It would be completely presumptuous and disingenuous of me if I claim to have a completely unique experience of dealing with or suffering from the havocs caused by the growing levels of pollution in urban cities, especially in Delhi where I have been staying for almost 5-6 years now. However, I have always been someone that was concerned about the use or rather misuse of nature in some way or the other. Be it when witnessing the decrease in numbers of trees while on a road trip or the unending growth of heaps of garbage in city dumps—they have their own share of creating an inexplicable anguish and pain within me.
The first thing that I would put on as one of the most important in the things-to-do list to reduce pollution and the one that can be easily implemented is to completely boycott the use of polybags and polythene related materials at all cost. Little efforts like carrying a jute bag or just a backpack while going to shop will go a long way in the decline of polybags, which in turn will help in the decrease of pollution. One might wonder how the excess use of polybags or other plastic material affects the air we breathe. Well, it’s needless to say that the unending garbage that is getting more and more spacious in city dumps are usually burnt, which emits various poisonous gases, thus leaving the air around that place extremely harmful.
The other pertinent way by which I believe we all can make a huge impact in decreasing the pollution levels is by saying no to the use of firecrackers. Whether it’s about burning innumerable firecrackers while celebrating Diwali or burning them during other occasions, the outcome is the same—immense harm done to the air quality at the mere cost of few hour of senseless pleasure. I can only remember the utter dismay and shock that I was in when I witnessed the horrendous air quality of Delhi just after the festival of Diwali. It’s almost a stale tale for Delhites that after Diwali Delhi becomes a pure devil’s kingdom where no mere human finds it possible to breathe air. The entire capital city is filled with masked citizens struggling for fresh air. Despite that, not much efforts have been taken by the government to deal with this specific crises, instead this is always politicised and government refrains from banning the crackers altogether (which can easily solve this particular issue) lest it would hurt religious sentiments. However, one should keep in mind that nature has no religious or class bias and a negative imbalance caused to it will most certainly produce backlash in the form of a disaster that will most certainly harm us all indiscriminately. The other few things that we all can do individually is to plant at least one tree in our neighbourhood and making sure to take its care until it fully grows. Promoting the use of ebooks and electronic devices for study purpose which can easily save billions of trees chopped off every year.
One might wonder, aren’t these the most clichéd suggestions given to tackle pollution issues? Well my answer to that is yes, however all these things can make a huge impact if we fulfil them honestly with complete responsibility. Just think how many of us are actually following these simple but very effective techniques. I completely disagree that we need unique and ground-breaking approaches to deal with this aforementioned tragedy. If you think that you are already making these little efforts and changes, then think again!