The environmental crisis of New Delhi is going from bad to worse every moment. The carbon in the form of smog forms a canopy over the Smart City and around its suburbs. Especially during winter, the worst of Delhi comes to into picture.
The educational institutions, especially of the children’s schools and nurseries are closed as children are the worst sufferers. Similarly, the airlines and railway communication get paralised due to dense smog and bad visibility. The situation has gone beyond the control of both the Governments of Delhi and of the Centre.
The faulty environmental management must be blamed for the present crisis of India’s capital. Rise in number of different kinds of vehicles without any restrictions leads to discharge of carbon into the atmosphere. Different obnoxious ingredients in the air turn the air foul. The things like carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and other different gaseous products including different particulate matters repeatedly are discharged causing a big harm to the air.
Although politically separated from the States like Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, but Delhi is contiguous to them and they together from one bio-logical complex. These four States form the industrial capital of India. Different kinds of industries right from small to big and mega industrial complexes are seen within these region. These industries constantly discharge obnoxious properties into atmosphere and poison the whole atmosphere. The burning of stubbles or straws of paddy crops after harvest contributes to Delhi’s woes too. The residues or the leftover materials of paddy crops are burnt in lakhs and lakhs of quintals during the winter in these four States after collection of winter crops by the peasants and commercial cultivators.
The ashes so obtained are also utilized as manure for the field. The fields are also sterilized thoroughly charring of the field. This is an old recurring practice in Punjab, Haryana, Utter Pradesh and Delhi from time immemorial.
The Chief Ministers of the States in the region should ponder over the causes of pollution and instead of blaming one another, they should think about the solution.
The Supreme Court has also expressed grave concern over the matter, seeing the crisis of the people of Delhi and the people of adjoining States, especially of the highly vulnerable people like children and old people. A permanent solution of the crisis is a need of the hour and this should be chalked out by the political authorities of the country.
The use of odd-even numbers of vehicle alternatively on odd-even dates of the calendar respectively is not the permanent solution of the crisis. If no permanent solution is made to meet the crisis early, the whole capital region of the country will be a hazardous land.
There are various commercial uses of straws and husks of paddy and other stubbles, which can be undertaken and human resources can also be utilized substantially by that way. These commercial items or products are straw-chip-boards or known as straw-boards. Even the useless husks of paddy can be used for preparation of husk boards. The chip-boards or husk-boards of paddy can be manufactured easily and can be commercially used in place of plywood in various forms.
Paddy is the main and principal crop of India and Indian sub-continent and we produce lakhs of tons of straws and stubbles of different crops annually, which go waste without any purposeful uses. Moreover, we are felling large numbers of trees annually for manufacture of plywood for our domestic uses. It is time we utilized our waste products into valuable essential commodities to meet various purposes.
The State Forest Corporation in Odisha is not having sufficient employment opportunities and felling trees from forests for revenue generation to keep going. However, it should think of alternative ways and engage in preparation of raw boards as profuse quantity of straws and paddy husks are available in the State for manufacture of straw boards and husks boards. The stubble boards can also be used for packing boxes, cabinet making and can replace the plywood in a big way.
Similarly, the straws and husks can also be used as cattle feeds.
The State Governments across the nation should encourage the people to maintain mulching cows for their own purposes and for the purposes of milk-based cottage industries in the rural belt. Now, the thatched houses in the villages are replaced by pucca houses. So the straws are remaining surplus not being used as thatched materials. The problem is everywhere and not only in Delhi, Punjab and Haryana or Uttar Pradesh alone. So we should chalk out alternative ways for their productive uses.
The straws can also be utilized as organic manures. Our people know how organic manures can be prepared out of waste straws used in thatching of their own houses. Such practices are now stopped due to rampant uses of chemical fertilizers in the agro-fields. But they need to be revived and renewed for public causes and to meet the climate challenges. The paddy straws and paddy husks and other used domestic materials can be converted into bio-fertilizers. These green substances and cattle dung can make good manure.