Paradise lost: Citizens breathless.

Byline: Abhijit Atre

PUNE: In the decades gone by, this rapidly expanding city was known as a "pensioner's paradise" and as "Oxford of the East" in recognition of its famous educational institutes. Its label today reads: "Most polluted city in Maharashtra".

This is courtesy the latest air pollution survey conducted by the Union environment ministry. The survey has prompted the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board and civic officials into drafting an action plan to minimise air pollution in the city.

Citizens on their part have been shocked by the findings. "I knew that the city was getting polluted due to the growing number of vehicles. But I never imagined that the situation had become so bad," said Sunil Samak, a resident of Appa Balwant Chowk.

Nandan Gumaste, a resident of Kothrud, said he purchased a Maruti car because his son occasionally suffered from throat infection.

"Doctors told me not to carry the child on the two-wheeler, at least not on Karve road," he explained. According to D S Kashikar, a senior member of Indian Academy of Paediatrics (IAP), "The number of children suffering from asthmatic attacks and respiratory infections like bronchitis has doubled in the last decade. The problem is acute among children aged below three years as their tender system is being exposed to air which is harmful even for adults".

Over the past few years, paediatricians, civic activists and researchers have been warning of an increasingly calamitous air quality in Pune city. Unfortunately, as far as the authorities are concerned, those warnings fell on deaf ears.