Context:

Air pollution level in Delhi nosedived last week and stayed in the ‘very poor’ category for two days partly due to dust storms and also because of non-implementation of long-term plans to fight pollution. Despite having a Comprehensive Action Plan for Delhi-NCR, many measures still remain on paper.

Issues:

• The top 14 most-polluted cities in the world are located in India, according to the World Health Organization; Delhi ranks six.
• Air pollution has been linked to lung cancer, stroke and heart disease. In 2017, 1.24 million people died in India due to air pollution, according to a study funded by the Indian government and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
• Cardiovascular diseases and respiratory diseases kill the most number of people in the Capital and air pollution plays a “major role” in both.
• Authorities responsible for controlling air pollution have been pulled up multiple times by the Supreme Court in the past. But there is no respite from the pollution.
• It is believed that multiplicity of agencies involved — Central government, State governments, municipal bodies — also affects the implementation of plans.
• Though dust is a major cause of pollution, little has been done across Delhi to prevent dust from rising in the air, in terms of landscaping of roads or by planting shrubs, trees and grass along the sides of roads.
• There are three waves of pollution that happen in Delhi. One during the summer, that is mainly due to dust from other areas. Another during October November, when the stubble burning happens and wind speed is less, and the third during December due to temperature inversion. These are mainly due to meteorological conditions, which can be mitigated, but cannot be stopped.

Comprehensive Action Plan and Graded Response Action Plan:

• Following Supreme Court directions, in 2018, the Central Pollution Control Board came out with CAP for Delhi and the National Capital Region.
• CAP is a long-term plan which lays down systemic changes to be implemented to fight air pollution.
• CAP differs from other plans, as it fixes responsibilities of works to be done on different agencies and also issues deadlines.
• It divides the works to be done, along with deadlines into 12 major areas like air quality monitoring, action to reduce vehicular emissions, control measures for road dust, among others.
• GRAP is a set of emergency measures to be implemented to control air pollution, according to day-to-day air quality index.

Way forward:

• Experts say that improving public transport, dust control and waste management are the main areas in which Delhi has been lacking.
• Vehicular pollutants are a major cause of pollution and improving public transport would encourage people to use it and lead to less vehicles on road and lesser pollution.
• Another area that needs attention is cooperation with neighbouring States.
• The plans are in place. The need of the hour is implementation with strong political and public support. It is a question of implementing it on a scale that is needed and with strong level of stringency.