Fifty years ago, Delhi was a pristine place, not yet discovered by the nouveau riche. Derided as an ‘overgrown village’ by Bombayites, it had broad roads, little traffic, a surfeit of trees and most importantly clean, fresh air. On the flip side it had rude auto drivers, overcrowded buses and markets that shut down by 8 pm. Both perception and reality underwent a drastic change in the aftermath of the Asian Games in 1982.

By 1990, a perpetually-in-a hurry culture had subsumed the sleepy character of Delhi. With millions flocking to Gurgaon, Noida and Faridabad from the backwoods of UP, Bihar, Haryana and Punjab, the satellite towns of Delhi became one with the city, putting unbearable strain on its resources. Pollutants from wood and coal burning, new factories, untreated industrial waste, and increasing vehicular traffic made the city’s environment wholly unhealthy.

Environmentalist M.C Mehta filed a Public Interest Litigation in the Supreme Court against the Union of India in 1985 claiming that existing environmental laws obliged the government to reduce air pollution that had impacted public health adversely. After obtaining opinions of fact-finding commissions and the Ministry of Environment and Forests, the Supreme Court concluded that heavy vehicles ~ trucks, buses and defence vehicles ~ were the principal polluters. In 1996, the Supreme Court ruled that all government vehicles in Delhi should be converted to compressed natural gas (CNG).

Later, in 1998 the Court ordered that all buses plying in Delhi must be converted to CNG by 31 March 2001. Subsequently, auto-rickshaws, too, were ordered to be converted to CNG. Prevarication by Government agencies on various pretexts, made the Supreme Court see red and passan order on 5 April 2002, directing two bus manufacturers to supply 1500 CNG buses immediately, and to replace 800 diesel buses every month, till the entire DTC fleet was CNG-driven. There were initial hiccups ~ shortage of CNG stations resulted in long queues and delays ~ but the effect on the environment was dramatic, with the Air Quality Index (AQI) coming down to acceptable levels. However, with an increase in population, vehicles, factories, road and house construction, environmental gains from conversion of commercial vehicles to CNG were lost by November 2016, when the AQI hovered around 400, and crossed 450 on several days.

The newly installed AAP Government tried various measures, including closing of the coalbased Rajghat Power Station in 2015 (and the Badarpur Power Plant in 2018), odd and even scheme, stopping the operation of polluting vehicles, and stopping construction and demolition activities. Later on, a Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) for Delhi-NCR and adjoining areas was notified in January 2017. Still, there was no dent in pollution. The Central Government, therefore, brought in an Ordinance in 2020 to establish the Commission for Air Quality Management in National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas (CAQM) with an exclusive jurisdiction to tackle air pollution in Delhi NCR and adjoining areas.

The 2020 Ordinance was replaced by an Act in 2021, yet air pollution continued to scale new heights. Panic set in on 18 November 2024, when AQI exceeded 450, putting the air quality in the ‘severe-plus’ category. By evening AQI had touched 500 ~ the maximum reading on machines. Hearing an urgent PIL, the Supreme Court came down heavily on the CAQM observing: “The moment the AQI reaches between 300 and 400, stage 4 (of GRAP) has to be invoked. How can you take risks in these matters by delaying applicability of stage 4 of GRAP?” As rightly observed by the Supreme Court, belated action is the crux of the problem. Every year, since 2016, the onset of winter sees AQI worsening to unacceptable levels.

Every year, once AQI abates in March, both Delhi and Central Governments promise new initiatives to curb pollution. Artificial rain and smog towers were two measures suggested by authorities. Consequently, two smog towers were commissioned at a cost of Rs.22.9 crore each in August/September 2021. Equipped with 40 fans and 5000 filters that drew in contaminated air, and released cleansed air, each 24- metre-tall smog tower in Delhi had the capacity to filter 1,000 cubic meters of air each second, thus cutting down air pollution by 70 to 80 per cent within a radius of 50 meters, and by 15 to 20 per cent beyond 300 meters.

However, both smog towers soon became non-operational due to maintenance issues. Later on, in an affidavit filed before the National Green Tribunal (NGT), the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) averred that the city was dependent only on seasonal factors to reduce air pollution and the two smog towers at Connaught Place and Anand Vihar had little effect on air quality in surrounding areas and at least 40,000 smog towers would be required if these were to be used to reduce air pollution. The demand for artificial rain in Delhi cooled down after cloud seeding induced floods in Dubai and snowfall in Saudi Arabia. A study of pollution control in London ~ a city plagued by pollution since the thirteenth century, and in Beijing, the most polluted city and smog capital of the world in 2005 ~ would provide valuable insights for Delhi. “London fog” portrayed vividly by Charles Dickens and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in their writings, and called “peasoupers” for their dense, yellow appearance, had become a hallmark of London by the 19th century.

The Great London Smog of 1952, caused by a combination of adverse weather conditions and pollution, was the worst pollution based fog in history, which resulted in a five days’ zero visibility induced shut-down, and an estimated 12,000 deaths, along with numerous hospitalisations. Thankfully, ameliorative measures taken by the British Government and City of London administration, have made such episodes a thing of the past. Concerns for the health of athletes participating in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, put the future of the games in jeopardy, but ahead of the Olympics, the Chinese Government’s standard playbook of implementation of short-term pollution-control measures before important international events, like clean-up technologies fitted to coal-burning power stations and industrial plants, tighter emissions controls on vehicles, improved pollution in Beijing to acceptable levels. Continuation of these efforts, with several additional measures, like conversion of coal-based plants, reduced particle pollution in Beijing by more than 60 per cent, over the 10 years from 2013 to 2023.

Significantly, pollution in Beijing was still six times higher than World Health Organization guidelines. What was done by Beijing and London was not rocket science ~ substantially similar measures are being taken in Delhi. The difference is that Beijing and London rigorously enforce pollution control protocols all the year round, while the Delhi administration waits for air quality to dip to unacceptable levels before taking curative measures, and that too with myriad exceptions. The current year has been the worst for the environment in recorded history (Fragile Balance, 13 November). Pollution has peaked in many parts of the World, particularly the Indian subcontinent, with Lahore and Multan recording AQI levels close to 2000. Even success stories like London and Beijing are facing unacceptable levels of pollution. Unfortunately, a sense of urgency to tackle pollution in Delhi is missing; a political slugfest is going on with BJP blaming stubble-burning by Punjab farmers, and AAP blaming stubble-burning by UP farmers, for the spike in air pollution. Overall, everyone conveniently blames farmers for air pollution while ignoring other causes of pollution in Delhi.

A NASA study of 2024, showing fewer farm fires and lesser resultant pollution, was sought to be debunked by stating that famers intentionally did not burn stubble at the time the NASA satellite was traversing over their fields! The contribution of various pollutants to overall pollution is debatable ~ pegged at different levels by different agencies ~ but the extent of vehicular pollution is such that provision of ULEZ (Ultra-Low Emission Zones) for cars in London has reduced pollution significantly. One wonders why the Indian Government does not ban diesel and petrol vehicles permanently in major cities or insist that all factories would run only on liquid natural gas or that each factory should have a sewage treatment plant? Perhaps, political parties are more interested in highlighting the pollution problem for votegathering, rather than solving it. As Jens Martin Skibsted, the Danish designer, entrepreneur and author had said: “The challenge of pollution and global warming is no longer the science, or the rate of innovation, but the rate of implementation: We have the clean solutions; now let’s bundle them and install them.”

(The writer is a retired Principal Chief Commissioner of Income-Tax)