A greater social responsibility is needed on the part of each and every individual to minimise pollution, if not eliminate it altogether, opined speakers at the World Environment Day celebrations organised by the Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board (APPCB) here on Wednesday.
Director of Indian Institute of Petroleum and Energy (IIPE) V.S.R.K. Prasad said that it was high time the younger generation took the responsibility of protecting the environment as they have no other option. Minimising the use of motor vehicles, using public transport and renewable sources of energy and planting of saplings and nurturing them would go a long way in protecting the environment, he said.
The number of trees in India, which was around 240 million in the early 1900s, has now dwindled to around 50 million trees, Mr. Prasad said, underlining the importance of minimising the use of plastics and to plant as many trees as possible.
Too many vehicles
Deputy Transport Commissioner S. Venkateswara Rao called upon the gathering to minimise the use of personal vehicles and rely more on public transport. “Visakhapatnam district has about 12 lakh personal vehicles and an additional 2 lakh transport vehicles, which was the highest in the State. In GVMC limits alone, there were eight lakh vehicles,” Mr. Venkateswara Rao said, adding that the government was promoting the use of electric vehicles by waiving life tax and registration fee apart from other incentives.
The government was insisting on stringent emission norms through improvement of engine design at the manufacturing stage and use of better quality fuel. No new vehicles would be registered from April 2020 if they fail to comply with BS VI norms. The DTC appealed to the citizens to send him a WhatsApp message on 9848171102 if they came across any vehicle emitting excessive smoke by sending him the registration number of the vehicle.
Silent killer
APPCB Senior Environmental Engineer Ravindranadh said that every year, around 7 million were dying all over the world due to air pollution. China was chosen as the ‘host country’ for the World Environment Day and the theme for this year was ‘air pollution’.
Earlier in the morning, a green rally was organised in which hundreds of people participated. It was followed by beach cleaning in which 100 kg of plastic waste was collected and handed over to the GVMC for safe disposal.