Despite warnings by the Supreme Court, the National Green Tribunal(NGT) and the Environmental Pollution Control Authority(EPCA), the use of diesel continues to be a major source of atmospheric pollution in the city, with an estimated half of Gurugram’s auto fleet running on this highly polluting fuel.
The combustion of diesel is known to emit over 40 kinds of toxic contaminants into the atmosphere, including benzene, arsenic and formaldehyde.
Diesel exhaust also contains large quantities of sulphur oxides, nitrogen oxides and particulate matter, which in turn lead to the formation of secondary aerosols, particularly polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), a carcinogen.
