Air isn’t invisible anymore. It can be seen in living rooms, news rooms and the corridors of power. The Supreme Court called Delhi a gas chamber forcing the state government to take some bold steps to curb pollution. The fifteen day experiment proved that majority of Delhites are concerned about the environment  and willing to be inconvenienced for the larger good. More importantly it  mandated discussions and debates about the ill effects of unclean air. But if Delhi has earned the title, can the rest of India be far behind. 

An old asthmatic patient said something that got me thinking. Her question posed in between gasps for breath, made it even more dramatic, ” Kya gaon mein maanush nahin rehte? “( Aren’t villagers human?). Her question was in relation to the trend of shifting polluting units from city centres to  rural areas. While her concern couldn’t  be negated I tried to draw her attention to the smoke which billows from fields when scrub is burnt after harvest. The sad truth is that we can conveniently point fingers at each other but we cannot get rid of polluted air so easily. The earth is too small for that. The smoke we create will hover over some part of our atmosphere and will ultimately affect us all. 

A study published in 2013 revealed that air pollution was the fifth largest killer in India and led  to more than six lac early deaths in 2010 alone. Research has estimated that the lung capacity of non smoking Indians is thirty percent less than Europeans . Affluent city dwellers build farm houses in the suburbs for that ‘breath of fresh air’ but how long will these outskirts remain unpolluted. Big cities are beyond repair and little can be done to reverse decades of neglect. But steps should be taken to prevent smaller towns and villages from going that way and this is a matter of urgency.

It is cruel irony that while active smoking is vehemently discouraged,  most Indians are passive smokers. India is the world’s largest consumer of fuelwood, agricultural waste and biomass for domestic energy purposes. Moreover twigs which are used  in villages are more polluting than dried logs. This traditional fuel is burnt in  about 100 million cook stoves ( chulha , sigri, tandoor) all over India. These open fires are kept at floor level  and do not have chimneys to throw the pollutants out. The cook stoves are used across ninety percent rural and one fourth of urban households. They cause incomplete combustion releasing high levels of smoke, particulate matter, NOx, SOx,, polyaromatic hydrocarbons, formaldehyde, carbon monoxide and other air pollutants in the house. Indoor  pollution is more hazardous to health as it is in close proximity to residents. World Health organisation, claims that  3-4 lac people in India die of indoor air pollution and carbon monoxide poisoning, the highest in the world.

Burning of biomass and firewood will not stop unless clean fuel and combustion technologies become available to the poor. Only incentives can encourage  non conventional  methods  like solar cookers and  Biogas plants. Thirty percent of the rural poor still depend on kerosene lanterns for light indicating that we need more electricity for our growing population. But unless we adopt renewable ways of power generation, more coal will be burnt in thermal power plants which presently account for 60% of our electricity and much of our pollution.

In India petrol carries a much higher tax than diesel and kerosene. Hence people prefer to use vehicles and generators running on the more polluting diesel. Taxis and auto-rickshaws often run on adulterated fuel blends. Adulteration of petrol and diesel with  kerosene is rampant. Kerosene has a higher combustion point and more sulphur content and leads to more pollutants in tailpipe emissions.

Although number of vehicles are less in rural areas traffic congestion is caused by haphazard movement of  vehicles on narrow roads which are shared with bullock carts, tractor trolleys, jugaads and stray animals. Congestion reduces average traffic speed so vehicles burn fuel inefficiently causing more pollution. In any case Indian vehicles leave a bigger carbon footprint due to poor maintenance and outdated technology. 

Large scale crop residue burning in agriculture fields  which is cheaper than mechanical tilling is a major source of smoke, smog and particulate pollution in rural areas. It is the primary reason for the near-permanent haze and smoke observed in satellite pictures during the harvesting season. The Global Burden of Disease Report has ranked outdoor air pollution as the fifth leading cause of death in India. Increasingly studies show that pollution induced respiratory disability incapacitates more people than other physical handicaps. The recent rise in incidence of childhood asthma also indicates a deteriorating air quality.

Air pollution knows no borders and each earthling is a stakeholder. Everyone has to breathe the same air whether he resides in a lofty mansion or is a lowly slum dweller. In a society divided by class, caste and creed clean air is the ultimate equaliser.

(published in my column in The Tribune on 31/1/2016)