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There's so much in a name

Pondicherry is now `Puduchcheri'. But can it be the new model town?

BREATHE IN CLEAN AIR The service station for battery-operated three-wheelers in Pondicherry PHOTO: T. SINGARAVELOU

Pondicherry recently reverted to an earlier name. Energising for some and confusing for others, it may not matter very much to most. But it could matter. The "new" name, Puduchcheri, means New Town.

Pondy has had a few names in its long history. The French sent Europeans off on a false trail when an early scribe wrote a "u" in Pouduchery that was taken for an "n" in Paris. And easy enough mistake, if your writing is as illegible as mine.

Names can change, but what matters are brands. When we hear the name of a place, what is the first other word that comes to mind? Is it a word that admirers or promoters of the place would choose?

Is the re-branding of the city simply slapping a different label on the same bottle? Is it unfair to ask: "what has Pondy done lately?" Renowned for its early 19th Century architecture and the early 20th Century Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondy seems to have been resting on its laurels for quite a long time.

Management of pollution

Yet Pondy is well placed to take the lead in the important area of the management of environmental pollution. Rapid economic success, which now washes over much of India, including certainly Pondicherry, results in dramatically increased pollution of air, land and water. Does it make sense to say: "Oh, well, we'll make money now and see to pollution later" when the human costs of pollution are with us now, and when not even the rich or the young are spared its poisonous effects? Besides, as we have seen in other industrialising countries, a cleanup later is both difficult and expensive. It's worth noting that we don't even know the precise harmful effects of many of the newer toxins.

India's major cities are increasingly unfit places to live. Band-aids, better than nothing, are from time to time applied to the chancre. The CNG conversion in Delhi of many vehicles (including, notably, auto-rickshaws) has made the air there slightly less noxious to breathe. But, in the absence of a planned and funded strategy, pollution marches on.

How could Pondy react to all this? What are its assets for doing something?

While most Indian states have a mixed urban and rural population measured in crores, Pondicherry has a population counted in lakhs, and mostly urban. So the problems are at a more manageable scale. Moreover, as one of the few remaining union territories, Pondy has access to the expertise and finances of the Central Government. And the recently reactivated structure of local government could help in the two-way communication of citizens with government on the issues of the environment.

Positive steps

Pondicherry has taken some tentative steps in the right direction.

There is a handful of battery-operated three-wheelers - with no nasty exhaust smells or engine noises at all - and more on the way. The battery charging station with its solar panels and rainwater collection on the roof is worth a visit. It's on Ambour Salai where the small and large canals intersect.

An increasing number of districts, including some in the suburbs, have taken to the recycling of household waste so that the organic part of it can be converted into compost for home gardens and farming. Drop by the French Quarter, for instance, some morning to see the efficient women earn a living and serve the community at the same time. There are public campaigns urging us to "keep Pondy clean and green" and occasional flurries of activity like the installation of fountains and waterfalls, some of them still working, in many parts of town.

Programmes in schools encourage young people to consider the causes and consequences of poor environmental habits. Talk with your kids, ask them what they think we should do as individuals and families. Because, as we all never tire of saying, the future is in the their hands - and their minds, hearts, lungs and limbs.

Are we doing our best? What more could we do?

There isn't any wrong place to start. Most Pondicherians can readily give examples of their "favourite" environmental peeves. One of mine is the large buses and lorries that thunder imperially, noisily and dangerously along all the city's main streets (and increasingly into side streets), leaving choking exhaust in their wakes. Another is less apparent but even more threatening: water management. We all rely on underground reservoirs for most of the water we drink, cook with, wash with, and use in agriculture and industry. What we cannot see is that these reservoirs are both increasingly dry and polluted by household and farming and factory wastes, as well as by the incursion of salt from the sea.

What disturbs you? The issues pile up. Identifying them is the easy part. The harder part is identifying solutions.

What have other Indian cities to offer by way of solution? If the New Town were to adopt and adapt best practice - that is, the best solutions - of other Indian cities, it could act as model for the cleanup and restoration that the whole country will eventually be forced to take on as health costs and crippled systems multiply.

In the meantime, such a course would put Pondy on the map, attracting public and private, Indian and foreign investment. People from other places would come to experience with their own eyes, noses and ears what thoughtful and efficient use of technology can do to improve the lives of people, as well as the bottom line.

The New Town would be not just an old and pretty place, but also India's Model City.

PETER RICHARDS

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