Forty years ago in early December, the ill-maintained gas tanks at the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, went berserk and belched out clouds of toxic Methyl Isocyanate (MIC) gas. The aftermath was horrific — thousands died due to asphyxiation and oedema in the lungs and many more thousands suffered (some may still be suffering) from the aftereffects of the gas: cancer and various other ailments being among them. It was the world’s worst industrial disaster and immediately the finger-wagging, concealing of information, damping down of actual casualty figures and suffering, began. To be fair no one can really accurately say what those numbers were – except that the figures we were fed, were certainly far lower than the actual numbers. Ah, we said nodding virtuously: look, here’s a giant evil multinational, intent on profiteering and ripping off a desperately developing country, breaking all the rules and regulations regarding safety and maintenance and putting the lives of innocent citizens of an entire city at peril. And we in India have a thousand dos and don'ts for every single procedure. Rules govern our every action. As for implementation, that’s another kettle of fish altogether… you see, there’s a lot of money to be made and saved in giving them the go-by. But here if rules have been broken and thousands have died gasping, we’ll have a “dekko, if you insist and try to see what went wrong and let you know in the next 125 years, or so. But yes, watch out for evil racketeering multinationals! And remember with pride, what they can do, we can do better. See for yourselves: What we have over the entire North India these days is nothing but mega-Bhopal in slow-motion. This is an entirely ‘make-in-India’ enterprise. Hallelujah! We don’t crudely make people clutch their throats or vomit blood and die overnight like flies. That would be so uncivilised, barbaric even. We stretch it out — let them linger hacking and coughing and clutching their chests for the next 10 years, staggering from hospital to hospital! We let them go gradually but surely. Oh yes, we know, ideally it really shouldn’t happen and yet again our spotless, sainted leaders’ fingers, are furiously wagging, pointing and jabbing at one another, the air blue with their accusations. Lest we get too indignant about this, look at our own record as citizens of this gas chamber. A complete ban is imposed on anything to do with firecrackers — manufacturing, buying, selling, storing, transporting and bursting. What happens? They’re burst wholesale, not only during Diwali but for other ‘celebrations’ and weddings. Like spoilt children, we whine and whinge, “But Diwali comes only once a year, so don’t spoil our fun!” (Lung cancer needs to happen just once in a lifetime and is no fun!) Or are belligerently obstreperous: “To hell with it, we’ll burst them, do your damndest to stop us!’ Of course, no one dares. The great Indian law of nature is at work again: make as many rules as you want, just don’t implement them. If there are enough people breaking the law, well then that becomes the people’s law. So in brain-dead defiance, we continue to power walk and jog early in the morning. Ah, we say with gung-ho bravado, our complexions a gritty grey, and taking in deep breaths, our lungs are immune to this – we’re Delhizens, after all, with lungs made of iron. They thrive in this muck. Life must go on, jai ho! Go croon that to your newborn baby as you take her for a walk in the park. Doctors say we’re smoking 50 cigarettes per day. But while cigarettes are deadly, at least the nicotine makes us relax a bit. What we have now is like a phlegmy sandpaper massage at the back of our throats and burning grit in our eyes. There’s one drastic step we could take, maybe just as an experiment. Impose Covid-era restrictions over North India immediately. Put ourselves in lockdown mode. Just for a month perhaps and then let’s see what happens. Against all odds, we did succeed in implementing the Covid restrictions when the virus was running riot, though frankly, that was more because we were totally petrified with thousands dying daily, rather than out of any respect for the law. But if we can implement those restrictions now, will the skies turn blue again? Will we be able to hear birdsong again or see the Himalayas from the Flagstaff Tower on the Northern Ridge? And show our kids that there actually are stars in the sky? Worth checking out. Of course, we can’t have Covid-style restrictions carrying on ad infinitum, year after year. But there’s one simple permanent solution to the problem: Clamp down on the pollution at source from day one. Period. Whether it is stubble burning, exhaust fumes from vehicular traffic, dust from construction and demolishment or smoke emitted from thermal power plants. All of these can be stopped. Oh yes, we already have GRAP IV in place, but now it seems like we’re simply trying to put the toxic genie back into the bottle again. We like to blame the weather: it is so still, there’s an inversion, there’s this and that and there’s climate change. Maybe, but at least let’s control what we can. And let’s remember that every creature that breathes is being equally affected. And like it happened during the Covid lockdowns, we might once again realise that we’re not the only living, breathing creatures on this planet and are as much responsible for their well-being as we should be for ours.
