Smogged out

INDIA’s cities continue to choke. The latest IQAir report once again this year delivers the grim reality check — 13 of the world’s 20 most polluted cities are in India, with Byrnihat topping the list and Delhi remaining the most polluted capital for the sixth consecutive year. Delhi’s PM2.5 concentration of 91.6 µg/m³ is nearly unchanged from last year. This underscores the stagnation in efforts to combat urban pollution. Air pollution is also a public health emergency. The World Air Quality Report confirms that the average citizen’s life expectancy is cut short by over five years due to hazardous air. This crisis is fuelled by industrial emissions, vehicular pollution, construction dust and seasonal crop burning. While policymakers often tout a decline in the country’s overall PM2.5 concentration, a 7 per cent reduction does little when 35 per cent of the cities still exceed the WHO’s safe limit by tenfold.

Meanwhile, the economic ramifications of pollution are mounting. A 2021 study by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air found that air pollution costs India around Rs 7 lakh crore annually in healthcare expenses and lost labour productivity. Another report by The Lancet (2020) estimated that 1.67 million deaths in India in 2019 were directly linked to air pollution-related diseases.

However, political discourse around air pollution remains mired in blame games. Every winter, Delhi’s crisis is reduced to a partisan slugfest, with leaders trading accusations over stubble burning, industrial emissions and urban planning failures. They must abandon political posturing and treat pollution with the same urgency as economic growth and infrastructure development. The lack of long-term policy vision and stringent enforcement is as lethal as the pollution itself. The government must implement stronger regulatory measures, incentivise clean energy transitions and enforce emission norms strictly.