Opinion Cleaning Delhi’s air requires a Delhi-specific plan
The government’s replies to questions in the Lok Sabha on November 29, 2021, and July 18, 2022, show that even the Covid lockdown could not completely clean Delhi’s air. The fix lies in prediction, participation, intensity of airshed-wide action, and the will to act before the air turns toxic. In 2020, when roads were deserted, […]
A bus on a dirt road raises dust that obscures everything around. (Express photo by Praveen Khanna) The government’s replies to questions in the Lok Sabha on November 29, 2021, and July 18, 2022, show that even the Covid lockdown could not completely clean Delhi’s air. The fix lies in prediction, participation, intensity of airshed-wide action, and the will to act before the air turns toxic. In 2020, when roads were deserted, factories were silent, and the skies were unusually clear, the city recorded 49 “very poor” and 15 “severe” air-quality days. In 2021, as economic activity revived, those numbers fell to 41 and 12. The year before, 2019, had seen 56 and 24 such days.
The data demolish an illusion: If vehicles slowed and factories paused, Delhi would breathe easy. Something deeper traps the capital in a haze that neither lockdowns nor routine regulations can dispel. The current plans are inadequate to overcome the challenge. There are three lessons for Delhi.
First, its geography demands thinking beyond routine responses. Chennai breathes sea air, hill towns draw freshness from altitude. But the Gangetic plains trap pollution under a lid of stagnant air. Delhi, therefore, needs an action plan that pushes the envelope, not one cut from a national template. Studies that apportion sources of pollution do help, but when the air quality remains poor even in the absence of major sources of emissions, it is time to acknowledge that the city has become a reservoir of its own toxicity.
Second, the improvement in 2021 — despite revived economic activity — shows that meteorology is a dominant force. Wind speed, temperature inversion, and mixing height (the vertical distance from the ground up to the level where pollutants, heat, and moisture come together) determine what we breathe more than short-term emission curbs. Delhi must keep tackling its sources, but it must also mitigate its natural disadvantage through predictive planning that accounts for weather behaviour.
Third, the instrument meant to control air quality — the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) — often reacts late. The delayed implementation of GRAP stages harms health and the economy. Acting late can force harsher shutdowns — Stage 3 instead of Stage 2. The delay ends up hurting livelihoods and lungs more than pre-emptive action would.
Delhi, therefore, does not need another alert, but a redesign of its air-governance philosophy — from reaction to prediction, from control to prevention, from partial to complete solutions. It needs a framework to act before thresholds are breached. The fight for clean air will not be won in laboratories or conference halls alone. It must become a mass movement — moving from criticism to participation, and finally to power, or voting into office those who care enough to act.
Government must lead with foresight, not just enforcement. Predictive pollution modelling should drive pre-emptive implementation of GRAP — it could mean using AI, IoT, and satellite data. Transparency in decision-making is essential for participation. Stable electricity can eliminate diesel generators. Roads and construction sites must be dust-proofed through mechanised sweeping and water sprinkling. Every unpaved stretch must be paved, every bare patch greened, and every landfill contained. All this must be done on the scale of an airshed, leaving no gaps — this is impossible without mass participation, involving every habitation, institution, and individual. At the micro level, protection must focus on the most vulnerable. Simple administrative changes can make a difference. Adjusting office hours — starting slightly later and closing earlier — can align peak traffic emissions with periods of better atmospheric mixing.
Delhi’s smog is a test of governance, science, and shared will. Government data show that the current framework, even if fully enforced, cannot deliver clean air. The challenge is whether Delhi can move from hope to commitment, from reaction to resolve. Because this is not about AQI numbers or policy stages. It is about whether a city can rediscover its moral clarity, to not let its citizens struggle for a clean breath.
The writer is former chief secretary, J&K, and ex-chairman, CPCB
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