ENVIRONMENT-INDIA: Debate Over Delhi Clean Air Drive

By Ranjit Devraj Reprint | | Print |

Ranjit Devraj

NEW DELHI, Apr 5 2001 (IPS) - The early April commuting chaos in the Indian capital has led to fingers being pointed at powerful business interests trying to subvert efforts to clean up worsening urban air pollution.

On Thursday, after several days of commuter chaos as some 10,000 buses went off the capital’s roads, India’s Supreme Court relented on its order requiring all public transport to switch to clean fuel engines.

The court allowed diesel-powered buses to run again till Apr. 14, if their owners had applied for switching to environment-friendly compressed natural gas (CNG) engines.

Under a two-year-old ruling of the apex court, all public transport vehicles in the capital city had to switch to CNG engines by Apr. 1.

According to authorities, the order will force an estimated 15,000 taxis, 50,000 three-wheelers and 5,000 buses off the roads.

In its Thursday ruling, the Supreme Court upbraided the government of Delhi state for “administrative lapses and lack of governance” in implementing the court’s original order.

However, some think that this is not the only reason for the slow at which city buses and taxis have moved to install CNG engines.

“Gaseous fuels such as CNG cannot be adulterated while liquid fuels can be and are routinely adulterated,” says famous Indian environmentalist Anil Aggarwal.

Aggarwal’s well-known Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has long been leading a campaign against growing vehicular pollution in Delhi.

According to CSE’s main air pollution expert, Anumita Roychoudhury, virtually every filling station owner in the capital, adulterates petrol and diesel stocks.

This is a major reason for the high air pollution levels in the Indian capital, she says.

Though authorities routinely carry out surprise checks and often nab those guilty, this has failed to check the problem.

But petrol filling station owners are only a small part of a chain of corrupt officials and greedy transporters, say others.

According to Mukesh Patel, a member of the Rajya Sabha or upper house of Indian Parliament, transport fuel adulteration begins at the refineries.

“When we talk of adulteration of petroleum, the general impression is that it is done at the petrol pump (filling station) level. However, the organised sector is involved and the crime has spread all over India and affects every citizen,” Patel told parliament.

The lawmaker claims that officials who have tried to tackle the malpractice, have been removed from their posts.

A variety of petroleum raw materials and by-products, like kerosene, are diverted to tanker operators and filling stations to be used for adulterating petrol and diesel, says Patel.

World Bank experts who have studied the problem of vehicular pollution in the Indian capital, have reported facing problems in trying to monitor fuel quality at all levels — from refinery to filling stations.

“Wilful adulteration is something I have no answer to,” says Jitendra Shah, an environmental engineer who works with the World Bank’s Asia Technical Environment Group.

Shah has closely studied the vehicular pollution problem in Delhi and authored a five-volume report on the issue.

Even car makers are modifying their models keeping in mind fuel adulteration. Manufacturers of foreign brand, luxury cars in India, advertise their models as having engines “modified to suit Indian fuel conditions.”

A few years ago, the Delhi High Court ordered suspension of spot vehicular pollution checks and fines on polluting vehicles.

The court accepted the plea of a motorist that car owners could not be held responsible for noxious exhaust if the government could not guarantee fuel quality.

According to the CSE, diesel sold in Delhi is particularly dangerous because it contains 250 times more sulphur and eight times more ‘aromatics’ and ‘polyaromatics’ than that sold in Europe.

“Needless to say, adulterated diesel is far worse,” says Aggarwal.

The CSE is also campaigning against the heavy cross-subsidising of diesel. The government argues that diesel prices are kept low to run water pumps and tractors on farms in the mainly rural nation.

But a number of luxury car makers are taking advantage of this to offer versions with diesel engines.

Aggarwal and his centre are pitted against those who favour the introduction of ultra low-sulphur diesel (ULSD) as a cheaper alternative to converting diesel engines to run on CNG.

“It is stupendous task. We don’t really know how it (the Supreme Court order) can be implemented whether we have the systems, the suppliers, distributors,” says R.K. Pachauri, director of the prestigious, New Delhi-based Tata Energy Research Institute (TERI).

Pachauri’s suggestion that the court could look at ULSD as an option to CNG, is backed by the Delhi government.

But Aggarwal points out that diesel of any quality produces fine particles, which embed themselves in the lungs and are known to be carcinogenic.

“TERI’s conjuring act is part of the automobile lobby’s sustained effort to block introduction of CNG in Delhi,” he adds. The Tata institute is supported by one of India’s top two business houses of that name, which is also an internationally known manufacturer of diesel engines.