This refers to article, “A Capital under pollution lockdown” (November 10) by Kota Sriraj. Chronic air pollution in Delhi is likely to meet the fate of Beijing where ‘bottled air' is being sold. The three main causes of toxic air are: Vehicular pollution, industrial emissions and straw burning. To fight vehicular pollution, environmentalists have been consistently recommending promotion of public transport. A well-intentioned endeavor like the odd-even scheme is just an emergency measure. Prior to this, CNG buses were brought in with some success. But overall, impact is little.
On the other hand, farmers resort to crop residue burning as they have to quickly clear the fields for the next crop. Machines like ‘happy seeder', which chops and spreads the straw (which serves as mulch) in a paddy field, before the sowing of wheat seeds are good but costly. Moreover, Delhi's stock of these machines is found to be grossly inadequate, which forthwith has to be increased and made affordable for renting with aid from the Union Government. Baling the straw with balers is another but overlooked alternative. Bialing can be used to generate electricity or make cardboard. As for industrial emissions, coal plants, for instance, should switch to one ‘super-critical' technology which lowers Co2 emissions.