NCR's air pollution problem needs hard decisions from states, Centre

Soon after the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur, conducted cloud-seeding tests, an analysis by the Global Burden of Disease (GBD), which comes under the independent research centre Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, offered a sobering assessment of the scale of the issue. It showed that air pollution accounted for 15 per cent of all deaths in 2023 or that one in seven deaths in Delhi was linked to air pollution — surpassing other major risk factors such as high blood pressure and diabetes. According to the study, exposure to ambient particulate matter pollution led to roughly 17,188 deaths in Delhi as against 15,786 in 2018. As the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, a Finland-based non-profit, pointed out, air pollution is no longer an environmental issue but a public-health crisis that demands “science-based action”.

 

The Delhi government’s well-meant cloud-seeding experiment to contain pollution must be viewed in this context. The back-to-back experiments failed to produce any meaningful levels of rain, and the air quality remained stubbornly in the “poor” category the day after. The failure of this experiment, for which the Delhi government has earmarked ₹3.21 crore for five trials, was on account of unpropitious weather conditions. Notably, the India Meteorological Department had shared inputs with IIT Kanpur that the cloud cover would be insufficient to produce rain. This begs the question why the institution went ahead with an experiment that cost the Delhi taxpayer ₹64 lakh per flight when the chances of efficacy were minimal. In fact, as an IIT Delhi study pointed out, Delhi’s winter atmosphere, when pollution is at its peak, is unsuitable for cloud seeding on account of a “fundamental lack of moisture and saturation”. In countries such as the United Arab Emirates and China, both leaders in the use of cloud seeding, the technology has been successfully deployed in the humid monsoon primarily to address localised droughts. These realities point to the need for urban administrations to look for constructive institutional solutions to contain hazardous pollution rather than expensive silver bullets.

 

Since winter pollution afflicts not just the National Capital Territory of Delhi but the entire National Capital Region (NCR) and beyond, plans for tackling pollution demand joint solutions among the states concerned and the Union government. The principal challenge here is taking hard decisions, dialling back populism in the interests of public health. It is now becoming clear that diminishing farm fires are less of a contributor to pollution than vehicular pollution and the indiscriminate bursting of crackers during the Diwali week. With green crackers proving an ineffective alternative, a hard, enforced ban is urgently called for. At the same time, all states must urgently accelerate affordable, safe and well-maintained public transport solutions — such as mass transit rail links — that encourage people to jettison private cars. The Delhi Metro has proved a beacon in this respect. But such solutions need critical mass to enable the NCR’s citizens to breathe easily again.