Feel choked? Blame it on two-wheelers

Feel choked? Blame it on two-wheelers
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bangalore: If you are a twowheeler owner, this will make you sit up and take notice. For, you belong to that category of vehicle-users who pollute the most. With the vehicular population growing rapidly and number of two-wheelers going up three-fold in the last 10 years, emission of both greenhouse gases and health-damaging pollutants has increased alarmingly.
As much as 56% of carbon monoxide emissions come from two-wheelers. Of the carbon
dioxide emissions, heavy-duty diesel vehicles contribute 60%.
These killer numbers have been extracted from the ‘Greenhouse Gas Inventory of Karnataka series I: Bangalore city — Road Transport Sector’, a study conducted by the Karnataka State Pollution Board along with energy and environment consulting firm Enzen Global. The study was released on Thursday.
The estimated emission of direct greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), methane (CH 4 ) and Nitrous Oxide (N 2 O), annually is 2.24-2.19 million tonnes, 325-350 tonnes, and 19 tonnes respectively.
The report says the estimated CO 2 emission has increased from 1.01 MT in 1997 to 2.26 MT in 2005-06. If the present trend continues, CO 2 emissions will be about 4.06 MT by 2017.
Health-damaging pollutants are also on an alarming rise. For example, the transport sector contributes to 51,000 tonnes of carbon monoxide (CO) and around 2,500 tonnes of particulate matter annually. Uma Rajarathnam, head (environment practice) of Enzen Global, said narrow and badly laid roads were major contributors to increasing pollution.
HIGHLIGHTS
Two-wheeler population has gone up from 0.75 million in 1997 to 2.04 million.
In the mixed-vehicular population, two-wheelers dominate with 73%, light motor vehicles 19%, heavy motor vehicles 5% and threewheelers 3%.
As on January 2007, 28.153 lakh vehicles were registered in Bangalore.
Of them, 20.4 lakh were two-wheelers, 86,490 autos and 4.2 lakh cars.
Petrol consumption has risen from 2.26 lakh tonnes in 1998-99, to 3.47 lakh tonnes in 2005-06; diesel consumption has gone up from 2.74 lakh tonnes in 1998-99 to 4.65 lakh tonnes in 2005-06.