The Odd and Even of Delhi’s Air

If a sense of inevitability and doom characterises much of the public response, a more considered review of the last three decades shows that we have travelled a long way from the CSE report. For one, the actions that the report argued for have been carried out. Progressive emission standards have been imposed (the latest being Bharat Stage VI) alongside the introduction of unleaded petrol and cleaner diesel. There has been a vital shift to CNG for public, commercial, and paratransit vehicles. The Delhi Metro stands out as the most extensive and widely used urban mass transit system in the country.

In the late 1990s, advocates had to engage in creative acts to bring air pollution to the public attention as a matter of concern. Today, it dominates popular discussions. The turning point in our interest in the issue was a 2014 WHO report, promptly rejected by the Indian government, which called Delhi the most polluted capital in the world (a distinction hitherto held by Beijing). Soon after, the high-profile visit of US President Barack Obama for the 2015 Republic Day during smog led the international press to speculate on how many hours he would lose from his life by spending three days in Delhi (the answer, they pronounced, was six hours). At the end of May 2015, Gardiner Harris, a New York Times correspondent, announced that he was relocating from Delhi, having seen his eight-year-old son lose half his lung function within a year of living here.

These events caught the public eye like never before, and action followed. From 2014 to 2022, the number of functional continuous monitors across Delhi increased from five to over 40. They tell us that vehicular pollution is only one of several critical sources contributing to Delhi’s toxic air. Industries, roadside and construction dust, and waste burning contribute significantly as well. Then there are the seasonal sources like farm fires, the burning of biomass to keep warm in the winters, and the festive burning of firecrackers. In the last two decades, multiple studies have conclusively linked pollution to extremely dangerous health impacts. We know that while the weeks of heavy smog are particularly tough for those with diminished lung function or other vulnerabilities, persistent exposure to toxic air is equally bad in the long run for all the residents.

This is a crucial point. While attention is understandably intense during the smog episodes and emergency measures are important, anti-pollution action must be perennial just like the problem. This is especially true given our unfavourable geographical context, with the desert or arid regions to our south, and the Himalayas to the north. Delhi receives dust storms making their way through the thinning Aravalis during the summer, while the mountains lock in pollutants in the winters, as is the case right now. Taking cognisance of the present situation, the Supreme Court has come down heavily on state governments on stubble burning, even hinting at police enforcement on the ground. Thankfully, the discussion in the Court continued to span questions around the shift to paddy, corporatised marketing of water-guzzling cultivars, and the shrinking margins for farmers. This is a welcome conversation because strategies that are socially attuned rather than follow formulaic or coercive prescriptions have a greater likelihood of long-term success.

Experts working on the science-to-policy pathway have made compelling arguments related to actions spanning the legislative, institutional, and technical arenas. They contend that an inordinate focus on Delhi is unhealthy since the problem encompasses a much wider region, making airshed level approaches critical. They argue that policy must be informed by ecological thinking since the replacement of functioning ecosystems with plantations of trees (as the compensatory afforestation or tree transplantation policies contend) is self-defeating. Experts also agree that privatised fixes like air purifiers or semi-private ones like smog towers are not going to make the situation better for most breathers. Public interventions cutting across sectors like transportation, agriculture, and power must be prioritised.

Most of all, at this critical juncture, the issue requires deft politics in the truest sense of the term. So many party-political, commercial, and livelihood interests impinge on the matter in the north Indian airshed. Meaningful and effective action will benefit immensely from a consensus on the matter that sutures these divides. That a group of MPs cutting across party lines has emerged in the recent past to deliberate and advocate on the issue is an encouraging development. They must be supported from the very top. Leadership accompanied by a willingness to listen to diverse voices, and act with a soft touch is urgently required. Indian polity has been served well by such leadership at critical moments in the past. We certainly need it for our healthy future.

The writer is associate professor of Urban Studies at the Dr B R Ambedkar University Delhi, and co-author of Atmosphere of Collaboration: Air Pollution Science, Politics, and Ecopreneurship in Delhi