By Richa Sharma

New Delhi, Dec 17 (IANS) Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh may call it criminal to use diesel-guzzling SUVs in India, but driving them off the road may not be easy as sales of these vehicles - often regarded as a status symbol of the rich and powerful - grew by over 20 percent this fiscal and are projected to increase.

Be it politicians or industrialists or the newly rich, many prefer SUVs to other cars as they have more space to accommodate people and luggage, can be used on difficult Indian terrain, have higher seating and provide a manoeuvering advantage amid chaotic traffic and bad roads.

Ranjit Rana, a businessman and SUV owner, said: "I think SUVs are perfect in a city like Delhi to intimidate indisciplined autorickshaw and bike drivers."

"The respect that one commands on the road is directly related to the size of the car. It symbolizes power and even truck and bus drivers don't dare to misbehave with you on road. That's why I got a Toyota Fortuner last month to replace my ageing Tata Safari," Rana told IANS.

The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) reported that in the fiscal April 2009-March 2010, the sales of SUVs saw a 20.88 percent rise. A total of 272,733 units were sold against 225,621 units in the same period a year ago.

Ramesh's view that SUV owners should not be allowed to drive on diesel as it is a subsidised fuel and that these vehicles pollute the environment comes despite his own Congress party distributing 39 diesel Bolero SUVs to party workers for campaigning during the recent Bihar assembly elections.

Even during the Gujarat assembly elections in 2007, the Congress hired around 300 diesel-run Toyota Innovas at a monthly rent of Rs.60,000 per vehicle for campaigning.

Countering Ramesh's view, a SIAM official said SUVs sold in India were engineered for Indian needs of fuel efficiency.
"SUVs in India are not fuel guzzlers, as manufacturers keep the fuel efficiency factor in mind," a SIAM official told IANS.

Seeing the rise in the demand for SUVs, the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs)ramped up production in the last fiscal year with a rise of 24.31 percent. The OEMs produced 272,848 units last fiscal as compared to 219,498 units in the fiscal before that.

OEMs manufacture products or components -- navigators, music system and others -- that are purchased by a car company and retailed under the purchasing company's brand name.

The minister's statement about restricting big diesel cars has not impressed SUV owners.

"Diesel cars are always priced higher than their petrol counterparts. So, even if we get cheaper fuel, the initial three to four years are spent in mitigating the price difference," said Kunal Nayar, a 25-year-old who has been driving a diesel Toyota Innova for the last three years.

According to official figures, India has 14 million cars and three million SUVs.

Currently the SUV market segment is dominated by large players like Mahindra and Mahindra, the largest SUV producer in the country, followed by Tata Motors and Toyota Kirloskar Motor.

Siddhartha Jain, 25, who drives a diesel-run Ford Endeavor, feels diesel technology has over the years improved by leaps and bounds. "Diesel is not a polluting fuel any more and is very efficient."

According to Ramesh, the diesel subsidy was introduced for a certain economic purpose - to benefit farmers - but it has ended up with a wholly different purpose.

But Ashish Khanna, 30, owner of a Mahindra Xylo, said: "Subsidised fuel never enticed me; I got the car because we are a big family and we travel a lot. So, mileage was definitely our first priority."

Automobile expert Tutu Dhawan said: "The minister needs to have some more facts and figures in mind as the number of SUVs is not more than two to three percent. Why not ban the entire diesel range -- taxis and commercial vehicles -- which are running on subsidised diesel?"

Ramesh has, however, been praised by green activists who say SUVs are a threat to energy security, climate and public health.

"We commend the environment minister for slamming the increase in SUVs and the use of cheap and toxic diesel in personal cars," said Anumita Roychoudhury, head of the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) air pollution and urban mobility team.

"Diesel cars emit much more toxic particulate matter and nitrogen oxide - the key pollutants of concern in Indian cities -- than petrol cars," she said.

India is the world's fourth largest greenhouse gas emitter after China, the US and the European Union.