Delhi air is killing people
Correction is a long term path
For now, use ayurveda to survive
Govts are not the enemy of the people. They have to get votes the next time around. And therefore no one wants to do something whose benefits will accrue to the next govt. And therein lies the major problem.
Govts just don’t get basic maths. Pollution is caused per km of travel not per vehicle. Courts don’t get it either. All kind of flawed laws are passed. In order to ensure compliance, penalty has to be automatic. You don’t make it a meal ticket and party time for corrupt officers trying to make a buck personally. Sum and substance is that you need electronic capability to penalise errants and polluters. And you use that penalty money to undo the damage. This is the very basics which no one needs to forget. The cost of polluting has to be made so high that it makes sense not to. You don’t play into the hands of vehicle selling lobbies managing judges for favourable orders or real estate developers inventing new definitions for forests and green areas.
Govts tend to tick off checklists. Some can be very impressive.
For example the Delhi govt has pulled off a coup on getting Vishwaguru Padam Sri Prof Ashok Jhunjhunwala to head the committee on air pollution. He is a level headed no nonsense techie. But what is his empowerment beyond writing a report. We don’t need reports. We need an Air Quality Regulatory Authority with someone like Ashok Jhunjhunwala as its head. And authority to make change happen. This has to be a national body like TRAI or SEBI. Not a state level initiative.
But till that happens and a few years elapse for corrective measures to take place, here is a survival kit for all:
1. Acquire a smart desert cooler and put it on in a room with a thin muslin cloth on the air inlets. This will water scrub the air.
2. Acquire or build a low cost ioniser. It is a small device like a good knight mosquito repellent which will flood the room with electrons and these will make PM2.5 particles settle on the wall in place of your lungs. U can paint the walls again but not your lungs. Ionisers consume under 5w of power and could be battery powered. I haven’t used this but here is one overpriced product:
3. Read the book “Ayurveda Revisited” in the iit alumni council series on Amazon and source or make the remedies mentioned. They will neutralise 80% of the adverse effects. Here is the link to order:
4. Source ayurvedic respiratory assisting herbs like breath easy, a powder formulation available commercially – esp if u are asthamatic. Here is the link to order:
5. Stay indoors and inhale steam twice a day.
6. Ideally shift out of delhi and work remotely between October and February. Worshipping to Mahakal in Ujjain will help. Here is a link to charter a helicopter:
https://amzn.in/d/7rfhG4R
(This is a joke as is our air quality)