By Om Prakash Dwivedi
The international media is abuzz with the coverage of Delhi’s environmental crisis. It is indeed an irony to notice that this crisis, which engulfs Delhi annually finds almost no or very little space in our policymaking plans. The inability of our executive, legislature, and judiciary to deliberate on this annual apocalypse happening right in and around the national capital exposes the myopic vision of India’s future, a country that aspires to become a leading world economy by the end of 2030, thus turning Delhi into one of the most polluted places on this planet – clearly an undesirable achievement for any government. But what are we doing as a nation to prevent the annual apocalypse is the moot question.
Apparently, one doesn’t seem to have a solution to this problem. Perhaps, this failure is linked to the fact that the catastrophe can be avoided by staying in proximity to air purifiers, or because this happens only for 3-4 weeks annually. Both these assumptions are worrying points for the nation’s citizens.
To zoom out this problem over the years, it is vital to understand the gravity of this ongoing death play in Delhi. Firstly, it must be understood that stubble burning is not the sole reason behind the spike in Delhi’s pollution level. It takes nothing to make the farmers culpable for the annual devastation that is performed across Delhi and the NCR. The practice of stubble burning was made illegal in 2015, nonetheless, it continues. While stubble burning contributes to 35 per cent of Delhi’s pollution. Hence, the major problem lies elsewhere – both at the atmospheric level and the industrial level – and it is quite disheartening to see a resolute silence that undergirds this catastrophe.
Secondly, the harvesting season of late October is also a time when the wind direction also changes. So, when the stubble is burnt in Lahore, Punjab, and Haryana, the pollution reaches Delhi and its neighbouring parts, and due to the meteorological conditions, it results into a thick cloud that percolates death to the citizens. Last week, Delhi’s air quality index (AQI) – which points to the level of pollutants in the air – reached almost 1,700 in some parts of the city.
If we compare this with our closest competitor, China, its capital Beijing, reached the highest AQI of 1,300, which suggests how fast we are heading to convert Delhi and the NCR into a death chamber. Agreed that PM2.5 (particulate matter) is a major source of pollution in Delhi, but there are many contributing factors. About 40% of Delhi’s air pollution is attributed to vehicular emissions, with diesel vehicles being a major contributor. Yet, other polluting causes lie in the huge number of industries that have piled up across Delhi, including the NCR. They are the major and constant source of pollutants and ‘slow violence’ that Delhites are subjected to. Stubble burning only exacerbates the pollution level, turning the slow violence into a fierce one, thus rendering this catastrophic play visible to all of us.
In its desperate attempt to mitigate the severity of the crisis, a ‘Supersite’ air quality station was built in 2023 to obtain real-time source apportionment of air pollution. Arvind Kejriwal, the former Chief Minister of Delhi, inaugurated this station, while describing it as “an important leap: in the state’s fight against pollution. It takes very little effort to understand that monitoring the pollution level is linked to policymaking at the ground level. Apparently, the government is suffering from policy paralysis in matters pertaining to the deep crisis.
It also takes very little to understand that the issue of Delhi’s annual apocalypse is largely and deeply linked to power dynamics and legitimization of violence that categorizes zones into ‘liveable’ and ‘non-liveable’. As such, it is also linked to the unrestrained play of capital forces that has brought us to the perilous situation, which suggests around 33,000 people across 10 cities die annually from breathing air measured safe by official standards in India. Yet, attempts are half-hearted and seems to be only limited to the November-December period of severe pollution levels.
How else one could justify the flawed and distorted nature of India’s Air Quality Index measurements? It turns out that the measurement level that is being monitored is already compromised. While the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) officially recognizes the permissible matter for PM2.5, PM10, and NO2 (Nitrogen Dioxide) to be 40, 60, and 40 micrograms per cubic meter, respectively, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) recognition varies significantly from the Indian counterpart. The WHO considers the limits to be 5, 10, and 15 micrograms per cubic meter for the same pollutants.
For a nation that is heading toward becoming one of the world’s leading economies, this variance in the pollutant levels seem incomprehensible and deplorable. By subjecting citizens to this annual period of violence, the nation is also compromising on its workforce and resources. Silence and denialism, which happen to be the underlying features of the environmental crisis, need to be addressed, and it would be better if our leaders and bureaucrats start seeing this national crisis. For, there cannot be short-term policies to deal with issues that matter for the fate of our nation.
Contributing Author: Dr Om Prakash Dwivedi is an accomplished researcher in the area of Literary theory, Indian Writing in English, and Environmental Humanities.
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