NEW DELHI: Illegal encroachment and overpopulation could be the two biggest factors plaguing Delhi-NCR and making the fight against pollution difficult, Environment Pollution (Prevention & Control) Authority (EPCA) chairperson Bhure Lal said at a conference 'Challenges of National Capital Region' on Monday.While efforts were being made to procure more buses to improve the state of public transport, Delhi-NCR simply does not have enough depots with a majority of available land encroached or stuck under litigation, Lal explained."Delhi can only sustain 50 lakh people, however, with migrants coming in each day, the current population is almost around 2.5 crores. Between the blame-game of DDA and corporations, spare pieces of land get encroached and then it becomes extremely difficult to remove them. The locations are putting tremendous burden on the resources as well," said Lal.Delhi requires a fleet of around 15,000 buses, and there are 5,000 available currently. Where is the space for depots? The lands allotted by DDA are often under litigation, and while there are funds from ECC to buy these buses, there is no space. How can one aspire to have clean air like this, Lal observed.Organised by the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) and IHC, the conference invited the EPCA chairman as the speaker to provide his views on problems affecting the capital and probable solutions.Asking people to again think about the environment, Lal said their recent decision to look at banning private vehicles had come under scrutiny from the public, but the situation in the region had become so grave that such measures are needed. "People are not willing to give up comfort and that is why a change in mindset is needed. A recent study showed that the transport sector was contributing 42% to the total pollution, followed by 30% by industries ," said Lal.He also said that open burning of waste was becoming a big problem as agricultural locations get taken over by industries. "Burari, Mundka, Tikri and Ghevra were all known for agriculture, but they have been converted into industrial godowns now. Plastic and rubber is openly burnt here and our recent inspections have highlighted how bad the problem is," said Lal.

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