Solving North India's Air Quality Crisis

Context: North India's air quality crisis has adverse implications for the health of 600 million people.

Reasons for increased air pollution in North India

• Policy issues: 

• Lack of data for Source Attribution: Inadequate data capture for apportioning the dust in the air to the underlying sources

• Side-effect of state laws: Crop burning in Punjab and Haryana was influenced by intrusive state laws enacted in 2009 which for the purpose of water conservation, the reduced time gap between consecutive sowing.

• Geographical Factors:  Gangetic plains of North India are like a bowl with the Himalayas in the north and the Deccan plateau in the south, trapping the injected air due to little wind and rain after the monsoon.

• Human activities: In the last decade, human activities injected more dust into the air as compared with what was prevalent before.

Outcomes of the increased air pollution in North India

• The region has become a global pollution hot spot: Four of the five most polluted cities in the world are in the Indo-Gangetic plains

• Adverse effects on Human health:  Low air quality causes respiratory illness, exacerbation of the deteriorative illnesses of old age etc. 

Way Forward

• Conduct Source Apportionment Studies: In India, one such study was done in 2014-15, which consist of capturing a sample of air and deciphering what is in it.

• Repeal the laws aimed at improving water conservation: and  find other mechanisms through which water conservation can be improved with expert advice

• Resort for light-touch intervention rather than the central planning vision of using the coercive power of the state to order farmers.

• Replicate the global success methods: 

• China established statistical infrastructure, of continuous source apportionment which helps them to deal with their terrible air quality
• Fifty years ago, Los Angeles was the most polluted city in the world, which now becomes one of the least polluted cities of its size.

• Develop a compensatory mechanism: through which states are able to demand compensation from Punjab and Haryana.