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Gurugram citizens come together, say ‘enough!’ to pollution

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With NCR struggling to breathe, the citizens of Gurugram decided that the air pollution can be combated by raising awareness and demanding and working towards clean air. As a step towards that, over 200 people gathered at the amphitheatre in Aravalli Biodiversity Park in Gurugram to discuss the city’s air pollution issue.

They discussed the scale of the problem, the effect of air pollution on health, the causes of air pollution and how the citizens can come together, citizens and government and how to fix it.

In the light of evidence that air pollution is the primary culprit behind much of the heart disease, strokes and lung cancer around us, besides the widely known information about asthma and lung disease, much of North India has air that is considered unsafe.

The WHO limits on PM2.5 are breached all year round, and in winter, levels are 10-20 times the safe limit. Unborn children are not safe with higher rates of miscarriage and premature birth, small children have cognitive and behavioural problems that have been correlated with high air pollution. All these effects are irreversible, cumulative and long term. We cannot build immunity to the toxic matter in the air, and it penetrates our lungs, enters the bloodstream and affects all organs. As the evidence keeps mounting, we feel that it is now the time to act decisively on local factors that are within our control, namely vehicle emissions, garbage burning and dust.

Event Highlights-

The event organised by Friends of Gurgaon, opened with Smita Ahuja, who gave a brief about pollution and particulate matter. She asked the audience to hold their breath for one minute. Healthy lungs would be able to do that, but it was clear that very few could do it.

Vijay Dhasmana talked about the Aravallis and environmental issues of Gurugram. He brought out the connection of a lot of the air, water shortage and water pollution issues with the ongoing degradation of the Aravallis. Conversely the solutions also lie with the protection and plantation of urban forests.

This was followed by a Nukkad Naatak  by school students. Naresh with St Stephens hospital led the effort. A very uplifting and inspiring play.

At the heart of the event was the doctors talk. Four doctors, covering their own areas of specialization, talked about how the increasing air pollution is affecting the health of their patients. The topics of discussion were:

– Pollution and Allergy (Dr. Sarika Verma): “ 25-30% of the population has some sort of allergies, pollutants such as ozone and particulate matter directly cause allergies.”
– Pollution and the Unborn Child (Dr. Ashima Gogia): “We have robust evidence that pregnant women exposed to polluted air have higher incidences of preterm delivery and miscarriages. Children are not safe in their mothers womb”
– Effect of Pollution on Respiratory Disease (Dr. Himanshu Garg): “Once the lungs are damaged, there is nothing we can do – no lung bypasses, no lung stents. Only prevention with public policy can help”
– Choking our Children: Paediatrician’s Perspective (Dr. Hemant Gogia): “Higher prevalence of cognitive difficulties are being seen”

ALSO READ: Hundreds of kids form human chain to #SaveAravaliBiodiversityPark

Next, in the Q&A session, several pertinent questions were addressed. The audience asked questions about taking precautions, children all on nebulisers, masks and air purifiers, etc.

A stirring song was sung by group Kirana Gharaana music academy : “Neelein aasmaan mein, jhilmil hawa mein, yeh kaala rang kyon daala.. Ruk jaao… ”

After the expert talks, a panel discussion moderated by Shubhra Puri was held. The speakers were-

1. Sarika Panda Bhatt – Head of Integrated Transport and Road Safety with WRI India. “Only 10-12% people have cars, yet transport is designed for this minority. Solutions are not masks or air purifiers, it is to stop the development that simply entails more roads and more flyovers”
2.Vinay Shankar- Retired  secretary, IAS govt of india “We don’t follow laws, we want to save money. We need to review the laws and policies on air pollution and enforce those laws”
3. Aseem Shivappa – Coordinator community Health St Stephens Hospital, Gurgaon “As population increases, it is natural that pollution will increase.
4. Keshav Jaini – Waste Champion and Nature lover Garden Estate “air, water, soil is so tightly connected, if you pollute one, you pollute all. We produce 6.2 crore tons of garbage in our country. We throw it in the land – the most valuable commodity in our country. Waste segregation must be done at source and composting of wet waste which is 50 % to reduce load of waste to be put in our landfills.”
5. Surender- Villager from Aya nagar comes to biodiversity park very often “dust particles have increased significantly to a dangerous level. Chor ko na pakdo, Chor ki maa ko pakdo find the sources, the concrete roads”
6. Sanjana Nagar, 19 years Student at LSR, DLF Phase 3 Resident “Travelling to Delhi every day, I face problems – footpaths are not walkable, so much dust.”
7. Ronniet Biala, 11years, Class 7 student at Suncity school “air pollution is like a weapon, it is literally killing us. Schools are shut, sports are shut. My school is only 1km away but I have to take a bus because roads are not safe”
8. Avira, 9years, Sarika Panda’s daughter suffering from severe effects of air pollution. “Who is responsible for this air pollution, not only me, not only you, but everyone”

“30% of air pollution due to garbage burning which we have to work on, reduce vehicle emissions with public transport, cycle tracks and pedestrian pathways, and thirdly protecting and planting urban forests are the way forward.” Shubhra Puri

The event was closed with a session on Healing Forests by Nitin Das. “The peace of forests, this is where you can listen to the voice of your soul”

“We cannot have only 2 days of clean air each year, we need clean air all year long” Smita Ahuja.

All through event each speaker reiterated the need to do things at individual, community (RWA and panchayat) and city level by

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