EARTH DAY 

ACTIVISTS DEMAND ACTION AGAINST POLLUTION

 

 

Agra April 22 (IANS)

 

Social activists and environmentalists on Earth day warned of serious consequences of untamed profit-motivated industrialisation and haphazard urbanisation which were responsible for the deteriorating quality of life and threats to health.

 

Agra which should have been a model of planned urban growth and cleaner environment is struggling to contain the rising levels of air and water pollution, despite hundreds of crores spent in past 20 years to make the city safe for heritage monuments.

 

The city's life line Yamuna is diseased and almost dead. The sky is filled with desert sand and silt from the dry river, compounded further by emission from rising number of vehicles.

 

Earth day was celebrated by several voluntary organisations and students groups across the city to raise awareness about the grim challenges and threats to Earth and its environment.

 

Wake Up Agra distributed saplings at the busy Hari Parbar crossing, requesting people to help increase the green cover.

 

At the Kendriya Hindi Sansthan, students organised a discussion on how to restore balance in nature's five chief components (panch-tatva). Deepak Rajpoot said time had come to reduce wants, recycle products and discourage the western "use and throw culture." Mohni Bansal said water had to be saved through judicious use. Riya Baghael wanted water-harvesting made compulsory in all urban areas. Monisha Bansal said "municpalities were encouraging concretisation of pavements and wide use of interlocking cement tiles which prevented seepage and percolation of rain water."

 

A group meeting at Goverdhan hotel demanded political parties to specifically commit themselves to measures that would restore a happy balance in nature and prevent fruther degradation of environment.

 

School children took out rallies. A voluntary group run by Bankey Lal Maheshwari which runs a network of water huts in the city, asked people to conserve the fast depleting water resource. "Each drop needed to be saved for posterity," Maheshwari said.

 

Environmentalists raised concern at the increasing number of vehicles in the urban limits adding to the overall pollution load. "The suspended particulate matter (SPM) level continues to be much higher than the permissible limit of 100 micrograms per cubic metre. Sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide levels were also rising according to data released by the state pollution control board for the Taj Trapezium zone," according to activist Rajiv Saxena.

 

The depleting green cover around Agra continues to pose a serious threat to the health of the Taj Mahal as does the polluted Yamuna river. "Despite world-wide alarm and concern by international agencies, nothing concrete has been done to insulate the world heritage monument, the 17th century monument of love, from dust and smog," adds Amit Agarwal, a social worker.