The National Green Tribunal has its heart in the right place. But it needs to think through its orders. Or else it will face the same kind trouble that has now erupted after it sought to ban Delhi vehicles that are more than 10 years old
The recent hardline stance that the National Green Tribunal has adopted to keep a check on the level of air pollution has put the urgent need to deal with this growing problem under the spotlight. The NGT’s zero tolerance policy has been long overdue.
last year, the World Health Organisation released a study of 1,600 cities across 91 countries, which showed that Delhi, overtaking the notoriously polluted Chinese capital of Beijing, had the world’s highest annual average concentration of small airborne particles, known as particulate matter or PM2.5.
India disputed the WHO’s assertion but unliveable conditions generated due to pollution, forced it to concede that air pollution in the capital is comparable with that of Beijing. Recently, the Union Government also launched a new air quality index to tackle the problem. With the health of 1.2 billion people at stake, the air quality index may not prove to be a conclusive solution but it will help keep a tab on this growing menace.
Meanwhile, the particles are extracting a heavy price — rates of chronic bronchitis, lung cancer and heart diseases have increased as the small particulate matter penetrate deep into the lungs and pass into the bloodstream.
This situation is made worse by dust pollution generated from thousands of industrial and construction sites and the fumes from millions of vehicles. According to a joint study by the Boston-based Health Effects Institute and The Energy and Resources Institute, Delhi, at least 3,000 deaths are occurring prematurely every year in India’s capital because of air pollution.
In these challenging times, the NGT’s previous ruling in November 2014, banning vehicles that were more than 15-year-old in Delhi, seemed to provide a possible ray of hope for the polluted capital. But instead of generating an enthusiastic response from citizens, the order became a subject of intense debate for its practicality and enforceability. While environmental experts appreciated this initiative, they doubted its feasibility. Individuals who would have to give up their old vehicles wondered how they’d afford a new one.
Similarly, the recent ban by the NGT on diesel-run vehicles over 10-years-old has again gone into a limbo and is proving to be a non-starter — all thanks to threats by truck associations on one end and Government departments on the other.
Delhi’s Transport Minister Gopal Rai has highlighted some of the difficulties in implementing the NGT order. He said that to impound 10-year old diesel-run vehicles, the Motor Vehicle Act would have to be amended so as to empower the Government to legally impound violating vehicles. At present, only a police officer has the power to impound vehicles.
Faced with these unexpected obstacles and protests, the NGT has kept the order in abeyance for two weeks. Such cases of announcing strict regulations, only to relax them, reinforce public perception that rules are made without any prior planning.
After having lost steam on the initiative to ban 15-year old vehicles in Delhi last year, the NGT should have approached the diesel vehicle issue this year in a more comprehensive manner. It should have anticipated the possible administrative bottlenecks, the reaction of all the stakeholders and the inconvenience that could be caused to the general public if upset truckers go on a strike.
To secure a higher success rate in envisioning laws and effectively implementing the same, the NGT must highlight the benefits of its conservation initiatives to the general public. This awareness will reduce opposition levels and encourage compliance.
Apart from banning the use of older vehicles, the plan to tackle air pollution must include an increase in the quality and variety of alternative public transport. Also, measures such as implementing a congestion tax and introducing cycle-only days in certain traffic-clogged areas of the city must be considered.
The NGT must also take effective steps to curb the thriving unauthorised commercial vehicle modification industry that contributes immensely towards air pollution. This industry builds engines locally and then retrofits them into old vehicle chassis and puts them back on the road.
These efforts coupled with restrictions on private vehicles, higher pollution-related taxes and stricter enforcement of urban planning laws can help evolve an agreeable strategy that everybody can identify with.
The environmental activism practiced by the NGT, through its non-negotiable anti-pollution initiative, is sure to make a difference between life and death for the citizens. But care must be taken to ensure that these proposals and rules are rooted in practicality and realism.