In the western world, pollution from car is the biggest contributor towards environmental pollution. However, In India (as in this case of Delhi and other metropolitan places in India), we see other contributors such as organic and nonorganic pollutants.
In Delhi and other major metropolis in India, the contributing factors are many fold. Inorganic particulate matter, Volatile Organic Compounds and dust are major contributors to such menace. Even if major factors are corrected, (partial control works too), that would help reduce the VOC’s significantly. However, is there a way to look at these factors as isolated contributors and work upon each in helping reduce the pollution?
EPA’s Tier 3 standards? While Europe has significantly reduced vehicular pollution by adopting this standards, US has been away from implementing. India can revisit the EPA standards and implement those across the country.
Car pulling, rationing, allowing cars with advanced environmental standards are immediate way out. However, in the immediate period, petroleum guzzlers should be completely banned plus mid-long term strategy should revisit how best to eliminate the use as f fossil fuel.
Crop burning: While it is hard to change the deep rooted cultural practices, time has come to bury the crop rather than burn and create smog.
In US countryside, we can burn crop when certain environmental conditions exist. Patterns which indicate conducive burning can be identified and crop burning can still be allowed while such conditions exist.
Greening the environment – India has been on the fore front in plantation and replacing trees, additional measures need to be taken to clear environmental pollution.
In India, as in other democratic countries, the major bottleneck is one up man-ship, partisan bickering and political blame game. However, all these politicians should form a nonpartisan committee comprising of each party and stakeholders and be given the credit for reducing pollution.
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