自己是坚定的戒烟派，但医生说肺部X光片的情况可不是如此。我的朋友从来不吸烟，他只是呼吸了德里的空气，连续三个雾霾沉沉的冬季呼吸德里的空气。

真的那么糟糕。一到11月，印度——特别是它的首都——就开始被浓密的雾霾所笼罩，让人感到肺在喘，喉在烧，眼睛也变得模糊。

这不仅是因为德里臭名昭著的汽车和卡车柴油尾气，还因为浓烟滚滚的工业厂房，为露宿街头者取暖的人行道炭盆，街边茶贩的煤炉，甚至临近的旁遮普和哈里亚纳邦农民焚烧的碎秸。所有这些空气污染源都涌向了首都，而汽车排放只是令大自然母亲加诸德里的烟尘雪上加霜。

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Shashi Tharoor

Writing for PS since 2002
167 Commentaries

Shashi Tharoor, a former UN under-secretary-general and former Indian Minister of State for External Affairs and Minister of State for Human Resource Development, is an MP for the Indian National Congress. He is the author, most recently, of Pride, Prejudice and Punditry: The Essential Shashi Tharoor (Aleph Book Company, 2021).

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Vaibhav Kaushik Nov 15, 2018

Smog is a by-product of what government calls the applied developmental model. But its hypocritical to blame any particular political party for the cause - citizens elect the government to carry out this development process. On one hand, the government is criticized for not carrying out mass welfare activities (which includes construction and maintenance of institutional infrastructure) and on the other hand, the same government is criticized for the by-product created by its welfare activities.

Everyone is equally responsible for the current condition of the capital, talking in particular. Vehicular congestion, putting aside the industrial pollution because it is common to most of the cities, is one of the major contributor to the present smoggy condition (revealed in the reports of institutions like IIT Kanpur and The Ministry of Environment and Forest). The gravity of the situation calls for the action of "collective responsibility" by both the government and the citizens. Its definitely not a one-man task to deal with.
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j. von Hettlingen Nov 15, 2018

Shashi Tharoor has reasons to worry about air pollution in India, as it is home to 13 of the world’s 20 most polluted cities and towns, according to World Health Organisation. He blames the Hindu nationalist government under Narendra Modi for “complacency” and its failure to tackle this “high-cost public health” crisis. The public has been “distracted” by the ruling party’s identity politics like caste, religion, ethnicity and gender, that awareness of environmental problems is virtually non-existent.
Instead of focusing on “temple-building and rewriting history,” the government should urge the Indians to rethink their priorities – clean air or environmental degradation. Apart from over-population, urbanisation, industrialisation, deforestation etc, rituals and religious practices also contribute to air, soil and water pollution. Setting targets to reduce air pollution means raising awareness among the 1.3 billion inhabitants, who would have to rethink their way of life and adapt to the new reality.
The author points out the devastating impact dirty air has on public health and the economy. India’s capital, Delhi is known for “notorious diesel fumes from car and truck exhausts” in addition to its dust. Then there are industrial emissions, “charcoal braziers on the sidewalks keeping pavement dwellers warm, coal stoves used by roadside chaiwallahs (tea-sellers), and even the agricultural stubble burned by farmers in the nearby states of Punjab and Haryana.” Many foreign diplomats and expats leave the sprawling capital region for health reasons.
Some 65% of households (76% in rural areas) use solid fuels like wood, dung, coal or charcoal for cooking and heating. In November millions of firecrackers burst for the Hindu festival Diwali. Along with exchanging sweets and lighting traditional lamps, contending with toxic fog has become an annual feature of the festival in many major Indian cities. Despite attempts by the Indian supreme court to limit the use of crackers, people flout the restrictions, seeing the ban as an infringement of their right to worship.
Holi, a Hindu spring festival is also seen as an environmental risk due to the unlimited and uncontrolled use of colours made from chemicals. Celebrants smear coloured powder on each other’s faces; swim in a coloured pool; throw abundant quantities of coloured powders and liquids at each other. These substances can cause serious health problems, while contaminating soil and water.
Hindus burn the dead. Historically the cremation takes place on the Ganges River. The family builds a pyre and places the body on in. A traditional Hindu funeral pyre burns anything between 500 to 600 kilos of wood and takes over six hours. This implies that an estimated 50 to 60 million trees are cut and burnt every year in India for cremations. This amounts to millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide or greenhouse gas emissions.
The Ganges is also one of the most polluted rivers in the world. It is filled with garbage, sewage, faeces, hazardous industrial wastes etc. Environmentalists criticise the government for failing to tackle water pollution. They challenge the ruling party over uncontrolled practice of body disposal by Hindus. It happens that decomposed skeletons and partially cremated corpses surface in the river after a drop in water levels.
Scientists believe the water from much of the river is not even clean enough for agricultural use, much less for drinking. Many bathe in the Ganges – in an act of ritual purification, believing the river cleanses them of sin and frees them from the cycle of rebirth. Hindus consider the river sacred, which is a means of livelihood for more than 400 million people.
In the Hindu faith, the river Ganges is a goddess, and "Mother Ganges cannot be polluted" is their mantra. It explains why the the government sees little urgency to clean up the river.
“The satirical songwriter Tom Lehrer famously warned listeners that if they visit an American city: ‘Just two things of which you must beware/ Don’t drink the water and don’t breathe the air.’” The author quips: “Updated for India, it is a perfect song for a crisis that has become an existential threat.”
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Chintan Shah Nov 13, 2018

To Shashi Tharoor, I don't care about what is your real reason behind this article now, when you are not in power. Because these questions will definitely arise from the people, including a part of me who is skeptical of your motto. But having said this, here the synopsis is important to be discussed and not the one who has briefed and since you are MP, my agenda here is to pass the message through you.

Technology has so much evolved in every field, be it Education, Defense, Medical, Transportation, Railways, etc. Few decades ago, India had 1 serious problem regarding safe drinking water in every household, and that is when technology took over it in the form of Reverse Osmosis. Why don't we similarly think about air pollution? Its a simple means of casting out the harmful chemicals from the atmosphere. I think so China has recently deployed a similar kind of mechanism in areas nearby Beijing or Shanghai ( I will find the article).

I know, fundamentally its the people's responsibility to act in a wise manner, and I also know the root cause of many of the problems in a particular public project's ineffectiveness among the public, is the people itself. Lack of education, awareness, etc. comes into the question when a particular public policy/project fails.
But there are technology means through which a certain part of that project's outcome can be achieved.

I hope my message is passed through and the message is simple. Act in the direction of technology, encourage research in the field of air pollution, work collaboratively with the government or whoever is eligible to find the solution for this.

Honest and considerate citizen of India,
Chintan
- Chintan Shah Nov 13, 2018
  
  Here is the article. I am sure someone in the government or authority must know about this. https://www.cnn.com/style/article/smog-eating-tower/index.html
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P. Kamath Nov 13, 2018

Who cares about the smog in the air. The current Indian administration is more interested in cow protection and renaming of cities into a Hindu ones!
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印度的致命空气

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