The Sunita Narain Show: Delhi's pollution crisis needs action, not shutdowns
Delhi's winter pollution measures risk becoming half-measures without long-term action.
GRAP was designed as an emergency response, not a substitute for tackling pollution at its source.
Inadequate public transport and a lack of cleaner alternatives continue to undermine pollution control.
Delhi needs a time-bound action plan, political will and accountability to make emergency restrictions unnecessary.
Air pollution is a killer, a slow murderer. It damages our bodies, causes respiratory distress and affects everyone – the elderly, children and even the healthy. As toxic pollutants fill our air, we struggle to breathe. And for those of us living in Delhi, the season of despair is around the corner.
The question is: will the government's measures to tackle this winter's pollution actually work? And is shutting down the city and stopping everyday activities the only way to address air pollution?
I ask this as someone who was involved in introducing the Graded Response Action Plan, or GRAP, designed to restrict polluting activities during severe pollution episodes. But that was never intended to be its sole purpose.
As temperatures fall, temperature inversions trap pollutants closer to the ground. With little wind, pollution worsens, while winds carrying emissions from stubble-burning fields in neighbouring states make the air even more toxic.
The Delhi government has announced measures to tackle winter pollution, but most appear to be half-measures. Construction restrictions and requirements for 50 per cent of employees to work from home place the burden on citizens rather than addressing pollution at its source.
Of course, vehicles, particularly private cars and two-wheelers, contribute significantly to pollution. But before asking people to stop driving, governments must provide alternatives: adequate public transport, better bus connectivity and safe infrastructure for cycling and walking. Asking people to use public transport without increasing its capacity is not meaningful pollution control.
The government appears to have borrowed its playbook from GRAP without understanding its purpose.
In 2016, when Delhi experienced an exceptionally severe pollution episode, the Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA), of which I was a member, proposed GRAP as an emergency smog alert system. Working with the India Meteorological Department (IMD) and the SAFAR programme, the objective was to improve forecasting so that restrictions could be introduced ahead of severe pollution episodes.
Let me be clear: GRAP was never designed to replace meaningful, long-term action against air pollution. It was an emergency response, not a substitute for controlling pollution at its source.
Alongside GRAP, EPCA pushed for action against heavy-duty vehicles passing through Delhi, leading to pollution charges and the acceleration of bypass expressways. Between 2017 and 2019, decisive measures included the transition to BS-VI fuel and vehicle technology. These were part of a broader Comprehensive Action Plan to reduce pollution throughout the year.
The original strategy had two parts: introduce emergency restrictions when absolutely necessary, while taking long-term measures to ensure they would eventually become unnecessary.
But where is that action today?
Take vehicular pollution. Delhi needs a time-bound plan to expand public transport across the NCR, with more buses, better connectivity and cleaner vehicles. Despite the Supreme Court's repeated emphasis on the need for 10,000 buses, Delhi still has only around 6,840. Other NCR cities also lack adequate public transport.
Similarly, industries in unauthorised areas have been directed to stop using coal, but there has been little effort to ensure affordable and reliable alternatives such as electricity or natural gas.
My concern this winter is that we are simply not moving at the scale or speed required. We lack tough, time-bound action and effective implementation. Instead, we are shutting down the city and restricting people's everyday lives.
GRAP was meant to be an emergency response, not a permanent way of governing a polluted city. The real question is not how many days we can shut down Delhi, but how quickly we can make those shutdowns unnecessary.
Delhi needs political will, accountability and a comprehensive action plan to tackle pollution at its source. Otherwise, another winter will pass, restrictions will return, and all of us will continue to choke and fall ill.
