India Has 8 Out Of 10 Most Polluted Cities In The World. Why? Can It Beat Air Pollution? | Insight

smug continues to choke residents in New Delhi as air pollution in the Indian Capital hits hazardous levels every year a public health

emergency descends on India the percentage of population that's breathing air that does not meet National air quality standards has

increased from about 30 or% to over 50% the bad air is not something that you become immune to this is a toxin India has tried to address air pollution

for decades yet in 2024 eight out of 10 of the world's most polluted cities are in India the rate at which the problem of

pollution is growing and the action that we are taking that's not me matching what keeps India from snuffing out its air pollution problem citizens

feel that it's only short-term problem not a long-term problem everybody goes home winter months are over air pollutions forgotten the coming

Generations are going to be affected which is like a very serious affair [Music] [Music] an

[Music] each year from the months of October to January India's capital Delhi sees a

spike in patients with respiratory issues in 2024 some hospitals saw a patient surge of 40 to 50% the cause an

annual deterioration of the air quality is a [Music] [Music] ACC [Music]

last November delhi's air quality index or aqi reached 795 that's far above 100 The Benchmark for when air becomes

unhealthy some areas of the city recorded a reading of 1,185 Delhi became the world's most polluted city in

history but this problem isn't new since 2018 Delhi has had the dubious honor of being named the world's most polluted

capital city five times and pollution isn't just confined to Delhi in 2024 eight of the 10 most polluted cities in

the world were in India here not year we have a severe growing problem of air pollution and

every year the the Supreme Court makes sure that they come down heavy on the government forks and the same story is repeated where they come in they produce

some sort of a statement before the court everybody goes home winter months are over air pollution is forgotten yet if this is a recurring

Hazard why hasn't India solved its air pollution problem after all poor air is a well documented issue in India one that the government has been trying to

address for decades so air pollution and government's effort to deal with air pollution had started long time back

around the late '90s that was a time when Delhi was asked to move all its polluting industry out of the city and that was a time where the decision was

taken to move the entire public transport and local commercial transport to natural gas so these were the two critical strategies that were adopted at

that point of time as early as 1974 the central Pollution Control Board was set up to collate and disseminate data related to

water pollution it also coordinates the activities of the state Pollution Control boards which were established at the same time their mandate was expanded

to the atmosphere when the air prevention and control go of pollution Act was passed in 1981 many policies were enacted in the years since to curb

emissions and set air quality standards more recently the national clean air program was launched in 2019 to cut pollution from

131 cities across India then in 2021 to resolve the issues of poor air quality in and around Delhi the commission for

air quality manag management or cqm was established Arvin ntio works for the cqm

overseeing all day-to-day functions and policies talking holistically about air pollution issue in India there is lot of sensitivity firstly it's about

acknowledging that it is an issue so that is the first part which has been very appropriately done and the entire mechanism right from the central government to the state governments to

the bodies they all well sensitized they all understand the imperatives and the need to actually combat this issue mitigative measures have begun but as we

see and learning from experience across the world it's a long journey however despite these decades long efforts every winter like clockwork

the noxious air returns when monitors talk about poor air quality they're usually concerned

with particulate matter 2.5 or PM 2.5 now when we talk about PM 2.5 we talk about the size the particles which

has a aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 Micron the 60th crosssection of your single hair is pm2.5 then it will get

deposited smaller the particle it can even reach to your lungs they are the most lethal particles the World Health

organization's recommended standard for clean air sets pm2.5 limits at 5 microG per cubic meter of air India's standard

allows 40 microG per cubic M of air but there's more to toxic air than size B 2.5 particles can be black carbon

organic carbon sulfate carbonous particles nitrate particles minerals and all black carbon has been linked to

respiratory and cardiovascular diseases as well as cancer the moment the toxicity component comes into that I think the word will

evolve in a different kind of a paradigm impacts air pollution is estimated to have killed 16 million people in India over

the last decade smaller particulate matter less than 2.5 or even less than that point1 goes deep down into our lungs it causes

swelling of the lining of the aloi which is where gas exchange occurs this swelling or the inflammation spills over into the circulation if it goes to the

Heart It causes swelling it predisposes you to have having an heart attack so it's important to understand that the cause of air pollution is not that it

kills directly but it worsens the underlying condition tilts the balance towards more severe disease and causes death air pollution currently is what I call a medical emergency and it's a

silent killer and yet why Deli and why winter what causes the air quality to worsen in North India during the cold

months geography climatology and location plays a very very important

role in the air quality all the coastal city normally see a relatively better air quality but uh like Northern India

specifically indog gantic plane region which is more of a landlock like Delhi is a landlock city which can swellow everything but can't vomit

anything Northern India is fringed by the Himalayan range in summer the air near the ground is warm the warm air being less dense Rises and disperses

pollutants heavier cooler air rushes in to fill the space creating wind that scatters the smog during the winter the air near the ground is cool and doesn't

rise hence there is little air movement in Wind wind and the pollutants stay near the ground the Himalayas also acts

as a barrier to prevent pollution from dissipating all major cities across India grappled with air pollution throughout the year it just becomes more prominent During certain months of the

the year especially during the winters last November when the air pollution returned once again emergency measures were put into place schools

were closed traffic restrictions were enforced citizens were advised to stay indoors and all construction activities for non-essential projects were

halted these measures are part of what is called a graded response action plan or grap certain measures maybe they are

restrictive but if they help to control and combat this issue and uh lower the levels of emissions and air pollution during those winter months it's not a

long-term measure in any case it's the the analogy between a disease and a symptom if somebody is suffering from cancer and the symptom is

that they get headaches and fever so you give them paracetamol that's what grap is so grap is the paracetamol to the underlying cancer of air pollution in

India but does that mean that pollutant cease to exist in the atmosphere no so in the case of

India where are the pollutants coming [Music] from about like 14 15 months ago I got a job in Delhi it was a good offer and it

provided me a push in my career I was based in Chennai at the moment but yeah I took a call because the job really seemed attractive and a

[Music] catch in November 2023 Madu packed her belongings left her family behind and

moved to Delhi to work as a writer but soon she realized things weren't quite right I love being out doors and uh take

walks sitting in parks and when I came here it's something that uh slowly I had to just let go off I didn't have an

option to go out a lot without really coming back with a cold or a cuff or or a dizzy head I think 2 3 months when my health

just kept deteriorating is when I realized that it's probably not as worth it so two months ago Madu decided she'd

had enough and quit her job I don't I don't know which city I'm moving to next but I've decided not to stay in Delhi because I don't want to give that cost anymore I don't want to pay up uh with

my health in 2019 dalberg a global consulting firm concluded the air

pollution cost India $95 billion US each year from reduced productivity work absences and premature death this adds

up to 3% of the country's GDP and while Delhi may be the worst hit other major cities are also susceptible to periods of

pollution it is an India problem often when you hear people in Delhi and CR saying oh it's so polluted and I want to go and live somewhere else I mean don't be in a Fool's world because pollution

and the health risk is now quite uniformly spread where does the air pollution come from According to the Center for Science

in environment more than half of the pollution in Delhi comes from the areas surrounding the capital about 1 Sixth comes from biomass or crop burning

within Delhi there are many sources of pollution including waste burning industrial activity power generation construction and Road dust and the

biggest contributor vehicular emissions and yet approximately 1,800 100 new cars are added to the roads of

Delhi each day for the middle class having your own car is a sign of having made it cars are part of aspiration but how

much the car you are going to use depends on the convenience of all other modes if you look at the way we are designing our roads today it is for the

convenience of the movement of the car and you're making flyovers widening road that are impossible to cross so the road design is telling us continuously that

we are designing the city for you to drive a car but not to walk not to cycle and use a public transport it's just not the number of vehicles that the daily

alone is registering on a daily basis more than 1.1 million Vehicles enter from the surrounding region now is this

sustainable not at all Delhi and India at Large taken steps to cut emissions by encouraging the use of clean fuels and offering incentives

for electric vehicles emission standards for new vehicles have been upgraded to align with EU benchmarks the problem however

is that of the 6.5 million registered vehicles in Delhi many are old it's your numbers of older vehicles

is actually the issue while there is a Supreme Court ruling that no diesel vehicle more than 10 year old or petrol vehicle more than 15 year old can fly in Delhi NCR but still we we find that this

enforcement has not been up to the levels and large numbers of know such overaged vehicles are still found ping in the roads across Delhi

NC meanwhile Delhi has become more crowded it is now the 44th most congested city in the world cars are on

the roads for longer and an idling car in traffic can produce about 4 lbs of carbon dioxide per

hour then there is the issue of construction dust Delhi is one of India's busiest construction hubs and estimated

385,000 homes were completed in 2022 construction dust is poorly managed all year around I think the primary reason is that we are a developing

country that has internalized a message that it has to be development first and environment later during months with poorest air quality sprinklers are employed to

settle the construction dust by trapping them with water however much of the construction dust comprises larger

particles of pm10 2.5 is lethal 10 is dust mostly dust if you look at the incentives that are given to the state governments and

the state Pollution Control boards they're all focusing on reducing and using money to stop pm10 emissions and

the logic given by cpcb was if you are reducing pm10 which is a bigger molecule you're automatically reducing

pm2.5 this does not hold mathematically to explain this very simply if you wear a cloth mask you will be able to protect

yourself from dust because it's pm10 but pm2.5 that will pass through a cloth mask so if you're only reducing pm10 and

not PM 2.5 you're still going to die outside the city centers crop burning or stubble burning is another

source of pollution Farmers set fire to their fields to prepare their land for the next crop cycle what we know that during the Harvest

Time Farmers find it easier to just burn it and it's much more expensive to hire laborers to cut it from The Roots we have the solutions it's just that the

scale of infrastructure that is needed to enable 100% implementation that's where we are lagging

behind since 2015 regulations and fines have been put in place to discourage crop burning farmers are incentivized to stop using Fires for example by

harvesting and selling straw instead of burning it so these efforts have helped to actually cut down the number of fire

incidences which were at the level of around 880,000 till in 2020 now they have come down to a level of only around 14,000 in Punjab

and harana total yet as the fires die down in the countryside another Blaze is lit in the cities waste

[Music] burning Delhi has three colossal landfills the oldest and the largest

gazipur is home to thousands of people like musan it was also their source of income delhi now generates more waste than it

can manage its landfills are full becoming a fire hazard in April 2022 gazipur was engulfed in flames when the garbage

piles caught fire it happened again in April ail 2024 the speculative cause was the combustible methane gas released by decaying

waste now because you don't know what to do with this amount of garbage which is your landfill that's just sitting there and emitting things Catching Fire it's just problematic right so even if you're

using waste to energy plant while it is curbing or reducing your legacy landfill managing that waste for you what it is continuing to doing is to EXA ex the air

quality problem last October and November the government recorded a 38% spike in garbage fires any time that you burn waste that

causes extreme emissions of black carbon and 2.5 and there are other toxic emissions of pollutants that are also released what the policies currently are

not able to do is to enforce the ban on burning Bast finally there is industrial activity which accounts for about a quarter of India's Air

Pollution although the country has made a massive push towards Renewables half its power still comes from coal India's sixth largest thermal plant

is situated in gam Bud nagar District 48 km outside of Delhi it generates power for eight states and one Union

territory tarun shishodia has grown up in the shadow of this plant his entire life he [Music]

so we have seen quite a massive decline in coal usage in industrial units around Delhi but there is actually a big

dilemma of India because given the scale of demand for electricity and power that is growing in this country it's going to

be tough to see a very rapid transition away from coal so the causes of India's Air Pollution are varied and complex and

when it comes to tackling the toxic a whose responsibility is it more than a decade ago Dr Nim Clair and her team started tracking the health

of newborns in Delhi they monitored over 10,000 babies cross referencing the mother's address

against pollution data in a 10 km radius we found that it is affecting significantly the fetal weight

pm2.5 particulate material is so small that it can go through the blood from the mother to the fetus these uh newborns or these fetuses may have

underdeveloped lungs they may have the brain may get affected their cardiovascular health may get affected

and uh this may predispose them to lot of After Effects according to 2020s state of global air report in India more than 450

children under the age of five die each day of air pollution related causes around 116,000 newborns died less than a month

after birth children breathe faster they take in more air as compared to the adults the lungs are yet not very welld developed their immune

system is not very welld developed so they have maximum exposure to the air poor air as a responsible

citizen as a doctor who takes care of uh babies I'm not handing over a healthy

environment for a healthy life for a healthy the start which is very very serious yet India has been confronting its pollution problem for some time

since the air prevention and control of pollution Act was passed in 1981 in 2019 the government committed

$1.7 billion us over a 5-year span for the national clean air program or encap in initially the encap aimed to cut

pollution in 42 cities This was later expanded to 131 cities across India in 2021 two smog Towers were installed in

Delhi they function like air purifiers sucking in surrounding air to filter out particulates the towers cost $2.5

million us each to build and about 177,000 each month to run but a report by the Delhi pollution control committee found

that the towers only lowered pollution by 177% in a 100 m radius we know that air purification in

outdoor situation does not work when mass and volume of air moving through the city a SM Tower and at such an expense I don't think anyone is even

looking at it as a solution smoke towers are effective if you have the right number for it like if I were to put smoke Towers across all of Delhi

I would need at least 5 to 600 of them so do the math 5 to 600 multiplied by 25 30 crw it's just when you do cost benefit analysis it does not make

sense since late 2023 the smog Towers have been intermittently shut due to funding issues when Insight visited they were not in

operation so what we have seen is very interesting in India that if you really look at the way policies programs and schemes have been crafted for implementation they have actually taken

on lot of progressive principles and they have Define the scope of action the way it needs to be done to make an impact but where we see the big gap is

between the policy and implementation what then is the implementation Gap one area that critics

point to is data collection and Analysis as of November of 2024 the cpcb has

966 monitoring stations across 419 cities and towns in Delhi the ministry of Earth Sciences runs a program called

system of air quality and weather forecasting and research which collects pollution data M 2.5

89 to Quality what is the quality of monitoring system how are you where what is the location of your monitoring system what is the range in which it

operates how many of them exist is it manual is it continuous these are all factors that go into ultimately answering the question of Are We

measuring it so data on PM 2.5 is being gathered but it's not being analyzed necessarily even so there has been a

scaleb in data monitoring one very interesting development that took place in 2022 was a standing order given by the central Pollution Control Board to

all the state Pollution Control boards that says that no state is allowed to use central government funding or the 15th Finance commission funding to

procure continuous monitoring devices in fact all outstanding procurement orders for continuous emissions monitoring devices was cancelled we do not know what the reason is only the government

of India will be able to answer it cpcb had said that the funds should focus on Pollution Control measures rather than expensive monitoring

equipment another critique is that efforts are targeting the wrong pollutants from a recent review of the national clean air program where

actually huge amount of funding has flowed in but when you actually see where they're putting most of their money and where they're putting their effort then it's only dust

control they figured out they do really well on Dust parameters but not necessarily on the lethal parameters so they started focusing on Dust so yes they are doing exceedingly well on the

curbing of dust which is pm10 but the one that gives you lung cancer 2.5 is not being looked at for

every $100 spent on air quality 67 is spent on Dust reduction and then there is a question of whether focusing on cities under the

endcap is sufficient as sources of pollution May lie outside their boundaries for implementation strategy from practical

point of view if you a lot funds or you focus on a city or a state level it becomes easier but uh of late it is very

clear that uh we need we had to change our approach from City and emission Centric to airshed Centric an airshed refers to a

geographical location that shares the same air in India this area could span several States Air share Centric approach is the

approach which does not see the state or District boundaries so what does it mean that you need to work

together along with many many go many state governments together with this and that is the reason this has to go on

but when it comes to pollution there is finger pointing when deli's then chief minister atii was asked about the air pollution last November she pointed

fingers at other states economic activities like power generation and crop burning she also blamed the central government for lack of action chief

minister atishi is from the am admi party or AAP part of the opposition to the ruling BJP party in turn BJP leaders

have pinned the pollution on the AAP in a political compensation if there are two different governments of a two different ideology or a parties

obviously it becomes very very difficult to coordinate or which is not happening and that is where the problem is the moment it becomes a state problem

District problem Corporation problem this mola problem versus this smaller problem then always you know competition

starts and so many things so it is a it is a stick that everyone is trying to avoid it's like kindergarteners trying

to avoid getting caned you know each one pointing fingers of the other Collective action here stems from realizing that the collective good is not just a

healthier Planet not just healthier people but a healthier economy so in 2021 the commission for air quality management in the national capital

region and ajoining areas was put together to coordinate efforts across territories apart from Delhi the ca qm

has jurisdiction over surrounding states of harana Punjab Rajasthan and utar Pradesh it's not only Delhi could impact others others could impact Delhi so it's

also important to address the issues in adjoining areas The cqm Works in active and collaborative approach with all the

state governments for each sector wherever required we have come up with a road map as governed by the policy and then specific directions as to who should do what by one for the

implementation part and enforcement part of it it's through the state governments the pollution control boards or the pollution control committees

when the air quality worsened last October the Supreme Court chastised the cqm for failing to enforce its own

directives the court noted that there had been no prosecution of stubble burning violations since August to be very candid in 2021 it was

very difficult because it's a multidisciplinary multi-stakeholder kind of a issue so getting all those issues together getting all all those people

together will be a honorous task it's it's definitely a long journey but with confidence we can say that at least our policies our directions are in place and

we we can and we have moved a bit and it's the right direction I believe while progress on the issue creeps along some parents are left with

some difficult choices [Music] what will it take for India to solve its air pollution problem or is the toxic

atmosphere here to stay every day for 15 hours Fahim mudin has to Brave the smog to tend to his roadside fruit

store the health impact of air pollution in India is getting aggravated one because it is affecting everyone but more because you still have poor people

clearly they are not causing the pollution but they are the victims of the pollution some estimates say Delhi has between 3 to 400,000

homeless a few of the more fortunate ones find a space in homeless shelters like the one at Sarai Khan many thousands of others are left

exposed to the [Music] elements the poorer you are you're breathing more unclean air whether it's

from indoor air pollution or outdoor air pollution their Public Health costs become higher uh as a relative share of their incomes that is a higher burden

and therefore solving for air is a sustainable development issue rather than just a narrow City specific environmental

issue but for other segments of society air pollution also takes an economic toll clean air is directly uh proportional to

productivity in India so if I'm the government and I know that I employ say 10 people if my air is so severe that out

of the 10 people I have say five suffering from asthma their kids are suffering or their spouses are suffering and we know that people are taking more and more days off if I am a company

investing in India and I know that my lab is not going to be able to show up to work it is a net loss for me we want to be an open economy want to attract

foreign investment clearly we must be losing foreign investment with polluted cities so once we start quantifying this then we realize that actually investing

in clean air not just cleans up the air not just cleans up the city but begins to clean up the economy creates new business opportunities attracts Talent attracts investment

according to Swiss company iqa 83 of the world's 100 most polluted cities are in India the entire country is grappling

with this Delhi happens to be in the news because this is the power capital of the country the political corridors are here but this is certainly a problem all over the

country so some scientists are urging the central government to take an airshed holistic approach to air quality management rather than the current city

or state Centric methods air shade approach it does not see any political dispensation it doesn't see any state boundary in fact

it doesn't see even International boundaries also giving you the one example that Delhi air shade is not

confined to Delhi it adds up the areas from s different states surrounding them so the mitigation measures which is

being taken within the wall of Delhi Metropolitan territory that will not yield as much

faster results is if the similar kind of a measure would have taken in a complete air shade across India's border its neighbor has seen success with the airshed

approach in 2013 China tackled its toxic air with its air pollution action plan it coordinated efforts Nationwide closing

old coal plants and transitioning to natural gas or Renewables it shut down or moved polluting Industries and undertook

large-scale reforestation programs so between 2013 and 2022 particulate pollution in China was reduced by over

40% can India achieve the same in fact if you see the original National clean air program targets which were 20 to 35% reduction of air

pollution that was actually taken from the blueprint of what Beijing was able to do what soul was able to do what Beijing was able to do for example was

to have an extremely stringent mechanism of enforcement they were very clear on on what we are measuring how we are measuring it how do we want to reduce it

who's going to enforce it we lack across all those steps we as a scientist can always say that these are the air shade this is the way this is the solution but how it get

into the implementation and management this is leaving to the executives perhaps what is missing is the political push from the

people after all during India's general election in mid 2024 the campaigns centered around issues like unemployment

cost of living welfare and religion pollution hardly featured we still need a democratic demand for clean air and I think this

goes back to the core of the issue here that we as Citizens haven't internalized bad air is not something that you become immune to this is not a virus that you

building up some immunity against this is a toxin by January life seems to have returned to normal in Delhi though the

air quality remained between 200 to 400 poor to very poor many were out and about without masks I'm not wearing a mask because

it's I find a little inconvenient and I've got probably used to the pollution and when I leave the house it doesn't strike me ignorance is bliss sometimes pollution concerning so people right now are not

able to understand the consequences of core quality citizens feel that it's only short-term problem not a long-term problem and that's why I'm highlighting the fact that we need to look at it as a

long-term problem I don't think political will is a variable or a constant that emerges out of nowhere the day we

recognize that in the world's fastest growing major economy air pollution is holding us back from growing

faster is when we will realize that investing in clean air is one of the best investments we can make for our Economic Development

by the 6th of February delhi's air quality improved to 180 schools have reopened and most or

all restrictions lifted as the pollution dissipates will this Winter's bad air be the impetus for

change or will it be forgotten until it returns at the end of 2025 this obviously has attracted attention of all policy makers and

implementers the initial momentum has been actually overcome now things have actually on the Move I'm a DI hard Optimist and I have

no reason to believe that you know India will not be able to uh build the clean Pathways in the

future as the knowledge are increasing more combination more harmonization ction of a scientific fertility with policy makers to the

implementers I see the down the line at least uh in a decade we should be able to see our cities are getting cleaner mortality morbidity are

declining when I'm talking to you you know who's coming in front of my eyes it is my grandson who is just 3 months old

that what kind of future I'm giving to AI because because we need to give a good future to our children and we have to do something about our

environment whether it is a joint responsibility responsibility of me you the policy makers the media everybody

[Music] [Music]