The green side of hartal

It is hartal today in Kerala.

What is Hartal? According to Wikipedia, it is mass protest often involving a total shutdown of workplaces, offices, shops etc etc...Today there is motor vehicle hartal in Kerala. The roads of Kerala are free (supposed to be free) of vehicles. How much free (%) will be known by evening only after the media conducts research and break the news to us to ponder? In any case, 80% of the vehicles will remain idle today. Economists will have a busy day, analyzing the loss of precious man hours and potential impact on the BSE and NSE and the like. Wasted man hours, slump in net productivity, blah blah blah......

But the environment is more hale and green today. According to NATPAC, the motor vehicle population in Kerala, which was around 2 lakhs in 1980, has almost doubled every 5 to 6 years. There are about 60 lakh registered motor vehicles in the state of which 25,000 are stage carriages (bus services). 63 percent of the vehicles are two wheelers. Around 5 lakh vehicles are now added on the state roads every year! Aping the Americans as a neo-fuel guzzling society, are we?

NATPAC also admits that the transport sector in Kerala contributes a major share of carbon emissions and thereby a challenge to climate change!

That is why I said, that the environment is much clean and green today. Due to a forced lay off, the emission levels from the roads of Kerala are at the lowest possible levels. I salute the hartal lobbyists. What for? Just for keeping off the vehicles from emitting CFCs. Thanks. Though the Ozone Day (Sep 16) passed without anyone noticing it, today's hartal call turned out to be a nice opportunity for some very practical action.

Are our greens listening?     

Also tomorrow, I hope to eat the morning dailies without going through the embarrassment, pain  and desperation  of reading about road accidents related mortality. They are now far too numerous and frequent in Kerala. Are our policies encouraging indiscriminate buying of vehicles? Is this practice a nice one in the long run? Few years back, there was one car in the neighbourhood. A few lucky ones had two wheelers. Now every house has 2-3 vehicles! Apart from the mounting cases of physical mortality, who is going to answer the problem of increasing C emissions? 

As we sit idle in our homes, let us think of these. As individuals, let us think how to be more C neutral in future. Let us give our children a more green and C free world.