You may have walked several times on the grass crushing it under your feet and without noticing it once, but now you cannot risk ignoring it anymore, as experts opined that “growing grass” will help in fighting against the menace of air pollution.
With increasingly alarming level of pollutants suspended in Delhi’s air, residents are susceptible to the adverse impact of pollution on one’s health. Respiratory ailments like allergies, nasal congestion, chest pain, cough, asthma are quite common. Several cardio-vascular and skin diseases are also being caused due to the pollution.
At times when all sorts of measures like masks and air filters fail to have desired effect nothing can save human population except green cover.
Dr KK Aggarwal , president of Indian Medical Association (IMA), said that the present situation is very grievous in which planting trees will not help as trees take time to grow. While, the grass can easily be grown in available spaces outside the houses and wherever soil is available, within a short time, is the most viable option. IMA has already described the present situation as “public health emergency state”.
“Grasses help in trapping the dust particles and thus control pollution that is caused due to dust,” said Dr Aggarwal. He said that grasses should be grown wherever possible and also along the dividers on the roads. “Not only in spaces outside the houses or our parking spaces or lawns but even spaces on roadside and dividers should be carpeted,” he said.
Studies shows that Delhi’s air last year have about 38 per cent of Particulate Matter (PM) 2.5 and 56 per cent of PM 10 in the air is because of road dust. Pollutants settle on dust which further intensifies the problem as they are carried along with dust everywhere.
Maharaj K Pandit, eminent environmental scientist and Dean Science faculty at Delhi University, said Delhi’s proximity to Thar Desert naturally increases the percentage of dust in its air. He said that growing grasses may help tackling the situation up to some extent but such measures are just like “putting bandage on cancer,” he said. He said that the main cause of pollution in Delhi apart from vehicular emission is the burning of stubble on massive scale in adjoining states of Haryana, UP, Punjab etc.
