Rickshaws Wage War Against Global Warming

Global warming is poised to put a permanent worry line on our forehead. The predicted effects of global warming to the environment as well as to our lives cannot be overemphasized. They’re terrifying. Pretty serious stuff.

According to Delhi's Center for Science and Environment the city faces a winter of smog, with increased risk of respiratory diseases, because the staggering increase in the number of motor vehicles, particularly diesel-fueled vehicles.

At the recent U.N. conference in Bali, politicians have haggled over the best strategy to combat global warming. And one of the probable strategies is the use of bicycle rickshaws.

The rickshaw wallahs have waged war against global warming to be allowed to stay on the crowded streets of the Indian capital. In Delhi alone there are more than 80,000 licensed rickshaws, though the number is estimated to be more than five times that. In some parts of the bustling old city, they can be the only way of accessing narrow lanes. Delhi authorities have indeed banned them from Delhi's main corridors as well as parts of the old city, reported MSNBC.

This is not the first time a city in India has tried to get rid of rickshaws. Calcutta tried recently to forbid the hand-pulled rickshaws, the city's communist authorities arguing these leftovers from the days of the British Raj are inhumane. But the rickshaw pullers don't see it that way.

The wallahs are taking their vengeance. Feisty environmentalists, meanwhile, have taken up their cause. The NGO, Initiative for Transportation and Development Programs, has challenged the ban in the Delhi High Court demanding the authorities provide a dedicated track for the cycle rickshaws on all main roads and further telling the court that the ban on rickshaws would worsen air pollution if cars replaced them.

The police told the court that getting rid of the rickshaws would help make Delhi a "modern" city. "Delhi traffic police are of the opinion that cycle-rickshaws are extremely traffic hazardous and accident-prone," they said in a statement to the court. They said traffic was a nightmare because of the "infiltration," of cycle-rickshaws, the report continued.

Cycle rickshaws may not conform to the Delhi police's view of what makes a modern city, but many capitals of more developed countries are starting to see them as part of the solution to global warming concerns. Matter of fact, they can now be seen in London, Oxford, Paris, Singapore, even New York City, where they are called pedicabs. Also, London's considering a system of licensing for cycle rickshaws.

In Delhi, the High Court is still chewing over the environmentalists' petition. But I hope they’d be able to promulgate a sound decision. Undeniably, it’s nice to see auto body parts on the roads rather than rickshaws. But if the remedy is on the contrary, why negate?