Clearing The Air

Science may have become our only crutch against bad air, but it is time we invented a new politics of space that privileges the walker and the cyclist

- Rakesh Kalshian

NOVEMBER IS here, and so is the familiar miasma that grips the city in a deadly embrace every winter. Equally banal is the tableau of events that this annual spectre triggers—outrage followed by much hand-wringing among the public and media, passing-the-buck among politicians, and, finally, as the danger level crosses the red mark, a crackdown by the courts. So schools are shut down, health advisories issued, construction works grounded, thermal power plants turned off, and thousands of commercial trucks halted at the city limits. Meanwhile, makers of masks and air purifiers are making a killing.

This time, though, there was some respite as the apex court, in a controversial juggling act, banned sale, but not bursting, of firecrackers 10 days before and after Diwali. Some people burst crackers regardless. While the pollution levels shot up to severe levels over the following fortnight, the general feeling is that were it not for the ban, the air would have been much fouler.

At any rate, the contribution of firecrackers to Delhi’s pollution budget is, to mutate an adage, a mere particle in the atmosphere, especially as it comes only once a year. The trouble is it becomes complicit in an annual, even if accidental, conspiracy of whammies, such as dipping mercury, lethargic winds, stubble burning, and dust-laden winds blowing in from the deserts of west Asia, all of which, in concert with history-sheeters like vehicular exhaust, road dust, and smoke from power plants, effectively turn Delhi into a deadly gas chamber, sending PM2.5 levels soaring to 6-13 times higher than what is considered kosher.