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| City's air is no more consumable! | | | Early Times Report
KUNAL SHRIVATSA
JAMMU: With more and more vehicles flooding the already choked city roads, the air as well as noise pollution in the winter capital of the state has witnessed an alarming increase over the last few years.
Apart from indiscriminate cutting of trees in and around city, the Jammuites' growing obsession to own newly introduced models of variety of vehicles and failure to properly maintain the older ones has considerably affected the air which has turned the situation from bad to worse.
Though the city roads' carrying capacity increased only marginally, the vehicle population swelled to five lakh mark- nearly seventeen times more than what it was nearly two and a half decades ago.
The manifold increase means the city's air is getting more and more polluted with each passing day.
According to the official sources, the number of vehicles in Jammu district has tremendously increased from 28,995 in mid eighties to about 4.5 lakhs by the end of November 2009, registering a staggering growth of nearly fifteen times.
Motorised two-wheelers accounted for 65 per cent of the total number of vehicles in Jammu district till November 2009. Besides this, over eight lakh vehicles belonging to other states enter the state.
For Jammu people, the vehicles' growth has visible impact in the form of increased congestion on roads, but what one didn't see was higher air pollution.
"In Jammu city, vehicles estimated to account for a large percentage of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons and suspended particulate matter of the total pollution load," said official sources
The sudden spurt in air pollution in city is not a recent phenomenon but in reality it is silently going on for some time now.
With majority of two-wheelers and cars running on city roads registered more than six to eight years ago, it is bound to happen, the sources said
Sources further informed that the vehicles more than 10 years old cause 60 per cent of vehicular air pollution and the main reason is poor maintenance with no provision for expiry of a vehicle, particularly the private ones.
"Adulteration of fuel is another major reason for high vehicular pollution," added sources
The just released Central Pollution Control Board's (CPCB) report said that high concentration of pollutants cause lung cancer and asthma, besides routine breathing problems.
Even the noise level on city roads, especially at Kacchi Chawni, Jewel Chowk, Ambphalla and Bikram Chowk, has increased to dangerous proportions there by putting the lives of pedestrians, commuters and shopkeepers at peril.
"The deafening sound of variety of pressure horns particularly those fixed by matador operators are definitely a source of displeasure not only for us but for our customers also. Sitting for eight to ten hours amidst sounds of loud horns is nothing less than a torture. My hearing capacity has started to show signs of getting affected due to the loud noise emitting from vehicles." Pankaj Mohan, a shopkeeper in Kacchi Chawni area told Early Times.
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