Clearer skies as city goes green on Bhogi

CHENNAI: Green activists in Chennai were a cheerful lot on Saturday. Not only had the propaganda for a low-smoke bhogi apparently worked, plenty of people in slums and residential belts opted only for a token burning this year. Where ‘out with the old and in with the new’ was a norm followed by Chennaiites till a few years ago, the tide has turned, reveals a TNPCB official. “The statistics aren’t in yet, but it is evident that there was very little smog compared to 5 years ago.” The difference was visible. The smog that would cloud the city till at least 9.00 am, began lifting as early as 7.30 am. By 8.30 am there was almost no trace of the smog.In residential areas in Saidapet, Mambalam and even T Nagar, very few apartment complexes had piles of burnt debris outside as the sun came out. “These days we hardly keep anything that’s old to the point of disposing. We bought some new things for Pongal but the burning habit is almost gone,” says Shantalakshmi, a school teacher in Brindavan Nagar. Till two years ago, her now deceased mother used to insist on burning old mats at least, she adds. Corporation officials confirmed that the quantity of burnt debris was “miniscule” compared to last year and almost no plastic was burned.In fact, even in places where people came out at dawn to incinerate old items outside their homes, it was more of a formality.  At Chennai Airport, precautions were taken, as Airport Director E P Hareendranathan said 3 incoming and 4 outbound flights were delayed due to smog, but departed after a 30-45 minute delay.