- Environmental degradation is a serious concern afflicting the universe which needs no further elaboration. As you know, reams and reams have been written about the vagaries of environmental degradation, which cause diverse weather patterns, including erratic ones that lead to numerous challenges for our existence. Of course, every government worth its salt has left no stone unturned in ensuring that the weather-related challenges are met adequately. Pollution caused by burning fossil fuels is one of the reasons for the weather vagaries. Mother Nature always supersedes human endeavours, throwing our plans into a haywire. Nonetheless, the enterprising nature of humankind always comes to the fore without throwing in the towel.
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- What is the response of Indian policymakers to address this menace, especially vehicular pollution singeing some of the most populous cities, including New Delhi? We know how the Delhi government had conceived the idea of phasing out cars 10-15 years old to alleviate rising pollution concerns. Thankfully, the top court did well to put on hold coercive action against owners of old vehicles recently. Mind you, age isn’t an indicator of fitness. The SC did the right thing in all but putting a stay on the NGT order, saying no coercive action to be taken against owners of 10-year-old diesel and 15-year-old petrol vehicles in Delhi-NCR. The CJI-led bench remarked, “Earlier, one used to use cars for 40-50 years. Vintage cars are still there. How true.
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- Make no mistake, that is exactly the point on which NGT’s 2018 order should not have been given in the first place. As in humans, so in cars – age hardly denotes fitness. As the Delhi govt argued that the NGT directive was not based on a scientific study or the environmental impact assessment, it has repeatedly been stated that policing car consumers is the easy way out and achieves little if the stated goal of the phase-out is to curb emissions. To control auto emissions, much more needs to be done. Pollution testing infrastructure across India, including in Delhi-NCR, is a fraction of what is required. Governments have simply not invested in it. As per EPCA, barely 15-20% of polluting vehicles on the road are identified by testing centres.
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- Thus, a ramp-up of pollution testing infrastructure nationwide should be the top priority. Buying new cars is barely a pollution control measure. Manufacturing of cars has a huge environmental impact, with among the highest rates of raw material consumption and pollution. So, replacing a well-maintained car with a new one hardly serves the purpose of sustainability. Further, where’s the infra for scrapping vehicles? Crushing cars is a major source of solid waste. A scrapping policy can only build a mountain of debris of plastic, rubber, and glass, apart from metal. India has a long way to go on this front. The NGT order had betrayed both rational thinking and scientific know-how. The SC should scrap the NGT order forthwith.
 to combat pollution, which was challenged and put on hold by the Supreme Court after noting that age doesn't necessarily indicate vehicle fitness. The author argues that the NGT's 2018 order lacked scientific basis and that effective pollution control requires improved testing infrastructure and proper scrapping facilities rather than forcing consumers to buy new cars, which have significant environmental manufacturing impacts.RetryClaude can make mistakes. Please double-check responses.Research Sonnet 4){kind=link}