Human life is dependent on the nature and its ingredients – it’s a fundamental right available to each one of us.
Yet, with our actions combined with some ill-informed policy decisions and with changing weather conditions – we have reached a situation of health emergency in Delhi and most of the North Indian cities. Delhi is in news because of the sheer pollution, thus affecting more lives and health.
I live in Gurgaon, adjacent to Delhi and a part of Delhi-NCR and all I see these days in the morning when I look up is haze. Its no more a good morning for the people, it’s a hazy morning.
But how did we reach to this adverse situation – today we will talk about some of the causes:
- Human actions
Delhi or rather Delhi-NCR is a city where millions of people are moving-in in search of job, a better/upgrade in lifestyle and fulfilling their dreams – which is why, what used to be Delhi, is now Delhi-NCR (National Capital Region) expanding and combining the adjacent cities with itself.
Due to the ever-increasing city bounds and residents count there is a constant never-ending construction, more number of cars are now plying on road, more usage of the existing non-renewable resources that ultimately impacts the natural environment.
Unawareness amongst us about each individual carbon footprint is leading all of us collectively to this situation. An attitude of not-accepting the current adverse situation and debating over it is not helping any one of us. We all need to understand that breathing clean air is a fundamental right – equal to all. It doesn’t come at the cost of paying taxes or bills for it.
Some might argue that how could you stop people from moving to a city? Yes, we can’t stop – but at least with smart future planning we could reduce the burden on a single city, the government could work on creating one mega city in each state so that there are more options available with MNCs and Indian industries to expand and venture in other geographies.
- Geography and Weather Conditions
Delhi sits on a plain land but is bounded by Himalayas in the north – which restrict the air movement. We all read about the movement of cold air vs warm air – warm air rises while warm air settles down. In summers the smoke or dust levels are not so high because the warm conditions make the dust particles rises with the air and monsoon winds blowing carry the pollutants an disperse them.
While during winters the cold air settles down the dust particles with itself and the restricted air movement makes this layer of smoke combined with fog (smog) stay as a blanket.
- Low-Budgeted farming practices combined with ill-informed government policies
After rice harvest farmers prepare their fields for sowing wheat – the excess crop residue from rice harvest could either be processed using costly machines or a cheaper alternative is to fire the field. Farmers find it easier to directly fire the field and burn the rice stubble, which in-turn pollutes the air.
In the words of Dr Sumit Sharma, Associate Director at TERI, a New Delhi-based research institute, “If you take an average of the whole year, the contribution of agricultural burning is only 5%. He also added, “But if you talk about specific days when the fires are peaking, then it can go up to 40%”
To top everything up, the policy changes made by states of north India a few years back added to the woes of the public. The farmers were forced to delay rice planting to monsoon months, this was done as a measure to balance the demand supply for water. In summer months water demand rises planting rice requires more water thus adding to the demand of water – thus to mitigate the fall in groundwater levels this move was made.
But it showed a butterfly effect and pushed back the rice harvest – thus burning rice stubble after monsoon with no winds blowing to disperse, which makes the smoke stay over northern India as a blanket.
All that been said, everything is not so negative – but both Central and State Governments will have to work in curbing this situation. The real question is how long until we see the clear skies again?
