Fifty years ago, Delhi was a pristine place, not yet discovered by the nouveau riche. Derided as an ‘overgrown village’ by Bombayites, it had broad roads, little traffic, a surfeit of trees and most importantly clean, fresh air. On the flip side it had rude auto drivers, overcrowded buses and markets that shut down by 8 pm. Both perception and reality underwent a drastic change in the aftermath of the Asian Games in 1982.

By 1990, a perpetually-in-a hurry culture had subsumed the sleepy character of Delhi. With millions flocking to Gurgaon, Noida and Faridabad from the backwoods of UP, Bihar, Haryana and Punjab, the satellite towns of Delhi became one with the city, putting unbearable strain on its resources. Pollutants from wood and coal burning, new factories, untreated industrial waste, and increasing vehicular traffic made the city’s environment wholly unhealthy.

Environmentalist M.C Mehta filed a Public Interest Litigation in the Supreme Court against the Union of India in 1985 claiming that existing environmental laws obliged the government to reduce air pollution that had impacted public health adversely. After obtaining opinions of fact-finding commissions and the Ministry of Environment and Forests, the Supreme Court concluded that heavy vehicles ~ trucks, buses and defence vehicles ~ were the principal polluters. In 1996, the Supreme Court ruled that all government vehicles in Delhi should be converted to compressed natural gas (CNG).

Advertisement

Later, in 1998 the Court ordered that all buses plying in Delhi must be converted to CNG by 31 March 2001. Subsequently, auto-rickshaws, too, were ordered to be converted to CNG. Prevarication by Government agencies on various pretexts, made the Supreme Court see red and passan order on 5 April 2002, directing two bus manufacturers to supply 1500 CNG buses immediately, and to replace 800 diesel buses every month, till the entire DTC fleet was CNG-driven. There were initial hiccups ~ shortage of CNG stations resulted in long queues and delays ~ but the effect on the environment was dramatic, with the Air Quality Index (AQI) coming down to acceptable levels. However, with an increase in population, vehicles, factories, road and house construction, environmental gains from conversion of commercial vehicles to CNG were lost by November 2016, when the AQI hovered around 400, and crossed 450 on several........

© The Statesman