India is one of the developing countries that is grappling through the trade-off between development and environment. India’s annual growth rate, which is approximately 6% led by industrial and manufacturing sectors, come at the cost of industrial pollution. India has not been successful in carving a sustainable path that leads to development (sustainable development means “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs"[WCED 1987]). India’s developmental policies have resulted in degraded soils, depletion of water tables, increased floods, desertification, waterlogging and salinity, pollution of water and air, loss of biodiversity. This essay aims to analyze the effectiveness of environmental regulations implemented by the Indian Government in Delhi, home to 18 million people because Delhi as it is among the 10 most polluted cities of the world. Delhi is one of the cities where the average total suspended particulate levels (SPL) are five times the safe level as mentioned by World Bank in their development research study in 1991-4. A report by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, India, in 1997 reviewed that 3000 metric tons of air pollutants were emitted every day in Delhi, with a major contribution from vehicular pollution (67%), followed by coal-based thermal power plants (12%). Further, the carbon monoxide concentration increased by 92% from 1989 to 1996. Delhi has the highest cluster of small-scale industries in India that contribute to 12% of air pollutants along with other industrial units. Vehicular pollution and industrial emissions are two most significant contributors to the pollution in Delhi. The World Health Organization mentioned in its report in 2011 that “Delhi has exceeded the maximum PM10 limit (level of suspended particles is one of the main indicators of respiratory health) by 10 times at 198 μg/m3”. It can be gathered from the information provided above that Delhi’s domestic environmental conditions are bad and getting worse. However, the Indian government has made great strides towards improving the air quality especially in Delhi. A number of policy instruments have been employed in Delhi to control and abate pollution; however, major reformations such as switch to compressed natural gas, introduction of metro and such policies regarding air and vehicular pollution had been done 2003 onwards as the ruling Congress government for Delhi state mentioned that improving air quality was one of the points on their agenda.
The first initial step towards curbing air pollution was taken by the Locals (people living in Delhi). A local delhiite (people living in Delhi) called Mehta, concerned about rising levels of air pollution and lack of initiative by the Indian government, filed a petition and demanded the Supreme Court to implement the Air Act of 1981 in Delhi. The Air Act was just a petition to put pressure on the government to take action regarding the rising levels of air pollution in Delhi. The act demanded that government “lay down standards for the quality of air’, to ‘advise the Central Government on any matter concerning the improvement of the quality of air and the prevention, control, or abatement of air pollution’, and to ‘perform such other functions as may be prescribed’ (Kiran Dingra Affidavit, 1996). The petition led to the Supreme Court directing the Delhi administration to file an affidavit specifying the steps it had taken to reduce air pollution which was an impressive step taken by the Indian Supreme Court knowing decentralized corruption and lack of structure in the institution. After Mehta’s petition to the court, several new environmental laws were enacted, as were policies to curtail tailpipe emissions from vehicles and to move polluting industries from Delhi. However, as expected, these policies were rarely implemented and there was no evidence of a comprehensive plan to tackle the growing problem of air pollution. Disappointed public put more pressure on the government, which led to the implementation of 1986 Environment (Protection) Act, the Motor Vehicles Act of 1988, and the Central Motor Vehicle Rules of 1989. These Acts both set standards to for vehicular emissions for manufacturers and users and owners were obligated to maintain their vehicles so that they would not emit smoke, visible vapor, grit, sparks, or ashes (Agarwal et al., 1996). This led to establishment of a committee by Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Delhi in 1991, which recommended vehicular mass emissions standards for 1995 and 2000 (Anon., 1996). However, studies show that these efforts didn’t bring about any change in air quality. Professor Mathur, a professor at Indian Institute of Technology, found that the Delhi traffic police prosecuted 2.5 times more vehicles emitting excessive exhaust in 1990 than in 1987. The data collected by IIT 1997 shows that of the total 3000 metric tonnes of pollutants released daily 66% is from vehicles and the contribution of vehicular pollution has increased from 43% in 1981 and to 63% in 1993 (World Wide Fund, 1995) in Delhi. In 1990, the central government implemented a penalty of 1000 Indian Rupees on vehicle owners that break the pollution rule; however, this method failed. It was difficult to monitor the vehicles that broke the pollution rule because there were insufficient service station to install equipment to measure vehicular exhaust (The Sentinel, 1990). Despite the push from the court to develop comprehensive policies, the executive branches did little to implement these policies in mid-1990s. As a result, there was a rapid increase in the pollution levels between 1989-96, where 1996 was considered the peak year (Jaiseelan 2006).
In search for concrete solution to increasing air pollution, the Delhi government passed the Motor Vehicles Amendment Act to promote the used of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG). CNG is mainly comprised of methane, which upon combustion mainly emits CO2 and H2O and disperses very quickly since it is lighter. CNG was introduced for three reasons: it polluted less, cost less, and was more widely available in the country than petrol or diesel. Motorists that used CNG, solar power and such alternative fuels weren’t required to obtain permits from the state transport authorities. The Supreme Court on 1998, ordered all commercial public transportation such as buses, taxis, and three-wheelers to switch to CNG gas. The largest-ever CNG switch was for more than 1,00,000 vehicles. In the early 2000s this resulted in some decrease in particulate matter (PM) pollution, with the largest improvement coming from retrofitting about 3,000 diesel buses. All the buses of Delhi were converted to run on CNG by the end of 2002. The results suggest that the conversion of buses from diesel to CNG has helped to reduce PM10, CO, and SO2 concentrations but led to an increase in NO2. The reduction in the sulfur content of fuel appears to have helped reduce air pollution by reducing PM10 and SO2 concentrations. However, on the flip side, three-wheelers that that use CNG lead to an increase in NO2 and PM10. Although the switch to CNG gas led to notable changes in air quality 5-8 years after the implementation, there are some drawbacks. Using CNG gas wasn’t economically efficient because the government forced all the commercial public transport to switch to use a single technology, in this case the CNG gas. At some stages, there were not enough filling stations pumping CNG gas to meet the growing consumer demand. Even though The Energy Research Institute (TERI) argued for a multiple fuel policy where the vehicle owners can decide which alternative fuel they would like to use and World Bank expressed its concerns regarding CNG gas, warned about the importance of favorable fuel-pricing policies, and the dangers of retrofitting older vehicles, the Indian environmental regulators pushed for CNG gas. In Indian environmental regulators defense, they were fully aware of other approaches regarding vehicular pollution and had tested a number of them; however, there weren’t any positive results. Economies of introducing new technology caused vehicle owners to make substantial investments such as wanting to switch to CNG gas and hence, there was a lot of friction in the change. Secondly, the Central Pollution Control Board and the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways set up the Pollution Under Control Program (PUC) to identify the most heavily polluting vehicles (using CNG gas) that may need to be repaired or retired. This program was inefficient because it was difficult to monitor. The PUC tests were easily manipulated and it was really easy to bribe the tester. Moreover, the PUC test determines which vehicles are old and need to be banned. It may have been more efficient to identify which vehicles are the worst polluters and charge extra fine. Lastly, switching to CNG was a great initiative for a country that imports 70% of its oil because it decreases India’s dependence on foreign oil and allows India to save valuable foreign exchange. Another major method to curb vehicular pollution was the introduction of metro. A metro was built that covered 245 kilometers in total. Although the main motivation behind the introduction of metro was to control traffic congestion, it has also resulted in decrease in vehicular pollution in Delhi. Although hard to imagine, there has been a reduction in the pollutants concentration in Delhi. Significant improvements resulted as average of 42mg/m3 of Sulphur Dioxide in 1996 decreased to 18mg/m3 by 2005. The NO2 levels decreased by 21.8 % & 19.6 % in the year 2006 & 2007 respectively. The annual mean SO2 levels in Delhi satisfy the annual average of National Ambient Air quality Standards for residential areas, which is 60 mg/m3. Sonam Gupta, a member of Food and Resource Economics Department at University of Florida mentioned “"Looking at each extension of the rail network as a separate event, it has resulted in three to 47 per cent reduction in NO2 concentration, and a 31 to 100 per cent reduction in CO concentration [both CO and NO2 are harmful pollutants that also contribute to global warming].” A research done by Delhi School of Economics iterates that the research found that the level of CO in the area around ITO, a busy intersection in Delhi, has fallen by at least 35 per cent. Although the annual average levels of Carbon Monoxide continue to be above the safe mark of 2,000 mg/m3, there has been a gradual decline. The observed concentration of CO came down from 4183 mg/m3 in Year 2006 to 3258 mg/m3 in year 2008. Furthermore, findings from a research done by Delhi School of Economics suggest that the Delhi Metro has encouraged people to switch from private to public mode of travel resulting in positive effects on air quality in the city. However, although these findings are significant, the researcher admits that one main caveat that should be kept in mind is that large number of missing observations in the pollution data makes it harder to draw conclusions and provide concrete analysis. Hence, the initiative of building a Metro network helped improve the quality of air early 2005 onwards.
Regardless of how far-reaching and daunting the curbing of air quality in Delhi seems, the Indian government and the Supreme Court have taken great strides towards finding a solution. Although the disinterest and lack of structure and control by the Indian Government and the Supreme court in the 1980s and 1990s led to the worsening of the air quality, the supreme court made two major reformations 2000 onwards which lead to significant improvement in the air quality. The first reformation was the switch to compressed natural gas. The government demanded all the public and commercial transportation to switch to CNG, which was although initially economically inefficient but led to significant results; there was a decrease in CO, and SO2 concentrations but led to an increase in NO2. The second reformation was the introduction of metro. While there was a huge time lag associated, there was a decrease in vehicular pollution in Delhi. Significant improvements resulted as average of 42mg/m3 of Sulphur Dioxide in 1996 decreased to 18mg/m3 by 2005. The main problem is that there is only one Transport Corporation that manages the public transport in the city. Despite the improvements mentioned above, Delhi has a long way to go, as there is a correlation between increase in pollution and health problems. Increase in health problems also acts as an economical cost to the society. According to the study done by World Bank in 2005, in India, the cost of health impacts on account of air pollution were estimated to be $ 1,310 million. Further, the cost due to air pollution was estimated to be 14% of the total economy wide cost of environmental degradation. Currently, the government is starting an anti-smog campaign where monitors will measure emissions expelled by thousands of industrial chimneys in Delhi. Secondly, three industrialized states—Gujarat, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu—are about to launch the world’s first market for trading permits in emissions of particulate matter. Indians may hope that the elected government fulfills its rightful role in protecting their environmental well-being.
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