Pollution in India

By Syona Vashisth

India’s pollution problem is no surprise to many; the deadly air quality fogs up the sky and people mask up just to go outside. Every year before winter, the air quality decreases, especially around the capital New Delhi, which houses 35 million people. The amount of smoke in the air is caused by a variety of things, such as the farm fires in northwestern India. Every November, farmers burn off straw after the rice harvest to have space for the next crop — but this smoke ends up spreading across the country, including New Delhi. Other factors include cars and other vehicles, industrial factories, and other fires used for heat and cooking. 

The hazardous air quality got so bad this year that they had to close schools. Children are deprived of their education because of the pollution of their own country.

Diesel-burning vehicles were ordered to get off the roads and construction projects were halted as a measure to minimize the deadly air quality. People were asked to stay indoors so they wouldn’t inhale the oxygen outside. However, many people can’t just stay inside all day; many have to go out and work every day in order to support their families. One man from Gorakhpur, in the north of India, claims that at the end of his day, it’s as if he has smoked 20 cigarettes. This is just one of the examples that shows the extreme effects pollution has had on citizens worldwide.

When Canada had wildfires earlier this year, New York was affected with orange skies. This was such a shock to residents; it looked like an entirely different planet for those few days. Unfortunately, this is the reality for many Indians. In early November, the air quality index reported a score of over 500, a number so high that some experts believe it will shorten people’s life spans by over ten years. 

In 2019, India launched the Clean Air Programme in an effort to reduce air pollution and raise life expectancy. This initiative meant reducing the use of coal based power plants, setting up air monitoring systems, and banning burning of biomass.

Since India is such a populated and diverse nation, it is more so up to the governments of each state to implement these strategies. Some states have been able to improve air quality, but the lack of enforcement from governments as well as coordination has halted or slowed down progress. 

SOURCES:

https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/16/india/new-delhi-beijing-pollution-levels-intl-hnk-dst/index.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/11/09/india-air-quality-smog-new-delhi/

https://nytimes.com/2023/11/03/world/asia/new-delhi-india-pollution.html?searchResultPosition=1