Context: The Delhi government has extended work from home for its employees and the ban on entry of trucks carrying non-essential items till November 26 to combat air pollution. 

• Schools and colleges will also remain shut according to the directions of the Commission for Air Quality Management. 
• Last week, the Delhi government, acting on orders from the Commission for Air Quality Management, issued 10 directions, including banning the entry of trucks carrying non-essential items and shutting schools and colleges.
• It had also prohibited construction activity and ordered employees to work from home till Sunday. Which has now resumed. 
• In this edition of Big Picture we will analyse the issue of air pollution.

Causes of Deteriorating Air Quality

• Delhi’s air typically worsens in October-November and improves by March-April. Current weather conditions are not unfavourable, unlike in winter.
• During winter, cool and calm weather traps and spikes daily pollution, particularly in north Indian cities located in the Indo Gangetic Plain.
• Hence, apart from local emissions, the deterioration in air quality is being attributed to an increase in fire counts, mostly due to burning of wheat crop stubble in northern India.

The most crucial reasons for the alarming levels of air pollution in Delhi include

• City’s landlocked geographical location.
• Crop burning in neighbouring states (Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan).
• Vehicular emissions.
• Industrial pollution.
• Large-scale construction activities.

Key Concerns

• Deteriorating air quality is worrying amid an increasing number of novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases and deaths.
• In the World Air Quality report 2020, Delhi has been listed as the 10th most polluted city and the top polluted capital city in the world.
• In July 2020, Greenpeace (non-governmental organisation) found out that of the 28 global cities studied, Delhi bore the highest economic cost of air pollution with an estimated loss of 24,000 lives in the first half of 2020 despite a strict Covid-19 lockdown.
• Long-term exposure to outdoor and household (indoor) air pollution contributed to over 1.67 million annual deaths from stroke, heart attack, diabetes, lung cancer, chronic lung diseases, and neonatal diseases, in India in 2019 (State of Global Air 2020).

Major Measures Taken

• Subsidy to farmers for buying Turbo Happy Seeder (THS) which is a machine mounted on a tractor that cuts and uproots the stubble, in order to reduce stubble burning.
• The introduction of BS-VI vehicles, push for electric vehicles (EVs), Odd-Even as an emergency measure and construction of the Eastern and Western Peripheral Expressways to reduce vehicular pollution.
• Implementation of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP). It is a set of curbs triggered in phases as the air quality deteriorates, which is typical of the October-November period.
• Development of the National Air Quality Index (AQI) for public information under the aegis of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

Road Ahead

• Instead of focusing on farm fires, Delhi should look at local emissions to control the air pollution because breathing clean air is a fundamental right of every Indian citizen. Therefore, human health must become a priority when it comes to tackling air pollution.