We all know that clean and fresh air is essential for us. If you put your face near an exhaust pipe of a tempo, what will you feel like? GASP!!

You might not have done this directly but indirectly, everyday, you are breathing this air, taking it to your lungs.

Motorised vehicles in Varanasi use fuels like petrol and diesel which burn to give out carbon dioxide, carbon monooxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and so on. All these have direct and indirect effects on our health. The main source of air pollution in our city is tempos and scooters. According to D A Agarwal, manager of Agarwal Automobiles which sell Hero Hondas, the most important factor in air pollution is fuel. Two-stroke engines present in most scooters cause greater pollution than four-stroke engines.

According to Gopi Ram Shyam Sundar at the Bharat Petroleum Petrol Pump at Sigra, diesel is the worst polluter but people buy it anyway because it is cheap. due to regular power cuts here, most people have generators and these also use a lot of diesel. He suggests that we should move on to cleaner fuels like LPG and CNG to reduce pollution.Other staff at the same petrol pump said that impure fuel is another cause of pollution.

A lady who had a two-wheeler at home was asked if she would buy impure fuel is a discount was offered. She promptly said ‘Yes!’ Two autowallas also had the same answer to give. This shows that people don’t understand that saving money in this way is costing them heavily in another way, i.e. through health problems through polluted air. Let’s protect Varanasi before it becomes another Delhi or Mumbai!