India’s natural resources are crying out for intensive care

However, this relief was short-lived as the causal factors of air pollution are many and complex. In November 2016, Delhi witnessed what is now referred to as the Great Delhi Smog with speculative comparisons to London’s Great Smog of 1952 and interpretations of possible spikes in death rates.

In response to this unprecedented smog event, and its implications for human health and mortality, the government introduced GRAP—its Graded Response Action Plan—in January 2017, outlining various response measures to mitigate air pollution, depending on its severity. 

While this mitigative response itself has evolved over time to enable a more pro-active and pollutant- inclusive approach to pollution management, it is undeniable that average pollution levels have not shown any significant improvement.

Also read: India plans stricter quality standards to tackle air pollution

The Supreme Court was right when, on 28 September 2024, it pulled up the institutional mechanism established by the government to deal with the challenge—the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM)—on its efficiency and effectiveness. 

The Air Quality Index (AQI) in November 2023 was 373, as compared to an AQI of 372 in November 2016. Undoubtedly, there were a few marginally better years in between, but those were largely due to ‘divine interventions’—the weather gods being kind.

The apex court is also right in highlighting the fact that the directions and actions taken to address the problem of air pollution only have a temporary impact on violators. GRAP is a prime example of such band-aid responses to increasing levels of air pollution.

The CAQM would do well to focus on well-designed regulatory as well as incentive systems that would bring about lasting changes in the sources of air pollution. There is a lot of research as well as global experience with such instruments. 

The CAQM could consider ‘extended producer responsibility’ (applied in India for single-use plastics), taxing externalities at levels that would result in change, and establishing compensatory mechanisms for inter-state pollution, to name a few that can be applied appropriately to get desired long-term effects and supplement the band-aid fixes.

Also read: Indian cities and air pollution: It’s time to get into mission mode

A compilation of data from government sources by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) for the first six months of 2024 reveals that Faridabad, Delhi and Gurugram had average PM2.5 levels (of particles under 2.5 micrometres in diameter or less, i.e.) that were 20 times higher than the World Health Organization (WHO) standard of 5 micrograms per cubic metre. The Indian National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) of India is 40 micrograms per cubic metre, by comparison.

This highlights two things: One, the focus on the National Capital Region is justified at one level; and two, air pollution is not just a winter crisis but a round-the-year problem. 

Of the 182 days covered in this period, these three cities had approximately 160 days when daily air quality standards were not met. It is rather unfortunate, however, that the rest of India does not get similar attention for their air pollution problem.

In fact, cities with a pollution severity rank between No. 4 and No. 12 were not even covered under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), a 2019-launched initiative of the ministry of environment, forests and climate change. Gurugram, for instance, was left out. 

The CREA report also points out that among India’s 256 cities that have PM2.5 data available, 163 exceeded the NAAQS, though all 256 exceeded the annual WHO standard mentioned above. In 97 cities under the NCAP, all cities exceeded the WHO standard and 63 cities were above the NAAQS.

As India grapples with its air pollution and related health problems, we also need to pay much greater attention to a number of other looming natural resource-related challenges.

Also read: We need a standardized framework to track city-level air pollution

This column has in the past referred to the challenges of Planetary Boundaries (PB), a framework that describes limits to the impact of human activities on the Earth system.

Last week, scientists expressed deep concern that we are now on the verge of crossing the seventh PB—ocean acidification. Curiously, air pollution still remains in the safe zone, but that is at a global average level. South and West Asia are already marked in dark red, including India of course. 

India is deep red, signifying extreme vulnerability, on a few more life-supporting environmental systems; this list includes the increasing variability and instability in our global freshwater systems, nitrogen and phosphorous run-offs (and their impacts on coastal and freshwater systems), transgression of land systems (in particular forest biomes), the extent of human appropriation of net primary production (with implications for biodiversity), and, of course, the impacts of climate change. To address these other challenges, we need to take deep dives now and cannot afford to come up for clean air.

Given our poor track record over the past few decades on addressing urban air pollution, we need immediate strategizing to address these other life- threatening natural resource degradation challenges.

Most importantly, we must recognize that these challenges and their solutions are highly inter-connected, which offers an opportunity for synergistic approaches. 

Specialized mechanisms such as the CAQM for each such issue will not serve India’s purpose, though. We urgently need an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) approach to enhance human security in the country.