India also has air pollution
Register-Guard opinion writer and geography professor Sriram Khé’s articles on India and now Tanzania have added to my understanding of Third World issues. I’ve just returned from a 17-day trip to the heart of India, including stops in Delhi, Juipur, Ranthambhore National Park and Tiger Reserve, Agra, Khajuraho and Varanasi. The heart of India suffers from the same environmental degradation as the Tanzanian village of Pommern mentioned in professor Khe’s Jan. 18 column.
Arriving in Delhi in late December, I expected such a large city to be polluted, but I had no idea that I would see so many homeless people along the main streets and alleys building small bonfires for heat and for cooking. Traveling south to Juipur and Ranthambhore National Park I expected the smoke pollution to abate. However, a haze of smoke hung over the natural beauty of the national park. I was lucky enough to spot a wild Bengal tiger through haze.
I also visited Abhaneri, a typical small village, set among brilliant-yellow mustard fields. Over 60 percent of India’s 1.2 billion people live in small villages like Abhaneri. This village has electricity, but in every home I visited the women were cooking over small open-air wood stoves. I’m sure that poverty plays a role in villagers not using electrical power.
Possibly the Aprovecho stove manufactured here in Oregon should be introduced in India as well as the many small villages in Third World countries such as Tanzania.
Mike Walsh
Eugene
(The Register Guard, January 20, 2010)
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