It is dangerous to breathe in most Indian cities, and even though the government accepts this, precious little is being done about it

"Delhi roads should display a statutory warning: Breathing here is injurious to health." This is how Delhi’s transport minister Rajinder Gupta described the city’s air quality at the public meeting organised by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) in New Delhi on November 1. The meeting marked the first anniversary of the release of the book Slow Murder: The deadly story of vehicular pollution in India, a CSE publication. CSE has come out with another set of shocking figures — it is estimated that there has been an increase of 28 per cent in premature deaths due to air pollution over the last three-four years. Another shocking observation was that precious little is being done to deal with the problem.

Participating in a panel discussion titled Slow Murder and Since, Anil Agarwal, director, CSE, presented the grim statistics: 51,779 people are estimated to have died prematurely in 36 Indian cities due to air pollution in 1995, as against 40,351 in 1991-92 (Down To Earth, Vol 6, No 12). "We don’t have our own method of monitoring pollution levels and the present situation is grim. The future is bleak and nobody knows what to do," he said. Agarwal added that the ministry of environment and forests (MEF) taken no initiative to curb pollution. He described the ministries dealing with health, finance and surface transport as "clueless agencies", the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) as a "poor monitor" and the Delhi government as a "great believer in tailpipery". The Delhi government has taken some action, but it lacked scientific basis and consistency, he noted.

Chaired by V Ramalingaswami, CSE chairperson and former director general of the Indian Council of Medical Research (icmr), the meeting examined vehicular pollution from various points of view by the expert panellists, which included M G K Menon, eminent

scientist and former Union minister, R C Bhargava, former managing director of Maruti Udyog Ltd, S K Chhabra, chest specialist at the Patel Chest Institute, New Delhi, and D K Biswas, chairperson of CPCB. The speakers agreed with Agarwal that very little is being done to control air pollution and no scientific data is available on certain key pollutants such as ozone or very fine particulate matter that are less than 10 micron in diameter and are known as PM10 and PM2.5.

Amidst this absence of data, official apathy coupled with the boom in the transport sector, the air pollution situation in 19 Indian cities has become critical, according to the CSE presentation. Kanpur tops in the pollution rankings. Dehradun and Jaipur also figure in the list. The CPCB data shows a dramatic increase in pollution levels in all the 36 cities studied. This rise has caused an alarming rise in the number of deaths and sicknesses. In Calcutta, pollution-related deaths have doubled in three-four years (5,726 in 1991-92 to 10,700 in 1995). Delhi has witnessed a 32 per cent increase in deaths due to air pollution (from 7,500 to 9,900 in the corresponding period).

The estimates were arrived at following a CSE study using an epidemiological model prepared for the us by World Bank staffers Carter Brandon and Kirsten Homman. The model was aimed at establishing the relationship between air pollution and human mortality and morbidity. It was subsequently used to assess environmental and health conditions in India. The CSE study interpolated CPCB’s latest air pollution data on the model and found that the indicators were bleak. In the 36 Indian cities, the number of cases of sicknesses requiring medical treatment have risen from 19 million in 1991-92 to 25 million in 1995. In economic terms, this morbidity and mortality costs Rs 4,700 crore annually, taking an average of the upper and the lower estimates. In 1991-92, the figure stood at about 3,600 crore.

These calculations only take into account the health effects of the worst pollutant in India — suspended particulate matter (SPM). Even in this, there is no data available on PM10s. "us atmospheric scientists have reached a consensus that even PM10s do not matter. It is PM2.5s. These are the tiny killers that go straight into the lungs," Agarwal pointed out. Worse still, there is no data available in India about where they come from and how much of them are hanging in the air. Government agencies are groping in the smog on this issue.

The connection between SPM and respiratory diseases has been established by experts. There is an urgent need for detailed studies to be done on the subject in India, especially in the context of alarmingly rising vehicular pollution. Chhabra pointed out that studies at the Patel Chest Institute showed that incidence of respiratory diseases had increased with the rise in SPM levels. "Asthma patients require more medication and acute respiratory ailments rise sharply," he pointed out. Chhabra said that his studies revealed that 12 per cent of children between five and 16 years in Delhi’s schools suffered from asthma. Patel Chest Institute is conducting another study on respiratory diseases that is expected to come out by December.

SPM is not the only stealth killer. There is another evasive pollutant from the vehicle tailpipe — ozone. A secondary pollutant, ozone is produced in the atmosphere because of various other gaseous pollutants including oxides of nitrogen. One of the rare studies in the country on ozone conducted by the Central Road Research Institute, New Delhi (CRRI), shows that during the winter of 1993, the eight-hourly average levels of ozone were 10 to 40 per cent above the WHO standards at four of the six locations studied. The maximum levels of ozone twice exceeded the WHO limits. "This is the time when alarm bells should have been ringing. Car traffic should have been shut down with

people asked to stay home," Agarwal points out. When it happened in Paris a month ago, the environment minister cycled to work. The president took a battery car.

Delivering his keynote address, Menon explained that the dearth of data was the result of a lack of scientific temper in the government. Government departments need to put science above the statute books that promote compartmentalisation, he said. "It is just not possible for a ministry to tackle this problem without an integrated approach. What we have at present is a disintegrated, piecemeal approach." He called for more autonomy and incentives to scientists and scientific organisations. CPCB chairperson Biswas shared Menon’s concern about government departments lacking a scientific approach. He admitted that there is a lack of proper data. But threw up his hand, saying that studies can not be conducted due to resource crunch. He indicated that it would cost Rs 1 crore to maintain a station to monitor ozone levels and CPCB’s annual budget is just about Rs 5 crore.

However, the problems are not confined to the government. Bhargava presented the industry’s viewpoint. "Technology is available. But we need a political will," he said. He was critical of the government for setting very tight deadlines for industry to meet environmental standards. "Set standards, give the industry adequate time, and then ensure that the standards are met," he suggested. Gupta, however, blamed the industry for using third-rate technology. Both Gupta and Biswas were not ready to accept Bhargava’s view. "Unless the industry is put to the wall, it does not come out with better technology," Gupta pointed out. Biswas added that whenever the government comes up with stringent environmental norms, the industry would "fight tooth and nail" to dilute them.

On the government’s part, Gupta admitted that much more needs to be done. He said that the Delhi government cannot work alone on the issue of air pollution. Initiative from the Union government is needed in dealing with the problem, he added. He pointed out that his government was planning low-emission buses for Delhi and reiterated that the government was committed to go ahead with making cycle tracks in Delhi. The government is drawing up a plan about laying cycle tracks with technical inputs from the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi. It should be noted that a plan to lay cycle tracks, involving conversion of service lanes running parallel to the ring road, has been gathering dust for over a decade now.

The net outcome of the bickering between industry and government departments is a lot of confusion, lax norms and polluting vehicles. According to Gupta, most of the buses plying in Delhi are actually trucks fitted with bus bodies. Truck engines made for long haul add to the pollution if used for start-stop-and-start mode of city commuting. However, the fact that there has been an initiative from the mef and CPCB towards controlling pollution cannot be denied. But, there is a need for better coordination between various government agencies, the industry and the non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

Agarwal noted that since the release of the book Slow Murder on November 1, 1996 by K R Narayanan, now the President of the country, a great mystery story has been unfolding. The highly complex and convoluted drama with different actors and different demons. The government has organised a lot of meetings and charted out some plans of action. "But the government has moved little beyond the orders of the court," he noted (see Table: headline). These actions leave much to be desired in terms of their scientific accuracy and in meeting the air quality targets and cost effectiveness, he noted. He said that the courts have been very courageous to grasp the nettle and issue a series of orders, but courts have limitations regarding deciding on technical matters. "What is needed from the courts are broader outlines for an efficient, accountable and people-friendly executive to handle environmental problems" he suggested. The moral of the sequel to Slow Murder is to raise public awareness, practice good science and then resolve the conflicts.