On the wintry morning of December 5, 1952, people in London were shocked by a dense, brown smog spreading its dirty, dark wings over the city. The 30-mile-wide brume grew thicker as the city’s factories coughed up tonnes of charcoal smoke and automobiles emitted ominous oxidants. It was as if night had fallen during the day; pedestrians couldn’t even see their feet. Drivers abandoned their cars on the road. Pavements and buildings were covered in oily black grease. Thousands of Londoners died from lung infections while the city ran out of coffins. In 1956, the UK parliament passed the Clean Air Act, which limited coal burning in urban areas. Both Labour and Conservatives came together to fight for their city and the lives of their people.
India has an anti-pollution legislation too—the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act of 1981, which isn’t being enforced mainly because no standards have been set by pass-the-buck politicians. Politics is poison. Politics over pollution is lethal. As Delhi chokes on the toxic fumes of neglect, corruption and vote bank politics, the Supreme Court castigated the closure of Delhi’s only smog tower due to the turf war between the AAP government and the Centre. Before it came to power in Punjab, AAP would lambast the previous government’s inability to control stubble burning. Now it has turned its guns on the BJP-led Khattar government in Haryana. As millions of vehicles and thermal power plants turn the air of Delhi and Mumbai toxic, administrators including well-heeled babus only push files seeking more grants and posts in the name of bringing down carbon gas levels in the atmosphere.
Delhi is the eighth most polluted city in the world. Indian cities have been gripped by a pollution pandemic for decades. Come winter, urban skies turn a gory grey by day. The night blinds the sky with a starless shroud. As more and more people, particularly children, gasp for breath, all that political leaders and pliant civil servants do is close schools, ban construction, fiddle with BS3, BS4 formulas and blame neighboring states for the miasmic mayhem. Publicity-hungry NGOs and their elitist bosses ghoulishly feast on the misery for their own purpose by holding seminars and raising funds for foreign junkets; ostensibly in search of a viable pollution solution. They vociferously oppose bursting firecrackers and Holi colours, but rarely raise their voice against the beasts that belch blackness: automobiles, aircraft and power plants. Of course, rising temperatures and unusual weather fluctuations do contribute to the cause, but cause pollution only during particular phases and not throughout the year.
Surprisingly, smog has caused the Blind Eye Syndrome in netas. They can’t, or won’t, see the culprit right in front of their eyes. Entire India is staring at an environmental catastrophe in the not too distant future. A recent report on India’s 20 most polluted cities shows 8 of those cities are in Haryana, 4 in Rajasthan and 3 in UP. Smaller metros like Ghaziabad, Hapur, Kalyan, Ajmer, Jodhpur, Bhiwadi are also air pollution victims. The report discovered that six of the world’s most polluted cities are in India—39 of the top 50, and 65 of the top 100 globally.
Which begs the question: are these cities casualties of climate change only? This is what eco terrorists funded by global automobile giants, arms manufacturers and energy companies would like everyone to believe. However, more than 40 percent of the killer smoke is emanated by coal-based power plants and automobiles. Globally in general, and in India in particular, the automobile sector is bloating like a giant octopus, gripping the aspirations of a rising middle class in its tentacles.
Though the large majority of Indians may not own a house or a car, there are about 35 crore registered vehicles in India which translates to one car or two-wheeler for every four Indians. India has the eighth largest number of passenger cars in the world. By producing a whopping five million cars annually, Indian auto majors are selling over 13,500 vehicles a day. We were the largest global producer of two-wheelers in 2022, during which 15.8 million units were bought, equalling about 43,000 daily. The two-cylinder motorbike is the most polluting among them all, but the vote of the urban middle class is too powerful to ignore. India didn’t have even half the number of motor vehicles a decade ago.
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The present auto ecosystem seems to be designed for big cars and private jets. The global auto industry with its $2.8 trillion turnover (equal to India’s GDP) is the second most profitable sector after defence. Sixty million vehicles are manufactured daily, which consume half the world’s oil. India lacks a cohesive auto policy. No state is willing to set an annual manufacturing limit for new vehicles. Even the Centre is participating in competitive bidding in inviting auto majors to set up plants in states governed by the ruling party, by offering tax relief and cheap land. Although more and more people die in road accidents and from respiratory issues, the global auto mafia dictates and decides government policy.
India is one of the few countries with a specific age limit for vehicles—10-year-old diesel and 15-year-old petrol cars are scrapped in many cities. This rule has created a permanent new market for the auto industry. The promotion of electric vehicles ultimately leads to excess demand for electricity. Ironically, all state governments give low priority to public transport systems. As rich urban Indians replace their cars, the old vehicles are being sold in smaller towns and poison their air. The massive overflow of cars creates traffic snarls even in tiny cities, where idling cars and two wheelers emit surplus diesel and petrol fumes. The average speed of a car in any major Indian city never exceeds 15 kmph, which spurs excessive burning of fuel. Still, no administrative efforts are being made to develop a proper infrastructure that provides cheaper and eco friendly modes of transport.
Besides the automobile sector, power plants are the malefactors which disembogue the breath of death. India has about 270 thermal plants out of a combined installed capacity of 4.18 GW and those run on fossil fuels account for over 60 percent of the total capacity. Official estimates say they are the biggest source of air pollution in the country. With the government encouraging more private coal production and thermal power plants, Indians face a toxic future. Not one highfalutin NGO has protested against thermal plants, preferring to go after hydropower and nuclear energy. Maruti or Porsche, Apna Bajaj or Apna Jahaj, we have become enablers of a culture that prioritises aspiration at the cost of asphyxiation.
Prabhu chawla
prabhuchawla@newindianexpress.com
Follow him on X @PrabhuChawla
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