The quality of air in Delhi-NCR may be better than what it was a fortnight ago, it still isn’t good enough to qualify as clean, pure, or even healthy for the time being. In order to prevent further deterioration, the Gautam Budh Nagar administration has urged restaurants and dhabas to avoid using tandoors (traditional clay or earthen ovens) to cook food.

No Legal Order

While there is no hard and fast rule against the use of tandoors, decreasing their use could substantially reduce the amount of smoke that is emitted on a regular basic, considering these ovens mostly work on coal.

“We visited 35-40 dhabas and restaurants on Tuesday and Wednesday in Noida, Dadri, Jewar and Dankaur and asked the owners to avoid using coal. Since they are not flouting any laws, we cannot enforce this. Considering the air quality, we are only requesting the owners for now,” RN Yadav, food and supplies officer, Gautam Budh Nagar, said.

“Tandoori rotis and tandoori chicken can also be cooked on tandoors that work on gas. The shopkeepers we have met have promised to use alternate methods,” Yadav said.

Is It Doable?

Though the idea sounds promising and necessary, is it really feasible for dhabas to stop using tandoors altogether? It’s almost like asking a bakery to not use an oven. “When we use tandoori, we can cook a total of 20 rotis in one slot and this saves us a lot of time. Moreover, people can find out the difference between chicken roasted on coal fire and gas. Pollution is caused by factories and they should be acted against,” Avdhesh Kumar, a dhaba owner in Mamura, told Hindustan Times.

However, some shop-owners did come out in support of the notion and vowed to use gas stoves instead in order to improve the quality of air.

Image Source

Noida Is Choking

The air around us looks visibly less polluted, the level of contamination in Noida’s has been borderline poisonous. To give you a better perspective, on Wednesday, the Air Quality Index (AQI) of Noida was recorded at 303, in the ‘very poor’ category; while on Tuesday, the AQI was 411, in the ‘severe’ category.

In addition to not using tandoors, experts have also urged people to lessen – if not completely stop – the use of other coal-lit stoves and angeethis (firewood), as they too could considerably contribute towards pollution.

Feature Image Source