The situation in Delhi, which was already infamous for its foul air, has turned alarming this year, with the city being engulfed in smog and haze, forcing people to buy face masks and air purifiers. The perilous particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5) content of the air was pegged at the highest measurable level of 999 micrograms per cubic metre at several spots in the city during the past few days. The safe limit for the tiny particulate matter PM2.5, which can enter deep into the lungs to cause respiratory and other ailments, is only 60 micrograms while it is 100 micrograms for PM10. It is pertinent to note that air pollution is now among the four largest killers — the others being high blood pressure, smoking and poor nutrition. A committee set up by the health ministry last year had linked air pollution to a variety of ailments ranging from childhood pneumonia and asthma to cardiovascular diseases, chronic lung ailments, cancers and low immunity in adults.
However, beyond calling the city a “gas chamber” (Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal) and dubbing the situation as an “emergency” (Union environment minister Anil Madhav Dave), neither the state nor the central government has acted. What followed were mere ad hoc measures such as closure of schools, vacuum cleaning of selected roads and sprinkling of water on them. De-registration of old diesel vehicles is the only worthwhile long-term measure that has been pushed forward on the orders of National Green Tribunal. Though, this should, logically, have been accompanied by the resolve to discard Bharat-III and Bharat-IV standard auto-fuels to give way to higher grade ones, but that, regrettably, has not been the case. It’s still unclear why the central government failed to act on the measures suggested by IIT Delhi in a study that recommended a comprehensive year-wise action plan (2016 to 2023) to check all the sources of air pollution.
The immediate cause of the apocalyptic smog that covered Delhi over the weekend was the widespread crop burning in the fields of neighbouring states. The almost non-existent wind speed made it worse. Little realising that air pollution does not respect geographic boundaries, the governments at the Centre and in the contiguous states (Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh) have done little on their part to combat this menace. Both Punjab and Haryana have in place laws to check stubble burning. It’s true that these are seldom enforced effectively for political reasons lest they annoy the huge rural vote bank. But the Delhi government just cannot push the blame on to others. The truth is that over 80 per cent of air pollutants are said to be generated locally and smoke from neighbouring states is only the third biggest factor, after dust and vehicular emissions. Numerous other notable causes for air pollution include torching of fallen leaves and urban wastes; presence of huge garbage landfills within the city limits where fires often break out to spew toxic gases; manual sweeping of roads that adds to the atmosphere’s dust load; use of unclean cooking fuel; and existence of thermal power plants and polluting industries in and around Delhi. The governments should stop the blame game and focus on enforcing legal and administrative steps required to tame pollution. Otherwise, not just Delhi, but the entire national capital region, will become unlivable.