[sustran] fwd: news from the Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi, India

[SUSTRAN Resource Centre]

transport-related items fowarded from CSE's regular bulletin on what's new
on their website.


What's new at the Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi, India    

In a clear case of the industry slapping a lawsuit when truth begins to
hurt – TELCO, an Indian  automobile giant, had served notice on CSE
director Anil Agarwal and deputy director Sunita Narain  for their candid
article in Business Standard against dieselisation of private vehicular
fleet. And  the notice was for a whopping Rs 100 crore defamation suit.
TELCO has now dropped the defamation  suit on the basis of a one and half
inch, single column clarification that appeared in the Business  Standard
stating, "The article ‘The engines of Devil’ published in Business Standard
on March 16  referred to the automobile industry as a whole, and not any
one company or its products. As is well  known, there are at least ten
manufacturers of diesel vehicles in India." However, while backing  out,
TELCO sent a more interesting note to Anil Agarwal and Sunita Narain which
highlighted that  there would be no question of any proceedings against the
authors. Meanwhile, inspite of these  attempts to gag and intimidate
activists, CSE is even more determined to fight dieselisation. 

On World Environment Day, June 5th, CSE cordially invites you to a public
meeting on 'People for Clean Air'. Shiela Dikshit, the Chief Minister of
Delhi will preside and a Statement of Concern will be released by a panel
discussion on the health impact of Delhi's deadly air. For the details  on
the meeting and CSE's campaign, go to 

http://www.oneworld.org/cse/html/cmp/cmp53.htm

Fatal attraction 

The thirst for diesel in India is growing. Diesel variants of Ford,
Mercedes, Fiat Uno, Indica,   Mitsubishi and many more have hit the road.
As companies go in for hard sell of these cars,   dieselmania grips the
customers too. What most people are ignorant of or prefer to ignore is the
 fact that diesel fumes are highly carcinogenic and pose a serious threat
to public health. Many   Indian cities, especially Delhi, are already
reeling under high concentrations of diesel-related   pollutants like small
particulate matter, oxides of nitrogen and ozone. What was supposed to be
cheap fuel for the the poor -- farmers for whose pumpsets and tractors the
government had   subsidised the price of diesel -- is now driving the cars
of the rich. Morally and environmentally  reprehensible, yet there is
nobody in the government to stop this killer trend. Down To Earth
analysis at  

http://www.oneworld.org/cse/html/dte/dte990531/dte_cover.htm

------------------------------------------------------------------
Applying the brakes 

Environmentalists score a major victory as the Supreme Court tightens 
emission standards in Delhi, sending the automobile industry into a
tizzy.Check it out at

http://www.oneworld.org/cse/html/dte/dte990531/dte_news.htm
---------------------------------------------------------------------

A message from our Director, Anil Agarwal:    

No mood for a party

The country is clearly not in a mood for a bash. But that did not stop the
event-managers of India  Incorporated, the Confederation of Indian Industry
(CII), from holding its annual bash with the  fancy title of National
Conference and Annual Session on Preparing for the Next Millennium. But
unfortunately, in typical Bollywood style, the bash (wrongly called a
conference) had mostly form  rather than substance. The state of the
economy was the highlight of the meeting. But what was  amazing was that
there was not even a platform to discuss the growing problem of industrial
and  vehicular pollution and how Indian industry will respond to this
concern. 

When it comes to the issue of environment, Indian industry plays the
ostrich. Undoubtedly, its  feathers are pretty but its head is buried in
the sand. While the buzz of e-commerce has been  accepted, the discordant
noise of environment has been conveniently left out. 

Industry makes sweet sounds about protecting and caring for the
environment. It says the right  things but invariably does the wrong
things. And this is because it does not internalise the issue  nor does it
care to understand the seriousness of the concern. For example, hardly any
company has  good environmental experts to advise it on corporate policy. 

The ostrich syndrome aside, environment is an issue that will in future
pinch and increasingly hurt  industry. The New Delhi-based Centre for
Science and Environment publishes a monthly database of  clippings on
industry and environment. Its monthly listing of industrial firms that are
taken to  court on environmental issues shows that there are over 10 such
cases reported by the media every  month. There are probably many more
which are not reported as citizens’ groups, environmentalists  and even
villagers are now taking polluting factories to court or contesting the
setting up of  industrial and infrastructure units. 

The recent Supreme Court order on air pollution that not only advances
EURO-I emission norms by 10  months and EURO-II by five years, but also
literally places a restriction on the number of cars  that can be
registered in the capital, is yet another case.

What industry fails to understand is the precarious situation it is in.
That it works in a country  that has a high population density and, in
particular, a large number of poor people. And that in  such circumstances,
the environment provides for the basic needs of the people. Therefore, it
is  not an aesthetic matter of clean water, but a life and death matter of
drinking water.

The destruction of the environment affects livelihoods and lives and not
just lifestyles. High  population pressure also means that there is no plot
of land or water body that is not used — and  used with intensity — for
daily survival. Short-changing the environment will, in these
circumstances, inevitably lead to conflict.

Furthermore, it must be noted that industrialisation per se, is extremely
polluting, as it makes  intensive use of resources and energy. Estimates
are that over 20 years, from 1975 to 1995, India’s  Gross Domestic Product
(GDP) increased by 2.5 times, industrial pollution load increased by about
 4 times, and vehicular pollution load by about 8 times. 

This is not surprising. The post-war economic boom had immediately landed
cities of the  industrialised world, from Tokyo to Los Angeles, into
devastating air pollution problems even as  all water sources near them
began to be poisoned to death. Having learnt from their mistakes,  Western
societies have conducted themselves with much greater discipline with
respect to the  environment and have also invested substantially in
relatively environment-friendly technologies.  Japan is said to have spent
over 20 per cent of its GDP on pollution prevention investment in the
1970s. Even then, the battle is far from won. Various quantities of toxins
still enter the global  ecosystem as a result of economic processes in the
West. 

An industrial and automobile boom is unfolding in India. Therefore, Indian
industry will have to  move forward in a manner that is both responsible
and yet economically effective. This can  definitely be done. First of all,
this will need a restructuring of the mental framework of  industrial
managers to take into account environmental considerations. Then will come
changes in  industrial practice and this does not always mean higher costs
because there is a tremendous amount  of resource wastage by industry at
the moment. At another level it will require foresight and an  ability to
leapfrog into clean technologies. It is not necessary that we have to take
incremental  steps to improve our environment. The automobile industry, for
instance, may well find that it is  more economic to move straight into
EURO-II emission norms from its current pre-EURO-I norms. 

But one thing is clear: that if the current mind-set persists, Indian
industry will ensure that the  next millennium will be a living hell for
all of us. May be industrial managers should start  preparing us for the
new millennium by training all of us on how to survive bouts of cancer. 

— Anil Agarwal

Visit our website at www.cseindia.org or www.oneworld.org/cse and check out
what's new. Our website carries our science and environment fortnightly
Down To Earth and a daily environment newsflash  by subject categories. We
also give regular updates on all of our campaigns on topics like vehicular
pollution, climate change, biodiversity, water resources, wildlife, forests
etc. Our online library of books, journals, images and videos is searchable
through a thesaurus of environmental keywords.       

We are also looking for reciprocal linking to other websites in this area.
Let us know your   website address and we would be happy to link to you.
Please feel free to forward this message to   other  interested
individuals.                  



Usha Sekhar                    
Website Unit                    
Centre for Science and Environment                    

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