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Trains all over the world run not only on barren land but also in dense forest, deserts, water
bodies, grasslands, green fields discharging solid waste (faeces, plastic covers/bottles, disposable plates/cups, chicken bones, tissue paper etc.,). In spite of the practice is suicidal in nature
and harming infrastructure owned by railway authority, many of the railways in developing countries let it go as it is. The problem is not unique to developing countries but also exists in some developed countries as well. More than half of the trains run by Greater Anglia do not have retention tanks (Mirror, 2014; bbc, 2013).
Human faeces is scattered all over India’s 64,400 kilometres of rail lines (Atish, 2014). Indian railways are one of the world’s largest railway networks that carry more than 30 million people daily. Even a conservative estimate of half kg of faeces can work out 15 million kg or
15,000 tons of faeces which is causing rusting of track contributing to unsafe journeys. Apart from damaging tracks and associated infrastructure built at the cost of passengers the indiscriminately discharged ‘shit’ with pathogens fall on holy rivers when the trains pass on bridges from where water is supplied to urban dwellers.
Only a handful of luxury tourist trains which is mainly occupied by rich foreigners (like the “Palace on Wheels”) have bathrooms with well-built toilets. Apart from solid waste the
railway stations also strikingly show wastage of water in almost all stations. Leaky pipes open valves and taps contribute to water wastage. Many of the train coaches do not have dustbins compelling people to throw away wastes through the windows of the coaches. Unlike its sister concern metro trains the old Indian railways has
Waste on tracksRamesha Chandrappa, Deputy Environmental Officer
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invested in keeping the railway station clean and safe. Passengers and homeless people who stay in railway stations use the track to take bath, urinate and defecate.
Due to pathetic situation, an Indian-American sought an order from the Kerala High court demanding that Indian Railways stop the practice of dumping human waste in the open (rediff, 2007). Human waste contains a number of germs that cause cholera, diarrhoea, typhoid, hepatitis, and other water-borne diseases. Parasites like hookworm, tapeworm, roundworm and pinworm are also spread mainly through human waste.
The right to live in a pollution-free environment has been declared a fundamental right as per Article 21 of the Constitution of India. But being largest public sector organization owned by government is creating nuisance that has attracted many articles in the internet.
Modern trains are fitted with toilet tanks that are pumped out at the depot when they become full. Many of the Indian trains still have old fashioned toilet which is often contaminated with infection which contribute to waste and risk its own employees with infections.
References:
Rediff (2007), http://ia.rediff.com/news/2007/jan/28rail.htm, accessed on 16, March 2014
Patel A (2012) Human waste corroding Indian railway network, http://blogs.reuters.com/india/2012/02/22/human-waste-corroding-indian-railway-network/ accessed on 16, March 2014
Mirror (2013) Rail workers sprayed with excrement as trains dump human waste ‘at 100mph’, http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/rail-workers-sprayed-excrement-trains-2942375#ixzz2w72KaShs accessed on 16, March 2014
BBC (2013) Cambridge rail worker’s health fears over excrement spray
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-25430657 accessed on 16, March 2014
THE THIRD CURVE :The End of Growth as we know itAuthor and Publisher :Mansoor Khan202 pages/ Rs. 495
There is no dearth of books on the looming energy crisis. But Mansoor Khan’s book
stands out, as it narrates the story in his own theory. His theory is not dry, but supported by sheer facts. Starting from cover-page to the end notes, the reader is presented with a graph of two curves, which form the focal point of his arguments.
‘The Third Curve’s main idea is to analyse the energy scenario on the generally accepted phenomenon called Peak Oil. According to M. King Hubert’s Hubbert peak theory, Peak Oil is the point in time when the maximum rate of petroleum extraction is reached, after which the rate of production is expected to enter terminal decline, Wikipedia says. Mansoor Khan
refers to this event that has already happened somewhere around 2005.
Mansoor Khan’s prophecy is simple and straight forward: The world’s greed to ‘develop’ and raise the GDP in an exponential pace, irrespective of the supply of resources, is bound to result in a global economic collapse. Any other alternative to supplement the gap in energy resources and demand can never fill up the huge gap.
After analysing this scenario of demand-supply of oil for the ever growing industrial world, Mansoor Khan dwells on the futility of the so-called alternative energy sources. He is alert and cautious in measuring the carbon foot print it makes to develop other sources of energy. His comparison of alternate energy sources to his own set five rules like Net Energy (Energy returned on Energy Invested – EroEI), Oil Dependency, Energy Density, Scalability, By-products, — is the best part of his arguments.
Written in simple sentences, supported by a large number of illustrations, annotated by coloured texts (which remind me the beautiful production of ‘The Universe in a Nutshell’ by Stephen Hawking) by Mansoor Khan’s book is a path-breaking analysis of the mankind’s biggest crisis. His mastery over the present data is evident going by the Reading and Reference Material he provides.
Mansoor Khan has been visiting places in India
THE THIRD CURVE – The End of Growth as we know it A Must Read for Energy Policy Makers
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to propagate his ideas and educate the people about the imminent bleak future. This shows his passion for the subject. His private farm is known to follow his own solutions the issue: Moving from Global back to local; Local food, Alternative Agriculture, Local Materials and Products and finally Peak Oil Awareness. His reference about Cuba’s A Real Peak Oil Story is the only topic subject to a neutral analysis.
From being a popular Bollywood Director (‘Qayamat se Qayamat Tak’, ‘Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar’, ‘Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na’), to an energy expert, Mansoor Khan has come a long way to capture the very essence of life and its goals.
`The Third Curve’ is a must read for social activists, scientists and policy makers.
The latest urban air quality database released by the World Health Organization (WHO)
reconfirms that most Indian cities are becoming death traps because of very high air pollution levels. India appears among the group of countries with highest particulate matter (PM) levels. Also, its cities have the highest levels of PM10 and PM2.5 (particles with diameter of 10 microns and 2.5 microns) when compared to other cities.
Of the 20 most polluted cities in the world, 13 are in India, says the database. Delhi is among the most polluted cities in the world today. Are our national government and cities prepared to take urgent action to protect public health?
Says Sunita Narain, Director General, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE): “This database confirms our worst fears about how hazardous air pollution is in our region. Last year, the Global Burden of Disease study pinned outdoor air pollution as the fifth largest killer in India after high blood pressure, indoor air
pollution, tobacco smoking, and poor nutrition; about 620,000 early deaths occurred in India from air pollution-related diseases in 2010.”
In addition to this, Narain points out, 18 million years of healthy lives are lost due to illness burden that enhances the economic cost of pollution. Half of these deaths have been caused by ischemic heart disease triggered by exposure to air pollution and the rest due to stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lower respiratory track infection and lung cancer.
Says Anumita Roychowdhury, Head of CSE’s clean air programme: “Indian cities are witnessing a rapid increase in air pollution and untamed motorisation. Cities need to curb pollution from all sources, but vehicles need special attention as they emit toxic fumes within our breathing zone. India needs urgent action to leapfrog vehicle technology and fuel quality, scale up public transport, reduce dependence on cars, and promote walking and cycling.”
WHO says India ranks among the world’s worst for its polluted air. Out of the 20 most polluted cities in the world, 13 are in India
This shocker has come when the Auto Fuel Policy committee is all set to announce its recommendations for the emissions standards roadmap for vehicles and fuels
The government must respond to the public health crisis and give an effectively stringent roadmap to cut toxic risk from the burgeoning vehicle numbers
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Need stringent emissions standards for vehicles
Even now, India is awaiting a significant decision on the emission standards roadmap for vehicles and fuel quality from the Auto Fuel Policy Committee under the chairmanship of Saumitra Chaudhury, Member, Planning Commission. This is expected to be announced soon, before the UPA II government is dissolved.
The committee must respond effectively to the mounting evidences on worsening air quality and health damages associated with vehicular fumes. It will be criminal if the committee buckles under pressure from the automobile industry and dismisses health evidences of air pollution as ‘insufficient and inconclusive’ and downplays the role of vehicles. The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has set up a committee on auto-fuel policy to suggest roadmap until 2025.
Says Roy Chowdhury: “It is shocking that the terms of reference of the committee does not even include the mandate of meeting air quality standards and ensure stringent public health protection from toxic vehicular fume to introduce cleaner standards quickly. It is disturbing that when the country is motorising very rapidly the
automobile industry has not been given any roadmap to catch up with the clean emissions standards by 2020.”
The Auto Fuel Policy Committee must deliver on the following:• Eliminate time lag in emissions standards:
Rapid motorisation based on poor quality fuel and vehicle technology will make air pollution trend irreversible. Currently, only a few cities meet Euro IV or Bharat Stage IV standards that are nine years behind Europe. The rest of India gets Bharat Stage III standard fuel and vehicles, which are 14 years behind Europe. It will be unacceptable if the time lag instead of reducing gets further widened during this decade when motorisation is going to pace up. This will block rapid absorption of advanced emission control systems needed to protect public health. The roadmap must enable India to close the time lag by introducing Euro VI emissions standards by 2020-21.
• Need uniform emission standards across the country by 2015: The practice of limiting improved emissions standards only to a few cities and to a smaller proportion of urban population violates the fundamental right
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to healthy life for all. This also does not allow trucks to move to cleaner fuel and technology and they heavily pollute cities during transit and aggravate pollution in cities. The Bharat Stage IV emissions standards in force only in a few cities must be extended across the country by 2015.
• Introduce Euro VI standards by 2020-21 to address diesel toxicity: The WHO has officially declared diesel emissions as class I carcinogen for its strong link with lung cancer, putting it in the same class as tobacco smoking. While government of India has launched campaign to discourage tobacco smoking, it is encouraging dieselization of cars with favourable tax policy for fuel and lax emission standards. As per the current norms diesel cars are allowed to emit three times more NOx compared to petrol. Particulate emissions are not regulated in petrol cars as these are negligible. Thus, adding one diesel car to the fleet is equal to adding three petrol cars in terms of NOx. This will be much more in terms of particulate emission as emission factors shows diesel cars emits five to seven times more particulates than petrol cars. Quick implementation of Euro VI emissions standards is needed because diesel emissions close gap with petrol emissions only at Euro VI stage and reduces the toxic risk.
• Stringent emission standards will give much larger health benefits: India has much bigger advantage in influencing the future stock of vehicles. All surveys show that the average age of Indian vehicles are relatively new – averaging five-seven years. Only in the commercial truck and bus sectors there are older vehicles. In the coming two decades the future vehicles stock will be several times higher than the existing stock. There is much bigger benefit in improving the future stock to ensure cleaner air. Without clean emission standards pollution aftermath in cities will be even more severe.
The way forwardNarain says:
Indian cities cannot afford to fall behind when its pollution levels are rising rapidly and reaching unbearable heights. Indian cities in grip of serious air pollution crisis need to gather momentum and implement hard measures to meet clean air standards.”
• The entire country must move to Bharat Stage IV by 2015. Cars should meet Bharat Stage V by 2016 and the country should leapfrog to Euro VI standards by 2020-21.
• Cities need to implement clean air action plan to curb pollution from all sources to meet clean air standards in a time bound manner. Vehicles will need special attention. Cities need to protect their inherent strength in sustainable commuting practices – public transport, walking, cycling and city design.
• Cities must inform people about the air quality on a daily basis and issue health alerts for people, especially, children, elderly, and those suffering from respiratory and cardiac problems to take precaution. This is the global best practice.