Good evening, I am Krishna Kumar Sharma, a student of MA in

Ecosophical Aesthetics.
I am from Gandhian Centre for Philosophical Arts and Sciences,
a Department of Manipal Academy of Higher Education
(MAHE), Manipal.
As part of an initiative to create public awareness about culture
and nature,
I would like to talk on pollution in Delhi.
My topic is ‘Delhi is choking.’
Delhi is India’s capital, the very heart of India.
The heart of the country, seems to be choking to death,
because of the extremely high level of pollution.
According to the annual report of the WHO,
Delhi is one of the most highly contaminated cities of the world.
The level of pollution in our capital is so high
that people find it difficult even to breathe.
Every inhabitant of this mega-city is suffering from ailments of
the lungs, of some kind or the other.
The pollution in Delhi has reached such high levels
that people who take a walk in the early morning
find the sky, not filled with clear fresh air,
but covered with smog that makes it gloomy and dark.
People who want to keep good health take to exercises like yoga
or jogging in the morning,
but instead of improving their health
they themselves become victims of diseases,
being exposed to the high levels of pollution.
Not only food and drinks, but also every product of nature
that we use in our daily life
has become polluted.
The problem of rising levels of pollution,
has many causes.
Some of them are really complex.
For example: Water pollution.
This problem of pollution exists in its most serious form
in the water of the Yamuna river.
Some fifty or sixty years ago the water of the Yamuna was
absolutely safe for drinking.
In the past it was part of our cultural tradition to regard the river
as an incarnation of goddesses, a life- sustaining divinity. She
was worshipped
But gradually people were so drawn into selfishness and greed
that they almost dragged the river to the border of death.
For this imminent death of the mother no evil spirit or demon is
responsible.
But the one being who is responsible calls himself superior to all
other living beings on this earth.
He calls himself man with no trace of humanity in him.
Man is chiefly the cause of this perilous situation, nobody else.
Just as river Yamuna is being choked to death
because of water pollution,
air pollution is choking the city of Delhi to death.
If we consider the situation of the city today,
the level of air pollution has risen to such a height
that living in the city has become so difficult.
More and more diseases are attacking the people;
even small children are affected.
We have indulged in such
extravagant and luxurious styles of life,
that now it is almost impossible to survive
in the midst of these unmanageable sources of pollution.
we promoted the culture of materialism to such an extent
that we established many industries
on the banks of these very life sustaining rivers,
that we have made their water unusable
and the air also unbreathable.
The gases that are released into the air
by the mega- chimneys of these industries
are highly poisonous;
they include, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane,
ethane, nitrogen, sulfur etc.
With our own short-sightedness
we have further worsened the problem of air pollution.
Earlier we used means of transport
like bicycles and horse carriages,
which did not require any mineral products as fuel.
Then we started using vehicles fitted with engines
which consume large quantities of petrol or diesel.
We switched over to these vehicles
in the hope of making our life easy,
but we now find that
the fumes from these very engines
have added to the problem of pollution.
People like to drive their own vehicles
first to make their own life easier,
next to show off their wealth and style,
instead of depending on means of public transport.
As a result the number of vehicles on the roads
has increased and traffic jams and accidents have increased by
many times. What was meant to make life easy,
has made life more difficult.
Suppose children want to play in the evening
after school hours, alas!
the levels of air pollution
are much higher in the evening than in the morning.
This increase has been caused mainly by the vehicles.
If we don’t take suitable steps now itself,
to lessen the levels of pollution in the air,
we are endangering the lives of our next generation of people.
In addition to ruining our own life,
we will be ruining the life of our children too.
In the long chain of causes
that have led to the pollution
of not only the air, but also of the earth and the environment
is the growth of huge heaps of garbage.
And the ugliest eyesore for the whole city of Delhi
is the mountain of garbage in Ghazipur.
It has risen even to greater height than “Qutub Minar”
and has made life almost impossible-
miles and miles around this stinking Colossus.
This heap of garbage has been growing
ever since its beginning in 1984.
And has become in the course of the last 36 years,
the second largest dumping yard of the country.
It is nearly 70 metres in height
and extends over about 29 acres of land.
This has ruined the life of the people
living in the surrounding regions.
They have to suffer from various kinds of disease,
caused by direct or indirect contact
with this disease causing factory.
Naturally, owing to the foul smell
emanating from the rotting ingredients in the garbage,
breathing itself becomes an extremely difficult exercise
for kilometers and kilometers around this ugly mound.
The land around this garbage hill
is rendered barren.
It is no longer fit for any kind of cultivation.
This heap of garbage also emits
many kinds of poisonous gases
which further increase the pollution of the air.
When it rains in the area,
water seeps into the mountainous heap of garbage
so that the water flows into the river Yamuna
and makes it more polluted.
Every day nearly 2000 tons of garbage are dumped on this
already mountainous heap.
The major components of this heap are
varieties of plastics
which are not biodegradable
and hence are a permanent pollutant of the earth.
The pollution due to plastics is caused by the change in our life
style;
we have given up our safe habits and customs.
And we have embraced unhealthy practices.
Earlier the waste material coming out of the households
did not contain plastics.
It was mostly degradable.
It was absorbed as manure by the soil
and thus it improved the fertility of the land.
Even at home we have started using use- and- throw cups and
plates
instead of those made of clay or metals like copper, brass,
aluminum or stainless steel.
In the past, when people went shopping,
they carried with them bags made of cotton or jute
and they would use them again and again.
Now we have given up our healthy practices.
We use plastic sheets even for small purpose like packing.
We ourselves demand plastic bags from the shop keeper
when he asks us for our bag.
In the past those who ran eateries would pack their dishes
in banana leaves or dhak leaves.
They also got easily absorbed in the soil,
a few days after they were thrown away or disposed of.
Today we have switched over to the habit of eating
fast food, readymade food, packed food
that we don’t want to get into the kitchen
and cook our own food.
We don’t like home made dishes any more,
we are carried away by the look of western foods like burger and
pizza;
we can even order them online
and we get them home delivered
covered again in attractive plastic packing materials.
We have become blind imitators of the western kind of food
habits,
and have ruined our own cultural roots
which were healthy both to the body and the environment. These
packing materials are samples of use- and- throw culture and
this is one of the main causes of environmental pollution.
Unfortunately this trend seems to continue still
or it may worsen and leave the world in a terrible situation.
Pollution of the earth caused by uncontrolled use of materials,
biodegradable or not,
is not a problem restricted to Ghazipur
or to the city of Delhi.
It is a problem seriously affecting
every part of the country
including towns and villages,
and the evils of modernization and urbanization
are spread even to the rural areas, or to remote areas
if they happen to be tourist destinations.
Even Mount Everest has not been spared
this nuisance of man’s intervention.
If we don’t take appropriate steps immediately
to arrest this trend
and put the country back on the track of well being,
not only the capital of the country,
but every nook and corner
will go down the slope of destruction and ruin.
It has become a fashion for the people
to squarely blame the government
for the ills of the present world.
We don’t try to introspect and see whether
we the people are also not, at least partly,
responsible for this crisis.
True, we naturally fight for our rights,
but we don’t think enough of our responsibilities.
In the past we were indeed aware
of the problem of environmental pollution,
but we did not pay enough attention,
and almost ignored it.
The changes in the climate,
the serious problem of green house effect
or increasing temperature of the earth,
excessive exploitation of underground water
have made the earth a different place
and we have suddenly woken up
to the reality of a disaster staring at us.
The new government,
under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modiji
has been taking radical measures
in order to tackle the problem.
Laws against pollution were there,
but they were not seriously implemented.
Now with the all-out efforts
of the government at the centre and in states,
and with the willing cooperation of the people
we should be able to arrest this deterioration
of the quality of our air, water and soil.
In Delhi where the problem is acute
some steps are being taken to tackle it.
The division of vehicles with odd or even registration numbers,
to move on specified days of the week,
priority to the use of public transport,
promotion of cultivation of vegetation
inside homes and office buildings
which will absorb the harmful elements in the air,
increased use of gas cylinders in houses
to reduce the harm of burning firewood
are some steps taken in this direction.
There are many NGO’S active in the field
to make people aware of the seriousness of the problem
and to take the necessary corrective steps without delay.
Particularly among the illiterate people
the level of environment awareness
is very low
and they have to be convinced
about the seriousness of the problem.
NGO’S and student bodies join hands to put up street plays
to spread the message
through the visual media of street theatre.
The Government is spreading the message
of water harvesting, i.e.,
collecting rain water and letting it flow into the earth
through appropriate techniques.
The intention is to make people aware that all- out efforts
are needed to tackle the problem of environmental pollution.
Finally, the present government has designed
phase 3rd of the Yamuna Action Plan.
In this phase the waste water of the city
will be purified in huge purification plants.
The city of Delhi has been divided into 4 zones;
in each zone big purification units have been installed
into which drainage water or industrial waste water would flow
and come out after purification.
In this process the impurities in the water
will be reduced by about 70%.
When this purified water gets into the river,
the level of pollution will be drastically reduced.
It is hope that
this spring of life, the river Yamuna
will at a last be salvaged
and again put in to use.
That would be a great day.
If people everywhere
sincerely support the government in all respects
to fight against the evil of pollution
there is some hope of saving the city of Delhi.
People should minimize the use of plastics.
In fact the whole life-style should change.
There should be less consumption of industrial goods,
minimum use of water and electricity;
people should make less use of private vehicles.
Every step has to be taken to save the Delhi and the country.
I Krishna Kumar Sharma would like to thank you all for
listening to my thoughts about nature and culture awareness
program.