Targeting winter pollution: Looking for silver bullets is impractical

There is no escaping the fact that the solution to pollution lies in myriad hard decisions and sensible legislation on terra firma rather than up in the clouds

Well before Diwali, government agencies sounded the red alert on pollution in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR). Over the past week, the air quality index (AQI) has been “very poor” (between 301 and 400) with the Centre’s air quality early warning system predicting that the AQI will range between “very poor” and “severe” (401-500), with smoke, construction dust, fires from burning waste and agricultural stubble, and vehicular emission spreading a choking smog over the region. This has been an annual feature for at least two decades, with low winter winds proving no match for burgeoning human activities and