FEATURE - Indian capital breathes easy after pollution checks
Date: 13-Sep-02
Country: INDIA
Author: Sugita Katyal
No longer. Pollution levels in the wheezing metropolis of about 13 million people have come down significantly since the government cracked down on exhaust-belching vehicles and closed down smoke-spewing factories in the late 1990s.
"There has been a 25 percent reduction in pollution levels since 1995. Sulphur dioxide in the air is within prescribed limits and suspended particulate matter has also come down," said Dilip Biswas, chairman of the Central Pollution Control Board.
"Now you can see the stars at night," he told Reuters.
The average suspended particulate matter, which is the main cause of the thick haze that once hung over the city, dropped to 347 micrograms per cubic metre in 2001 from 405 micrograms the previous year, says the Central Pollution Control Board.
Sulphur dioxide levels also fell to 14 micrograms from 18 micrograms while nitrogen dioxide dipped to 34 micrograms from 36 during this period.
CLEANUP DRIVE
Delhi's air still may not be as clean as some Western capitals or Asian cities such as Singapore, but it is among the most successful in Asia at fighting pollution.
The cleanup, prodded by orders from the country's highest court, kicked off in 1996 when the government ordered thousands of chemicals and textile factories to close.
But the campaign gained pace when the government phased out commercial vehicles older than 15 years in 1998 and then ordered all public transport - including taxis, buses and three-wheelers - to switch to compressed natural gas (CNG).
Delhi, which lacks a local rail network, relies on a fleet of about 12,000 buses, 65,000 taxis and three-wheelers for transport.
Today, about 6,000 buses have changed from diesel to CNG and thousands of three-wheelers have also adopted the cleaner fuel.
"Today, if you are at a red light, your eyes don't water and you don't just see a haze around you," said CSE's Roychowdhury.
Environmentalists say they're hoping to return the city, dotted with about 20,000 ancient monuments, back to the days when you could still breathe easily.
Delhi - said to be built on the remains of seven old cities, the first of which dates back to around 900 BC - had just a few thousand cars and buses about 30 years ago and the word "pollution" was not in the local vocabulary.
But as the number of vehicles rose to 3.3 million at the end of 1999 from 1.8 million in 1981, New Delhi was smothered in black clouds of smoke spewing from old cars and lumbering trucks hauling huge loads which choked up main roads during rush hour.
Government statistics show there are currently 3.6 million vehicles in the Indian capital.
The majestic city of sprawling gardens and grand bungalows built as the capital of British India by the country's then colonial rulers turned into an urban nightmare.
Almost every other person suffered one respiratory disease or another and in winter both air and rail traffic were disrupted by thick smog hanging over the capital.
While the growing number of vehicles pumped smoke and fumes into the air, factories spread across the city, adding to the filth in the air.
"Vehicles, especially those with diesel, account for 70 percent of the city's pollution while power plants are responsible for 15 percent and industry about 10 percent," Anumita Roychowdhury, coordinator of air pollution control at the Centre for Science and Environment, told Reuters.
India concedes a need for urgent action to cut back on emissions of industrial gases blamed for global warming and creating more extreme weather patterns, but Environment Minister T.R. Baalu said at the Johannesburg Earth Summit he was sceptical of the "Asian brown haze" identified in a U.N report.
The United Nations Environment Programme report said a three-km (two-mile) thick cloud of ash, acids and other particles over south Asia threatened the lives of millions and could have an impact much further afield. It could bring drought and flooding as rainfall pattern