Blame game over Delhi’s air must stop

INDIA ranks second among 252 countries for poor air quality on the global pollution scale. The AQLI (2025) report by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago estimates that the residents of Delhi NCR may lose 8.2 years of life expectancy if the current PM2.5 levels — which are eight times higher than the World Health Organisation's safe-air standard — persist.

Rather than confronting the challenge, successive governments in Delhi have largely failed to tackle what has become a chronic public health emergency. Furthermore, the judicial intervention allowing green crackers on Diwali has aggravated the smog crisis.

Each year, as toxic smog engulfs the city, corporate-controlled media outlets, social media echo chambers and sections of the governance machinery spring into action — not to seek accountability, but to shift the blame. The narrative is conveniently reduced to the vilification of Punjab and Haryana farmers over stubble burning even as the deeper, year-round causes of pollution within Delhi NCR itself are ignored.

Air pollution in Delhi NCR is not a seasonal anomaly but a multi-sectoral governance failure.The narrative that it is a seasonal, agriculture-created crisis and the blame game overshadow the scientific evidence pointing to far greater contributors — industrial emissions, transport, construction dust and power plants.

What is urgently needed is not selective outrage, but a data-driven assessment of pollution sources and the systemic neglect by governments that have repeatedly failed to act on their own policy commitments.

Stubble burning undeniably contributes to air pollution. It increases the air pollution for three to four weeks to a large extent and farmers engaging in this practice must be held accountable. But the silence on all other polluting sectors is a calculated attempt to oversimplify a complex environmental crisis and obscures the accountability of other significant pollution sources.

A series of scientific studies, including by TERI (The Energy and Resources Institute), IIT Kanpur, SAFAR (System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research) and data provided by the government in the Lok Sabha, provides a detailed breakdown of the major pollution sources.

According to a source apportionment study by TERI, the principal sources of PM2.5 in winter are industry (30%), transport (28%), dust (17%), residential (10%) and agriculture burning (4% in winter and 7% in summer) and others (11%). The others category includes generator sets, refuse burning, crematoria, airports, restaurants, incinerators and landfills.

The transport sector remains a dominant source of particulate emissions. A 2014 study found that on-road transportation accounts for over 97% of the transport-related emissions in India, highlighting the overwhelming contribution of motor vehicles compared to rail, air or waterways.

Road dust and construction activity are silent but substantial sources of air pollution. Road dust constitutes 38% of PM2.5 and 56% of PM10 concentrations. Activities like crushing and grinding for infrastructure and real estate development generate massive amounts of coarse dust.

Industrial emissions also account for pollution. The Central Pollution Control Board has classified 17 categories of polluting industries. Metal processing, chemicals, brick kilns and stone-crushing remain significant contributors to Delhi's particulate and gaseous emissions. The industrial sector contributes 30% of PM2.5 in winter and 22% of PM2.5 in summer and 27% of PM10 concentrations.

Power plants remain one of the most persistent and under-addressed sources of industrial emissions in Delhi NCR. The Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) reveals that "thermal power plants in the NCR contribute a staggering 16 times more air pollution than the much-discussed issues of stubble burning and vehicular emissions."

These facts and statistics, however, have not led the government to address the problem. Pushing aside the issue of its harmful effect on our health, as per a report in Down to Earth, the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has issued a notification "extending the deadline for thermal power plants (TPPs) to meet sulphur dioxide emission standards. The ministry has prolonged the timeframe for the installation of flue gas desulfurisation (FGD) systems in TPPs."

All this despite the National Green Tribunal issuing notices and the Supreme Court expressing its dissatisfaction with the government's inaction.

Scientific evidence based on research indicates that Delhi NCR's air pollution is chronic, with industry, transport, dust and power generation accounting for the bulk of PM2.5 and PM 10 loads.

The hard reality is that deliberations and discussions in mainstream media remain narrowly fixated on farmers, while a silent and passive approach is followed towards unregulated industry, construction, and waste management. These issues remain largely unaddressed.

This selective outrage not only deepens public misinformation but also weakens the urgency for systemic reform. This pattern of political leadership and bureaucratic complacency underscores that the health of citizens is not a priority for both the elected representatives and the governance machinery.

Urgent interventions are required for effective crop-residue management. Preventing stubble burning is crucial not only for reducing air pollution but also for preserving soil health, protecting ecosystems and ensuring agricultural sustainability.

The blame game will not solve the problem, forcing Delhi NCR residents to continue to breathe the toxic air. Until governments confront the year-round emitters of pollution with the same zeal that is used to penalise farmers for a few weeks of burning through satellite-monitoring and directing officials to register FIRs, the citizens will be deprived of cleaner air.

The accountability fixation needs to go beyond the fields. The industries, power plants, transport that pollute the air every day should also be held equally answerable for the persistent problem.

Navreet Kaur is Professor, Public Administration Dept, Panjab University.