The Supreme Court order banning petrol and diesel engines in taxis, including Uber and Ola app-based cabs, and calling for an immediate compulsory switch to compressed natural gas in order to ply in the National Capital Region can cause great pain for cab operators. But this bitter pill must be swallowed if citizens of the capital are to be saved from its foul air.
One of the key culprits behind the worsening air of all major cities in the country is the use of diesel fuel. Not only does diesel contribute to air pollution, but it also endangers lives directly by releasing carcinogens into the air. The scientific community has been signposting the dangers of diesel for well over four years now, pointing out that diesel engine exhaust causes lung cancer in humans.
Inhalation of diesel fumes cause stress responses in the brain that lead to both Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. In 2013, a study on premature mortality established that “approximately 10 per cent of all years of life lost from exposure to vehicle emissions around the world occur in India”.
Misguided policies over the years have sustained a foolish subsidy on diesel as the fuel for mass transportation. The problem is worsened nowadays with telecom towers and shopping malls using it extensively for electricity. But where diesel causes the most damage is at slow speeds when vehicles release nitrogen oxides and other particulate matter like soot, which contribute to smog. The explosion in use of diesel in cars and lorries, rising from around two per cent in the 1990s to over 50 per cent in the NCR, created a desperate situation which requires desperate remedies.
There is also a classic pattern in this country of extreme executive inaction, driven by pure sloth or greed and graft, which defies interventionist action by the judiciary. The net result is that the air around Delhi, that exemplifies the worsening atmosphere of all cities, assumes a killing dimension. Automobiles, of course, are not the only pollutant, but they are among the biggest contributors.
Some issues need to be resolved urgently. How long will the government take to make CNG widely available across the country if it is to be imposed as the sole fuel of the taxi and tourism industry nationally? A major policy shift in favour of petrol, as opposed to diesel, might help swing things around a bit, but it would take years to make a difference. The Supreme Court’s action is like a final crack of the whip. Unless policymakers sit down to think afresh in the light of international examples, India’s cities cannot be saved from devastation by diesel, which has come to assume the proportions of a challenge to civilisation.
