Some time back we saw how smog made the north Indian states suffer hugely. The crisis, particularly in a city like Delhi were so extended that it became a part of political controversy. Even the inter-state contestation was witnessed over this issue. The steps then taken by the concerned governments can only fall in the category of firefighting. May be that helped in some measure and served the purpose of immediately dealing with the effects of the air pollution, but the crisis haven’t been solved.
In fact the problem of air pollution is increasing with each passing day. Earlier we would limit it to the cities and attribute it to the vehicular movement on the roads. The other reason that would immediately get underlined was the industrial smoke. Both these sources of pollution would be considered as polluting the atmosphere in and around the cities. But now it has gone well beyond cities.
The problem of air pollution is now almost omnipresent. Even the area far away from cities are not free from this problem. The levels of pollutions have gone so up that there is hardly a place where one can breath fresh air. The toxic material is now everywhere, and with the result we are now faced with multiple health problems.
In the beginning of the covid crisis, when a complete lockdown was in place, one visible change was seen in atmosphere. One could see the blue sky and clear surroundings. That was a telling reminder on how much pollution usually goes into the atmosphere because of industrial activity, because of traffic movement, and also because of burning different materials in the autumn season.
The question that confronts us is this; are we conscious of the fact that air pollution is a real problem for a place like Kashmir too. Usually we would dismiss it with a shrug. But now, looking at the quality of air, this disturbing fact can not be refuted. We also need to formulate policies, and implement them, so that air pollution can be controlled.