Shahwar says that knee-jerk reactions are not going to clear up our air. The government needs to look for a cohesive solution, rather than issuing one ban after the next… In 1991, I came to Delhi to visit an aunt whom I hadn’t seen for a long time. College was closed at that time, and I ended up staying for longer than I had planned – and that was largely due to a beautiful motorcycle owned by my cousin. It was a 1966 Matchless 31 CSR. Of course, I loved my aunt too! I owned a 1942 Norton 16H at that time, and loved it very much. But that war era motorcycle was a rather harsh machine. It vibrated violently, and there was no suspension to speak of. Compared to the single cylinder 500cc side valved Norton, the 650cc parallel-twin rode like a dream. It was powerful, handled better, and had much better suspension. That bike became an extension of my limbs that summer – the roads in Delhi back then had much less traffic as well. Riding in South Delhi and Chanakyapuri was great fun. But the fun evaporated when I rode to ITO one day during peak hours. The traffic was maddening. It crawled for a while, then stopped altogether, and then crawled again. This went on for two hours, and I found myself getting suffocated inside my helmet. The exhaust fumes from other vehicles made breathing difficult – the biggest culprits were the buses, trucks, and the small commercial vehicles. Of course, the petrol engines polluted too, but to a much lesser degree. Since I was stuck behind a row of buses and trucks who were trying to outdo each other in spewing black smoke, I could hardly see the sky. I ran a finger down my face when I reached home, and it gathered black soot. And this was the effect of a single day. The ITO crossing was then the most polluted crossing in all of Asia. The arrival of CNG as a fuel made the situation far better, but things have gotten from bad to worse recently. The air quality in Delhi, as the National Green Tribunal noted, has gone down alarmingly – and this puts everyone at great risk. All hospitals have seen a sharp increase in the number of patients with respiratory ailments. For a short time, the Tribunal banned all diesel vehicles that were more than 10 years old to fight air pollution. All the entry points to Delhi were monitored and the police had a field day – impounding trucks a day after the NGT order. But this knee-jerk reaction could never be viable. The blanket ban on all 10-year-old diesel vehicles would have serious economic implications if not handled carefully. After all, the truckers need to be given a reasonable amount of time to replace their vehicles with new ones. They can’t do this overnight. If the authorities had continued impounding 10-year-old (polluting) trucks, they would have been facing a blockade – as the truckers would have simply refused to ply. Prices of all essential goods would have gone through the roof, and the resulting hue and cry would have forced the rethink. But trucks, and other diesel vehicles, are not the only ones polluting the Delhi air. If you step into markets like Karol Bagh, Lajpat Nagar, Sarojini Nagar, etc., during a power cut, you feel as though you’re inside a gas chamber. The fumes from the generators are thick, and killing. And what about the two stroke contraptions that ply the roads carrying cargo? And all this is not to mention the fact that the poor quality of roads in much of the country results in frequent breakdowns – which in turn means long downtimes, resulting in lesser income. To offset these losses, trucks overload massively and the overload strains the engine – which turns an already ageing truck even smokier. Needless to say, there are virtually no checks on the overloading of trucks. It’s a vicious circle, and the government wants to start working on it backwards. We desperately want cleaner air, but that can’t happen overnight. Banning trucks and other diesel vehicles all of a sudden is the kind of knee jerk reaction that’s never going to work. There are far too many livelihoods at stake. That the trucks are highly polluting is never in doubt, but I hope that the government deals with the issue in a more cohesive manner – with an implementable long-term solution in mind.
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