File photo of a cyclist riding amid heavy smog in New Delhi, Oct. 2017. The problem has only aggravated since then. (Money Sharma/AFP)

New Delhi, the national capital of India and its adjoining national capital region (NCR) has turned into a gas chamber as air quality index (AQI) breached 1,000, 700 points, above what is considered “hazardous” levels, according to AirVisual, a website that monitors air pollution the world over, and rose beyond measurement capabilities of some pollution particle sensors.

Headlines and social media are replete with trauma and travesty of citizens grappling through this cinereous, noxious, carcinogenic smog that has metamorphosed into the new capital killer.

Since 2018, overall number of “good” days has receded, though AQI declined by 4 percent, and 2019 registered only 2 days, August 17 and 18, of “good” (AQI 49) air.

An unusually better August and September, due to delayed departure of monsoons, one which meteorologists attribute to climate change, by late October and early November life in affected regions became utterly miserable.

Since then environmental factors — onset of colder climate, change in wind speed that died on account of late retreating monsoons and cyclonic activity in the Arabian Sea, change in wind direction, coupled with human factors – burning of stubble in four northern agricultural states of Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and upper Rajasthan, burning of solid waste, motor vehicle emissions, exhaust from diesel generators, dust from construction sites, burning garbage, coal power plants, and legal and illegal industrial activities, to create a monstrosity, switching on hazard bells.

For their inaction, “passing the buck” in dealing with the crisis, “blatant and grave violation of the right to life”, even in the face of a public and international outcry, the Supreme Court criticized the central and state governments and directed them to action.

It is not as if no actions were ever promulgated — Graded Response Action Plan (2016) has been successful partially in reducing fresh emissions by 15-20 per cent, and the odd-even scheme, with respect to curbs on personal car transport for fortnights, have cutting down peak pollution hours by 2 percent.

Yet the inefficacy of piecemeal solutions and non-implementation of adequate means to root out issues have revealed the lack of political will to formulate a comprehensive policy and activate technological solutions.

As local elections near in Delhi it is uncertain if Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party will be able to retain its dominance in the face of a contending Bharatiya Janata Party that is yet to face the ire of accountability from the public.

Over nigh on two decades, the lack of seriousness in appreciating the enormity of this expanding menace has worsened matters.

Among ad hoc policies were converting city transport fleet into compressed natural gas fuel-vehicles, delayed implementation of BS1V standards 2010 and postponement of target for BSVI to 2025, setting up of National Air Quality Index and standards in 2014 for clean air in terms of Good/Satisfactory/Moderate/Poor/Very Poor/Severe — and an associated colour and health advisory with respect to residential and industrial areas in terms of ambient concentrations of 12 pollutants, and setting up of real-time automatic monitoring stations.

But increase in car ownership, from 4.24 million in 2004 to 10.8 million in 2018, non-extension of public transport, polluting industrial units thriving in peripheral NCR territories, and 10.75 per cent growth rate of population (from 16.6 million in 2001 to 46.1 million in 2011) nullified every positive attained by such efforts.

These were causes enough to push Delhi & NCR to experience its first worst smog seasons, as PM2.5 levels rose to over 750 microgram per cubic meter (µg/m3), over 12.5 times the permissible limit, compelling the spec court to intervene with its raft of orders on public transport, clean fuels, vehicular emissions and infrastructure in NCR.

The localized problem threatens to spread as weather forecasts indicate the eastward and southward movement of the north-westerly winds.

Therefore, the impact of air pollution is only to grow grave and the government has to step up its efforts on a war footing, become more proactive in nature and not relegated to handling only extreme situations.

With 22 of the top 30 most polluted cities in the world, average life expectancy of those residing in northern states and Indo-Gangetic plains believed to have been reduced by 7 years, corporate offices mulling relocation due to loss of man-hours, economic expense of the pollution costing about 8.5 percent of country’s GDP (2013), flights getting cancelled or diverted, schools being temporarily shut down and citizens forced to stay indoors, the country is shorn of choice and time to not heed the looming national health emergency.

Toxic airs that extinguishes one child’s life every three minutes (Global Burden of Disease 2017) along with inability of the poor and masses to access good healthcare, sits on top of all other risks in India.

As the most populated country in the world, challenges — achieving collaboration and participation of all stakeholders, formulating comprehensive legal framework for multi-sectoral focused policies, action plans and reduction targets encompassing all polluting sectors and cities, affordable and easily feasible technological solutions replacing masks, purifiers, advisories and temporary and arbitrary restrictions, allocation of adequate corpus of funds and human resource – will come in the way of NDA government’s resolve to reduce pollution by a least 35 percent in coming five years in 102 most polluted Indian cities.

But given the scale and seriousness of the matter the Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself will need to step up intervention and direction in the desired direction.