Thick, toxic smog has once again descended upon northern India and eastern Pakistan, coinciding with the upcoming Diwali festival. This Hindu celebration, marked by fireworks, typically leads to a sharp decline in air quality.
On Monday morning, the air quality index in Delhi, India’s capital, hovered around 250, categorizing it as “very unhealthy,” according to IQAir, which monitors global air quality. Meanwhile, Lahore, a Pakistani city located about 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the Indian border, recorded air quality levels exceeding a hazardous 500—nearly 65 times higher than the World Health Organization’s recommended limits, making it the world’s most polluted city at that time.
As winter approaches, air quality is expected to deteriorate further. The onset of winter smog brings a yellow haze that blankets the region, primarily due to agricultural waste burning, coal-fired power plants, vehicular emissions, and stagnant winter air.
Diwali, which begins Thursday, is a five-day celebration where families come together to feast and set off firecrackers, often ignoring local bans, which contributes to worsening air pollution. Each year, dystopian images of orange haze and obscured buildings dominate headlines, prompting warnings from doctors about respiratory diseases and their potential impact on life expectancy. Experts have noted that severe air pollution in India could reduce life spans for hundreds of millions of people.
Residents and experts have long questioned why India has struggled to control air pollution, particularly as Delhi and surrounding states dispute accountability. Although Delhi has prohibited the use and sale of firecrackers ahead of Diwali, enforcement of this ban has proven challenging.
Last week, India’s Supreme Court criticized the Punjab and Haryana state governments for their inadequate response to illegal stubble burning, a practice where farmers burn crop residue to clear fields. While local officials claim to have significantly reduced this practice, it remains a contentious issue.
In 2019, the Indian government launched a nationwide Clean Air Programme, aiming to cut particulate matter concentration by 40% by 2026 across 24 states and union territories. The plan includes measures to regulate coal power plants, establish air monitoring systems, and ban biomass burning.
To combat air pollution in Delhi, officials have started sprinkling water on roads and even attempting artificial rainfall. However, experts view these measures as temporary fixes that do not address the root causes of the problem. Although some Indian cities have reported improvements in air quality, progress has been slow.
From 2018 to 2022, the average PM2.5 concentration in New Delhi during November, the start of the pollution season, remained largely unchanged, according to IQAir data. Experts have raised concerns about the political will to tackle pollution effectively.
“There is not one party that has taken a firm stance and said, ‘We are poisoning the entire country; let’s fix it,’” stated Jyoti Pande Lavakare, founder of the clean air non-profit Care for Air, in a CNN interview last year.
