The city’s air has been thick not only with its favourite deity Ganapati coming ‘home’ for ten days but also with another issue that goes back to its colonial history—conventional wood-fired bakeries and air pollution. More than six weeks after the deadline set by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) passed, nearly half of the 590 to 600 bakeries in the city have not yet converted to cleaner fuels, according to reports.

And there, at the intersection of age-old practices, sentiments about the iconic pav baked in these bhattis, concerns about emissions from them, and the city’s total pollutants turning its air quality poor, lies a tale.

Embedded in this tale of pushing the bhattis to switch to cleaner fuels, like PNG and electricity, is the larger narrative of climate adaptation and what’s increasingly an issue of ‘just transitions’, or who bears a disproportionate cost of emissions reduction and climate adaptation.

To be clear, of the nearly 600 bhattis, more than 210 have made the switch from wood as primary fuel to electricity and gas; the angst now is about the remaining half that have not kept the BMC deadline. If they are left with no option but to switch fuels and, consequently, adapt their ovens, methods of baking, and possibly the final taste of breads, pavs, nankhatais, and other delicious goodies, they will.

But this pressure on them, even if it cites the Bombay High Court order, begs the question: are the BMC and fuel-switch campaigners cherry-picking on those who stand at the end of the pollution chain? It........

© Free Press Journal