RSS |   Samvad   |   Vital Infotech Ltd.

April      Last updated: April  8,  5:00 p.m.

Ecology

The uproar against the pollution of the Yamuna River in Delhi, giving rise to dead fish and contaminated drinking water, will not be wasted if we learn to do something about it. The fact is that many intelligent communities of the world are already seized of the problem; upon us wisdom is dawning belatedly, as usual.

That in this particular case industry has been the primary cause of pollution is of course incidental, for the phenomenon has arisen from many more, wider causes. In this connection two words have become particularly popular. One is environment, meaning the entire complex of man and his surroundings including houses, roads, transport system, municipal facilities and nature in varied manifestations. The other is econology. Ecology is from "oikos", Greek word for "house", which also boils down to environment; it means the science of environment. During, the remaining thirty years of the present century, it is being stated, the science of environment will be just as important for the welfare of mankind as the science of atom will be for survival.

Another phenomenon—of a different kind but arising also from modern mechanical gadgetry—is noise. In this connection I recall my experience of Hanover, Paris, and Athens. At all these places I was advised to take hotel rooms on the back side of the main road for veritable cascades of noise crash agaisnt them, making lodging most unconfortable.

In Germany some measurements have been done in this connection. The various noises of the city streets already add upto between 60 and 70 phons. What this means would be understood if it is stated that on the noise scale the rustling of leave is 10 phons, loud screaming measures 80 phons, and 130 phons is the upper limit, beyond which the ear is damaged. Something similar is observable also in the more traffic-ridden parts of major Indian towns. For these towns at least we must consider why the raucous snarls of gramophone records should not be banned as being social hazards.

Rivers Turned into Sewers

It is true perhpas that the phenomenon of environmental pollution is less rampant in the country-side than in urban areas, but not quite. In many parts of the world, India included, the rural habitations are virtual slums, although the resultant effects are rather tempered by the open spaces around. But it is in the urban areas that humanity is concentrating and applying its ingenuity for "progress" in full gear. Everywhere these areas are enveloped in ever thicker blankets of fumes, smells and din.

The causes behind pollution are everywhere the same, though their intensity varies. By far the greatest sinner in this respect is man himself, lazy, selfish, and dirty, throwing about litter, committing nuisance in public, uncooperative with the municipal machinery set up by himself, and indifferent. But even if he were an ideal citizen, he would be often helpless.

There are no exits for sewage except the rivers and the oceans. Garbage could be burnt, but that again would cause smoke. Water is of course a well known cleansing agent, but it is becoming agent, but it is becoming more and more scarce. Even water for drinking is not enough and any water- works expert would tell you that there is hardly a man who does not drink water which has already been used by another man.

What are we doing to stave off this new, unprecedented menace to the health and welfare of mankind? The United Nations has arranged a World Conference on the Human Environment, to be convened in Sweden in 1972. In his State of the Union message of January, 1970, President Nixon said that anti-pollution would be a high priority task for the adminsitration in the coming decade. In the private sector, more and more industrialists are coming forward with promises of investment, research and positive measures for environmental clean-up. Henry Ford has stated that it should be possible to develop by 1980 an engine for a car which gives out no smoke. Ecology itself is being recognised as one of the indispensable disciplines of the coming era.

In India we might make a humble start. We begin with man, who, in many ways, is notorious for lack of civic sense. The town planner and the municipal official would have to have not merely a university degree but an insight into the action-reaction processes of environment and society, particularly under technological conditions. And as for industrialists, they must devise methods to avoid as well as eliminate pollution.

India is no doubt behind the more advanced nations in reacting to the imperatives of environment but is luckier in not having yet come under its full blast. Here, if anywhere, to be forewarned is to be forearmed.

April 11, 1970