Kashmir is the heaven on earth by its beauty and its pureness, but with time we are turning careless and arrogant . Kashmir, well known for its climate and being relatively pollution free, is facing a challenge as but every step is taken now go degrade and contaminate it physically, biologically, chemically and everyone is contributing directly or indirectly. We use atmosphere as dumping site as whatever comes in our way we just burn it off, mainly in winters without caring about its impact. But this burning of litter, polythene, coal, and many other anthropogenic activities release more pollutants to atmosphere which in turn leads to chronic air pollution. Some days ago I went through a construction site. I saw workers who work at that site burn all the plastic and polythene bags without following due procedures. When I asked them as to why they do this, the reply was fascinating in a way : they were doing it just to keep the surroundings clean!
Without proper education, they were in fact contributing to what I see the catastrophic that’s waiting for us. At the University Campus, students from various departments amassed all the wastes from the lawns, burnt it in open to get warmth and thus fought against the intense cold waves, a testimony of the fact that we as a while, educated or uneducated, are least bothered about what happens to the environment and to the generations coming next. Even at local level, municipality employees set ablaze all the domestic solid wastes in open rather than adopting a proper procedure. And why would they do it? Since the adopted procedure is there since many decades!
In winters we use more and more fuels like gas, coal and coal products, timber etc, while these products on burning releases many pollutants to atmosphere like oxides of sulphur (Sox) etc. They are a threat to the environment because of many of it’s ingredients. Cars and motors used as means of transport emit many chemicals like oxides of sulphur , oxides of nitrogen, smoke, and many other secondary pollutants.
So it is a serious matter of concern. We all need and should use technology but that should be in a way harmless to the environment.
We are heading towards a destruction in the name of so called advanced technology. It has been observed that the species that are on the verge of getting extinct suffered only due to the ignorance of concerned departments who gave approvals to different projects in an ecologically sensitive ecosystem.
Atmospheric pollution leads to many health issues mainly of lungs, eyes, nasal cavities etc. We can use alternatives to reduce air pollution. Due to air pollution plants face many problems like their leaves gets completely damaged, that is ; their stomata get closed, chlorophyll content gets reduced etc. Due to air pollution many birds and other species are going to get extinct if steps to recover the damage are not taken. We need to take steps for their safety otherwise due to an unbalanced ecosystem, mass extinction of species can take place . We are cutting down plants over road sides which act as as an air pollution check posts instead of planting more trees. It is by and large early in kashmir to combat air pollution as it is at its initial stage. It must be our priority to combat air pollution, at individual levels, at the community level and so on which will surely reduce air pollution. That in turn will make us to get rid of this nuisance. We have to take responsibility to adopt modern available procedures to reduce air pollution. “No more pollution” should be our slogan. Moreover, legislations regarding the environment should be strictly adopted . We need to plant more and more trees and also prefer to remain Ecofriendly. A better Ecology is the basis of better Economy.
The writer is M.Sc Environmental science.
