Delhi Pollution: Winter Of Discontent

The Delhi Pollution has again brought into the limelight the serious negligence of the policy makers to tackle the environmental issues.

- Kingson Chingakham

The Berkeley Earth Science Research Group has revealed that in a severe pollution condition like what has been experienced in the city, breathing in air with a PM 2.5 content of between 950-1000 is roughly equivalent to smoking 44 cigarettes a day.

According to the Lancet commission on pollution and health, India had the maximum deaths in 2015 because of pollution (2.5 million deaths). The problem of air pollution is so critical in the capital city that ad hoc measures like banning of fire crackers before Diwali, shutting down power plants, or even rationing of vehicles through odd-even scheme have failed to bring down the pollution level. The huge cost the citizens have to pay through health because of pollution needs to be intensively examined and researched to bring a well organized plan.

Whome to blame?

There have been several research and reports on pollution and climate change that have sprung up in the last few years within the country and abroad. These research papers and reports are more than adequate to bring out an actionable plan that is targeted towards reducing the toxicity in the air. But the lack of consensus among the municipalities, states and central government have failed the citizens again. From a 70 years old democracy, the citizens expect political maturity.