Some “study” conducted by some “international body” has come up with a figure of 80 deaths per day in Delhi due to air pollution. And the Union Environment Minister has gone ahead and put the Sarkari stamp on the figure, just like that:
“New Delhi: Government on Thursday said that air pollution is killing around 80 people in Delhi every day, according to an international study released recently.
In a written reply in Rajya Sabha, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said that polluted air, particularly the respirable particulate matter is one of the several factors responsible for morbidity and premature deaths.
“An international study released recently has claimed that foul air is killing up to 80 people a day in Delhi. The numbers of premature deaths given in the study are based on the constructive estimates and extrapolations of data,” the Minister said.
He said that government had sponsored two studies in Delhi, ‘Epidemiological Study on Effects of Air Pollution on Human Health in Delhi’ during 2002-2005 and ‘Study on Ambient Air Quality, Respiratory Symptoms and Lung Function of Children in Delhi’ which was carried out during 2003-2005.
“The studies indicate that several pulmonary and systemic immunity and damage to chromosomes and DNA and other health impairments are associated with cumulative exposure to high level of particulate pollution that increases the risk of various diseases including respiratory and cardiovascular diseases,” Javadekar said.”(from the news item)
Read the news item in original here.
Delhi air is indeed polluted. But it is not more polluted than air in the agricultural fields all over India which see lot more dust than Delhi sees. It is not more polluted than the homes in villages which still use conventional wood burning stoves.
Delhi air is chiefly polluted by the dust that comes laden on the winds from its west. The air gets trapped in the trees of Delhi. Delhi has more trees than cities of such size anywhere in the world. It is like having homes and offices in a forest. It has large unpaved areas and a dry whether, which means there is always huge dust in Delhi air. Then, it has choked roads and a metro that came at least thirty years late to the city.
Solutions to the air pollution in Delhi are:
1. Make multi-storey flyovers and double/triple storey roads so that there are no road jams in Delhi.
2. Increase FSI and make it mandatory for every building- home or office building-to be at least ten storey high; so that travels become shorter.
3. Reduce tree cover and do not leave unpaved areas. Increase rainwater harvesting and storage, and use that water to sprinkle on paved areas.
4. Increase metro network.
5. Make circular road around Delhi so that the vehicles which do not need to enter it, do not enter it.
Of course none of the above measures will be taken. What we will have will be the “congestion tax,” most likely ordered by that unconstitutional tribunal -National Green Tribunal. Because all this noise about Delhi pollution is nothing but part of Left’s war against our industrialisation and prosperity.
Doctors conduct many decades long focused studies before they attribute a death to a cause. But now we have Leftist “NGOs” coming up with all sorts of “studies,” and the politicians, to look good in media, sanctifying those studies by adopting their results as part of official policies. Our present Environment Minister is no better.
India’s growth story of 2004-2008 was killed by its then Environment Minster, Mr Jairam Ramesh. With the defeat of UPA, it was thought that the Environmental laws, which have become new license permit regime, would be sanitised. But it seems that our present Environment Minister is totally clueless about Left’s agenda behind the noise of “environment protection.” He is equally playing into their hands. He is likely to surrender India’s interests at the upcoming Paris Conference where it is expected that the Western leaders led by Obama will try to kill pathways to third world prosperity.
Very disappointing times.
The air is cleanest, the water is purest, and the environment is safest in the industrialised west. The best environment protection measure is industrialisation. For example, use of LPG in the kitchens of Delhi, in replacement of old coal burning stoves, has done more to purify Delhi air than any tax could have done. But the Left is now blocking industrialisation of Third World in the service of its another fraud-Global Warming/Climate Change, which is part of its general war on Capitalism, prosperity, and freedom. And as a result, it is causing more damage to environment instead of preventing it. The poor societies cut forests, kill forest animals, are unable to keep their surroundings clean, and are forced to have a life that pollutes more and cleans less.
And the politicians in the Third World countries, including India, are playing along, because they are mortally afraid to offend those who control the media, and hence the narrative: the Leftists.
To read similar earlier posts, click on the headings below:
2.Mr Prime Minister, Scrap The National Green Tribunal Before It Scraps India.
