Air pollution: Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan writes open letter to SC judges

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, November 20

Ahead of Wednesday’s hearing on the issue of air pollution in Delhi-NCR, senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan has written an open letter to Supreme Court judges demanding a full-fledged hearing on air pollution, saying it’s no longer a Winter’s Tale.

“Air Pollution is not a political issue because it carries no religion, caste or colour. It claims all, and yet leaves no trace that could be profitable at the hustings,” Sankaranarayanan wrote while appreciating the top court’s efforts since 1980s towards protection of environment.

A three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice of India NV Ramana had on November 17 refrained from passing any harsh directives and deferred the hearing on the issue to November 24 after the Centre said the condition would improve after Sunday.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had urged the top court to postpone harsher steps in view of the Met Department’s assessment that the situation would improve after November 21.

Sankaranarayanan—who along with some other parents had filed a PIL on air pollution issue in the Supreme Court on behalf of children in 2015—said they were accused of being anti-Hindu.

“We were accused of being anti-hindu and social media was used to direct obnoxious curses at our children. We were also besieged by concerned well-wishers to back off. After all, this is not our job – we are not trained environmentalists, or medical doctors or scientific experts, or policy makers. So withdraw, they counselled. Unfortunately, we can’t. Because we are all of the above—for our children,” he wrote.

He urged the top court “to consider is the fact that these petitions concern the single largest issue that face a quarter of India’s population today. The factors that contribute to air pollution are multifarious, the parties many, and almost all States are affected”.

Citing the Global Burden of Disease reports, he wrote: “A child dies every 3 minutes in India because of inhaling toxic pollutants in the air. More than 1 crore children in the last quarter of a century did not live past their fifth year because of Lower Respiratory Tract Infection (LRI) occasioned by air pollution”.

Further, quoting a 2020 Lancet Report, he pointed out “that 1.7 million deaths of Indians were due to the poison that was being breathed, which was estimated to be a Rs2,60,000 crore loss to the economy (about 1.5% of the GDP). These numbers dwarf those of COVID, and yet, the energies of all our institutions have been channelled towards the tiny virus”.

He said: “A few weeks from the Court’s calendar would be a small price to pay if we can shepherd our children to a better tomorrow. Till then, we can hold our breath”.

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