'Delhi is unlivable': NYT reporter has every reason to abandon city

[Desmond]

Some call it “capital punishment” that kills slowly; others simply put it as air pollution — a lethal cocktail of toxic gases spewing from vehicle exhausts and factories mixed with dust and microscopic particles that sticks to human lung walls like industrial sludge.

Welcome to Delhi, the capital of Asia’s second-largest economy and one of the bottom-ranked megacities for foul air in recent World Health Organization data.
Or, goodbye Delhi!

The New York Times correspondent Gardiner Harris did exactly that after completing a three-year assignment and his parting shot was an article which whipsaws Delhi’s plague, its poisonous air.

He cynically demonstrates how the city is annihilating its future generation, which probably will have a very weak heart and weaker lungs thanks to a prolonged policy paralysis on air quality.

Harris begins his article with a deeply personal experience when his eight-year-old son, Bram, began gasping one terrifying night nine months after he moved with his family to this megacity.

“We gradually learned that Delhi’s true menace came from its air, water, food and flies. These perils sicken, disable and kill millions in India annually, making for one of the worst public health disasters in the world,” he wrote.

“Delhi, we discovered, is quietly suffering from a dire pediatric respiratory crisis, with a recent study showing that nearly half of the city’s 4.4 million school children have irreversible lung damage from the poisonous air.”

The article is another piece in a long list, reprising the rapidly growing developing world’s inescapable horror. The WHO says air pollution was responsible for over seven million premature deaths in 2012, one million more than tobacco, and around 88% of the dead belonged to low or middle-income countries.

Delhi, with a population of more than 16 million, could be described as the den of this monster because in places such as Dwarka and Anand Vihar, particulate matter pollution was three times the national standard. The city's air is more than twice as polluted as Beijing’s, according to the WHO.

The booming megapolis is a mother lode of opportunities attracting prospectors from across the world, not to mention the teeming millions from the country’s small towns and countryside looking to live their dreams. For some, the dream quickly fades because of the city’s unbreathable air and those having an option to leave, pack up and scoot.

The prime polluters are vehicles, factories and untrammeled constructions. Delhi adds over 1,000 vehicles every day to its overburdened roads and air; and an overwhelming number of trucks cram its streets at night.

The statutory National Green Tribunal recently banned old, fume-belching diesel vehicles from plying in the city and took up the onerous task of checking factories dotting Delhi and its neighbourhood, which are the prime suspects in contributing to the capital’s air menace.

Unless Delhi and its neighbours clean up their act together, as experts often point out, the national capital will continue to suffer.
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Source: 'Delhi is unlivable': NYT reporter has every reason to abandon city

 

[dashing.sujay]

I know the feeling

 

[theserpent]

Why can't they do limit the number of new vechiles being added to the road to the number of vechiles being scrapped in a month? And do other steps also to go green.

 

[Vyom]

Cause going green is last on their priorities. Looks like green DTC didn't do any good in Delhi.

Maybe the reporter was extra sensitive since times have changed in few years. Or maybe my body have adapted to the pollution.

 

[kkn13]

Why can't they do limit the number of new vechiles being added to the road to the number of vechiles being scrapped in a month? And do other steps also to go green.

Thats not the solution
The main issue are these stupid contractors who run 2-3 decade old vans,trucks and buses
^^Im from Mumbai where this is very very prevalent
Commercial vehicles shouldnt be allowed on the road beyond say 10 years max imho

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Maybe the reporter was extra sensitive since times have changed in few years. Or maybe my body have adapter to the pollution.

yeah or maybe he is like the other foreigners who like to exaggerate about issues in Indian cities
NYC is equally polluted,Ive been there and Its air is probably worse than Mumbai for sure
even noise pollution is higher in NYC

 

[Vyom]

yeah or maybe he is like the other foreigners who like to exaggerate about issues in Indian cities
NYC is equally polluted,Ive been there and Its air is probably worse than Mumbai for sure
even noise pollution is higher in NYC

Agree, he could be just exaggerate. Cleanliness I agree could be one potential problem, that Delhi still haven't got solution for.
If the reporter would have been written about "cleanliness" that would have make more sense.

Looks like someone got handsomely paid for this article.

 

[icebags]

Why can't they do limit the number of new vechiles being added to the road to the number of vechiles being scrapped in a month? And do other steps also to go green.

people seem to forget tons of people smoking everywhere, tons of kgs of greenhouse gasses, floating ash particles and funny chemicals, not to forget lots of unwanted heat.

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yeah or maybe he is like the other foreigners who like to exaggerate about issues in Indian cities
NYC is equally polluted,Ive been there and Its air is probably worse than Mumbai for sure
even noise pollution is higher in NYC

dont think so, whenever i see the roads from afar, they all appear smokey with long chain of poorly maintained new or aged cars, as if some stove is burning.

 

[theserpent]

Thats not the solution
The main issue are these stupid contractors who run 2-3 decade old vans,trucks and buses
^^Im from Mumbai where this is very very prevalent
Commercial vehicles shouldnt be allowed on the road beyond say 10 years max imho

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yeah or maybe he is like the other foreigners who like to exaggerate about issues in Indian cities
NYC is equally polluted,Ive been there and Its air is probably worse than Mumbai for sure
even noise pollution is higher in NYC

This, plus overloading of cars in the street's.They should emphasize on public transport.
Had been to Singapore a week back,over there they have this rule where you need to bid for a certificate to buy a car , so they see the number of cars going off road and make only a few available a month and heck even basic cars like honda city doesn't cost a bit less like in India,That way their roads are not over crowded.
I don't know why do they focus on development so much,Yes we need it, but to such a extent that...you unlist yourself from the world heritage city list by UNESCO? Saying it will hamper developments.?

 

[kkn13]

dont think so, whenever i see the roads from afar, they all appear smokey with long chain of poorly maintained new or aged cars, as if some stove is burning.

I dunno much about Delhi since I havent spent much time there but I live in Mumbai and I travel to alot of places including NYC
NYC is most definately more polluted than Mumbai for sure

about the chemicals,particles etc totally agreed,that seems to be a major concern for Delhi from what ive heard

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Agree, he could be just exaggerate. Cleanliness I agree could be one potential problem, that Delhi still haven't got solution for.
If the reporter would have been written about "cleanliness" that would have make more sense.

Looks like someone got handsomely paid for this article.

yep,western media rarely shows their own country issues imho
too busy peeping into others issues

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This, plus overloading of cars in the street's.They should emphasize on public transport.
Had been to Singapore a week back,over there they have this rule where you need to bid for a certificate to buy a car , so they see the number of cars going off road and make only a few available a month and heck even basic cars like honda city doesn't cost a bit less like in India,That way their roads are not over crowded.
I don't know why do they focus on development so much,Yes we need it, but to such a extent that...you unlist yourself from the world heritage city list by UNESCO? Saying it will hamper developments.?

but thats not why Singapore did it
Singapore is an island,they cant have more than a certain amount of vehicles at a time as congestion wont have a solution
In case of Mumbai and Delhi,old or excess vehicles can always go out of the cities to other towns etc

 

[Faun]

This, plus overloading of cars in the street's.They should emphasize on public transport.

Should work towards better public transport.

 

[unuckfut]

I wonder what would be his views about Delhi's weather during monsoon, not that I am saying it will be pollution free, but will be far more pleasant.

 

[kkn13]

Should work towards better public transport.

yeah Singapore,NYC,London have such efficient public transport systems,no one really buys/needs cars especially with the bad parking issues(even worse than in India because of strict parking laws)
even as a tourist whenever I visit these places,I end up using their public transport as its massively cheap ,speedy and tourist-friendly

 

[theserpent]

Maybe move industries 50 kms away from the city?
Make new lung spaces in the city, presently most of the cities across the world needs it. (Bejing,Shanghai,Hong Kong esp)

 

[Desmond]

AFAIK, Beijing already started rounding up vehicles that are more than 20 years old or so and started retiring them. They actually paid people to retire their old vehicles. We should do something similar.

Source: China to take 6 million older vehicles off roads | Daily Mail Online

What is it about people that whenever a foreign national writes an article about some shortcoming in India, people dismiss it as mudslinging and make comments that their country is not better or sometimes worse. Even if NYC is worse, we don't live over there, but we have to live here and everyone knows that Indians have the weakest lungs in the world.

On the other hand, if this article were written by an Indian national, no one would give two f***s. Is this what we've come to?

 

[dashing.sujay]

In delhi, pollution highly varies across the city. Somewhere, it's like you can't see beyond 50 meters and somewhere, it's quite OK. A friend of mine had stayed with me for some time. He had problem of sinus. Now whenever he stepped out in the streets, he always became ill, so go imagine.

 

[Anorion]

as far as Delhi is concerned, industries are not to blame
it's vehicles and dust. Dust from paved roads contribute more to the pollution than the industries...

 

[Akashay]

Don't tell Delhi is bad and print whatever comes in your mind, last time i checked USA, UK and all the developed countries were the main reason for Global Warming (but that NYT reporter will not bother to cover that).

 

[kkn13]

Don't tell Delhi is bad and print whatever comes in your mind, last time i checked USA, UK and all the developed countries were the main reason for Global Warming (but that NYT reporter will not bother to cover that).

Foreigners love to exaggerate about developing economies as though they are oh-so-perfect
not saying he's entirely wrong but he surely is exaggerating imho

 

[Anorion]

not saying he's entirely wrong but he surely is exaggerating imho

yes, little bit. But that exaggeration is not more than what is necessary to bring the issue to light.

PS real time monitoring of pollution here> *www.cpcb.gov.in/cpcbpa/index.aspx?state=delhi
usually, all official sources government sources maintain there is no problem

 

[kkn13]

yes, little bit. But that exaggeration is not more than what is necessary to bring the issue to light.

PS real time monitoring of pollution here> *www.cpcb.gov.in/cpcbpa/index.aspx?state=delhi
usually, all official sources government sources maintain there is no problem

yeah thats another issue that needs tackling!