Written by Aaitijhya Goswami
Edited by Hanna Karasinska, Emil Koch, & Israa Zaheer
As the sun rose over the crimson horizon, radiating the foggy expressways with its light, the national capital highway was seen to be filled with poisonous smoke arising from the garbage dump on the side of the road. A new pile of medical beddings, syringes, plastic bottles, and accessories had been dumped and set on fire last night.
Furthermore, adjoining the landfills in the area was the river that flowed through the heart of the city, once used for various festive baths and idol immersions, but now has been closed and unserviceable for leisure boats and fishermen due to the large amounts of industrial waste and toxins, which threaten to cease the river’s very existence. The largest mainstream source of fish for the bustling local market had now become the deathbed of exquisite marine life, as one can often see the lifeless schools of fish awaiting their inevitable future.
At a short distance, deafening sounds of an excavator are heard tugging mercilessly at the roots of another tree as it turns out to be too stubborn to fall. The lush-green riverside region has now been reduced to a wasteland used to dump industrial and medical waste from the nearby city, as a hustle of wages makes any thought of environment conservation the last priority on their extravagant agendas.
From the overpopulated slums across the highway, amongst the early morning quarrels and chatter, emerges a child with a brown sack. He gets ready to spend the day begging for spare coins or rummaging through the swamps in search of an empty bottle he can sell. He takes a deep breath before diving into the foul-smelling waters when he reaches the banks, covered with fish corpses and infested with fleas, flies, and mosquitoes that may spread diseases like dengue and malaria.
This is not the story of this riverside alone but of thousands of riversides, lakesides, and lush green meadows of the most populous country of the world. For the past few decades, it is not the story of one child but millions of slum dwellers in India. The population in India has been growing exponentially while the availability of adequate resources is failing to catch up. This population growth has caused severe damage to nature, and ignorance towards the issue has threatened the necessities of people’s lives.
While the rapidly growing population has provided India with significant workforce, enabling the nation to gain considerable momentum in the development of its industries in the past few years, this excess of labor has also brought about extreme competition and risk of unemployment, which leads to job insecurity as workers take up any job earning them a minimum wage to support their families and provide necessities. A vital part of the workforce acts as unskilled laborers with minimal educational background, preventing them from taking up better positions with higher wages.
As the rent in urban areas skyrockets, the laborers are forced to settle in slums on the outskirts of the city under inhumane living conditions. The lack of proper education and facilities in the areas causes sanitary waste to be dumped in nearby wasters and wastelands, polluting the ever-growing population of slum dwellers. These unhygienic and inefficient dumping methods cause the living conditions to become more miserable, and the swamplands also act as breeding grounds for diseases such as dengue, malaria, typhoid, and more, wreaking havoc in both the slums and urban areas.
The rapid growth of industries and urban settlements has shown how they have minimal to no concern for the environmental hazards that come with it. Vast areas of green grasslands and riverside forests are cut down each year to clear out space for urban settlements, factories, and offices. Large tracts of land become dump yards for the non-biodegradable wastes thrown out from the factories every day. These dumps are then burdened to clear out space for even more dumping, which fills the air with the horrendous smell of burning rubber, plastic, and gasoline.
While traveling to financially and industrially advanced cities, the sight of mountains of garbage piling up on both sides of the road and the toxic smoke reducing the visibility of cars just a few meters ahead is also not new. Unsurprisingly, several horrific road accidents occur each year on the highways just outside megacities due to a complete lack of visibility in the dense fog, with the national capital region topping the list of frequency of incidents. Urban air quality has degraded at alarming rates, restricting people’s lifestyles, particularly in the national capital region. In India, the number of fatal respiratory illnesses such as silicosis, tuberculosis, bronchitis, and asthma is on the rise. Lack of education and understanding about climate change and its negative repercussions are the main causes of this devil.
Lack of education and awareness about climate change and its harmful effects, along with the lax efforts to reduce pollution are the major contributors to nurturing this devil. The hustle and competition of corporate life leave urban commuters with negligible time to care about their well-being, let alone the environment. Similar is the case with the slum dwellers, for whom safe disposal of waste is the last thing on their minds. The chapter on waste disposal and climate change in school textbooks is often seen with great distaste and is often omitted from the exam curriculum as bogus and unimportant, with the meeting chairs of nature clubs remaining empty and their initiatives going unheard.
In the past few years, initiatives have been taken to combat the growing levels of pollution and environmental hazards caused due to urbanization and slums. The authorities have started to cater to the rehabilitation of slum dwellers, although with minimal progress. Newer environmental safety standards have been issued for industries, even though they are far from strictly abided, and a few initiatives have been taken by individuals to clean up the inefficient disposal grounds, although they are far from reaching considerable progress. In these hours of crisis, the greatest environmental challenges affecting a vast majority of the population are ignored. The nation's youth must be aware and educated about the atrocious effects of the population boom and the strain it is putting on the infrastructure. The recent growth in the supply of renewable energy sources and the rising shift towards greener power resources has been a considerable step towards combating pollution, which has also led to many natural disasters in the past. As newer norms and sterner regulations are called for, the hopes of fresher, breathable air are distant but not yet over.
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References:
[1] Guha, S. (2023, February 19). Massive accident on Delhi-Meerut expressway due to dense fog. TimesNow. https://www.timesnownews.com/auto/massive-accident-on-delhi-meerut-expressway-due-to-dense-fog-article-98058165/amp; (Accessed at 08/06/2023)
[2] The Hindu Bureau. (2023, May 16). Air quality turns ‘very poor’ in Delhi as strong winds kick up dust. https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/air-quality-turns-very-poor-in-delhi-as-strong-winds-kick-up-dust/article66858404.ece/amp/; (Accessed at 08/06/2023)
[3] Desk, I. T. W. (2022, November 11). Thick layer of smog shrouds Delhi-NCR as pollution worsens again, air quality remains very poor. India Today. https://www.indiatoday.in/amp/india/story/delhi-air-quality-very-poor-panel-review-situation-today-2295900-2022-11-11; (Accessed at 08/06/2023)
[4] A, T. (2022, July 9). Explained: Why Yamuna Remains Polluted Despite All The Efforts To Clean It. Indiatimes. https://www.indiatimes.com/amp/explainers/news/sources-of-pollution-in-yamuna-567324.html; (Accessed at 08/06/2023)
[5] Yamuna polluted beyond threshold level, aquatic life declines sharply - The New Indian Express. (n.d.). https://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/delhi/2023/mar/14/yamuna-polluted-beyondthreshold-level-aquatic-life-declines-sharply-2555982.amp; (Accessed at 08/06/2023)
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