Solving Delhi's Air Pollution Crisis

Authors

Justin Wu, School of Aeronautics and Astronautics

Nikhil Sadavarte, College of Science

Air pollution has grown worldwide at an disproportionally high rate like never seen before, leading to numerous of negative consequences worldwide. However, some areas of the world have felt the effects of air pollution more than others. Commonly known as the world's most polluted capital, Delhi is facing an environmental and ecological crisis of a thick blanket of smoke and fog that covers its entirety and plagues its residents. Outdoor air pollution has far exceeded dangerous levels claiming the lives of hundreds of thousands each year and increasing hospitality rates across the metropolitan area. Inducing severe neurological, cardiovascular, and respiratory diseases as well as multiple chronic and acute issues across the body, the dark blanket that covers New Delhi has become nothing short of a national emergency and healthcare crisis. In this essay, we analyze the causes, effects, and potential solutions to the alarmingly high air pollution crisis in Delhi and offer to address this issue.

CAUSES OF AIR POLLUTION IN DELHI

The Delhi pollution crisis has been dominating the news around the world in recent years and its cause has been extensively researched and understood to better combat the crisis. Delhi was officially named the most polluted city on Earth as air quality levels reached alarmingly low levels causing massive health repercussions to Delhi residents and disturbing the lives of thousands. The air pollution within the region has only grown worse and worse with each passing year, amounting to terrible living conditions for residents of Delhi. Image 1 displays a comparison of Delhi’s current pollution to the Industrial Revolution air pollution levels in London, arguably the most densely polluted city during its time.

CAUSE #1 - INDUSTRIAL AND VEHICULAR EMISSIONS

Unfortunately, the everyday activities in the metropolitan area have played a large part in damaging the environment. Vehicular emission from the crowded city has cemented itself as one of the largest consistent pollution contributors to Delhi’s environment. In March of 2018, there were approximately 10.9 million vehicles congested in just Delhi. Vehicular emissions contributions make up approximately 90% of the nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxides - both harmful substances - in the air. Delhi government data indicated that trucks and tractors emitted the highest percentage of emissions at approximately 9% [2]. Vehicular emissions are causing the dispersion of multiple different pollutants in the air ranging from particulate matter, nitrous oxide, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. These pollutants, especially when considering the extremely high Delhi population and its rising congestion of traffic, have been accumulating in the immediate atmosphere. As time went on the pollutants form thick layers of smoke, fog, and sometimes even toxic gasses. The contributions of vehicular emissions to hospitalizations due to atmosphere poisoning grew dramatically as time went on.

However, vehicular emissions are not the only day-to-day activities that contribute to dramatically high air pollution levels.[3] Industrial pollution, according to the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) has made the capital city a highly polluted area in its water and natural lands. They estimated that “with as many as 3,182 industries located across the Delhi-National Capital Region, industrial pollution adds about 18.6% to poor air quality” (Same as #2)[4]. Finally, construction plays a large role in maintaining the high levels of pollutants in Delhi’s environment. Because of an exponentially growing housing crisis and growing population within the Delhi borders, construction has been taking place non-stop, causing a massive increase in dust and fine particle levels in the air. Government environmental laws that prevent massive levels of fine particles and dust particles from escaping construction sites are regularly ignored without punishment leading to even higher rates of uncontrolled pollutants in the air.

CAUSE #2 - AGRICULTURAL EMISSIONS

While vehicular and industrial emissions have been a consistent year-round source of pollution, agricultural burning has revealed itself to be another prominent source of air pollution in Delhi. Despite being less severe than vehicular and industrial emissions, it is still a massive contributor to the problem.

Image 1 - Visual and graphical representation of Air Pollution levels in Delhi vs London [1]

The cause of these dangerously high levels of pollution stems from multiple sources, one of the most notable of which is the crop burning taking place in neighboring regions surrounding Delhi. The states of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh share their border with Delhi and, along with Punjab, have been known to hold massive cropburning seasons causing a sudden rise in air pollution levels. Wind currents and natural breezes tend to carry and trap the particles from these towards the Delhi region leaving remains of approximately 35 million tones of burned rice stubbles that collect into the smog that envelopes Delhi. For example, the Guardian records one week in 2019 when the burning of crops in neighboring areas caused a sudden rise in air pollution by 46%[5]. Collectively in the past, Punjab itself has had upwards of 31,000 separate instances of man-made forest fires and Haryana registered 4,288 stubble burnings during the same period. As a result, the residual pollutants are trapped in the New Delhi area and can fester within the region for multiple years.

The problem of crop burning grew so large that a formal order from India’s supreme court ordered a complete halt of stubble burning and brought down punishments to the governments of Punjab and Haryana for allowing these illegal practices in 2019. Despite the practice of burning stubble crops being illegal, the problem persists to this day. Small and mid-level farmers are forced to pick between two options currently at the beginning of every planting season. Either they go against the government and burn their crops, or they pay exorbitant prices to remove their stubble in other ways - and many choose to defy the government. Farmers in Northern India tend to burn about 23 million tonns of paddy stubble annually since 2020 despite the harsh reprimands from the government going all the way to imprisonment. For the air to clear in Delhi, the pollutants from neighboring regions must fall drastically. Without that, the hope for Delhi to have year-round clear air is little to none [6].

IMPACTS OF DELHI’S INCREDIBLY HIGH AIR POLLUTION IMPACT #1 - HEALTH

The hospitalization, mortality, and impaired lives in Delhi saw a steady incline as the I environment became worse due to heavy levels of air pollution. The declining health of Delhi has made the problem of air pollution the most immediate and pressing concern of the government in order to protect their citizens.

The effects of this rapid increase in air pollution carry dangerous implications for the health of Delhi residents. According to a study conducted by the University of Chicago Energy Policy Institute on Delhi’s air pollution, the hazardous effects of the toxic smog in Delhi have caused an overall estimated decrease in the life expectancy of residents by almost 10 years, manifesting health problems of all kinds. Prolonged exposure to high air pollution caused a variety of health hazards in both adults and children, exposing chronic and acute illnesses and significantly worsening the quality of life across the metropolitan area. The effects began to spread from the typical respiratory problems as time went on, beginning to trigger cardiac, neurological, and gastric problems in hundreds of thousands of people across Delhi. The Lancet estimated that almost 17% of recent hospitalized deaths in New Delhi were caused by air pollution in India as a whole. Hospitals in Delhi reported a 20 percent surge in pollutionrelated or triggered illnesses as the air quality became so bad that it was compared to smoking 50 cigarettes a day [7].

Delhi was found to have a 1.7 higher prevalence and the likelihood of residents contracting respiratory symptoms related to pollution compared to rural controls near it while rates of asthma and physician-diagnosed major respiratory illnesses increased by roughly 40% when compared to control cities. Hypertension rates in Delhi rose by almost 36% along with a slew of other life-altering and potentially mortal conditions suddenly rising at alarming rates across the city [8]. However, the ramifications of the health of Delhi only continue. The Centre for Chest surgery and Lung Transplantation at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in Delhi reports a terrifying trend of non-smokers and young Indians acquiring early lung cancer - most situations ending in mortality. PM10 particles, fine particles small enough to enter through the lungs and mouths of humans, continue to further damage by causing more acute health symptoms that virtually every Delhi resident has faced recently. The health consequences of the New Delhi environmental crisis are an abhorrent sight to see and have made themselves a priority problem for the government to deal with [9]. PM 2.5 particles, likewise, have shown similar levels of harm as displayed in Image 2.

Image 2 - Visual Representation of Dangerous Levels of Particulate Matter in Delhi [10]

IMPACT #2 - ECONOMY

While health has slowly been declining and caused immediate pressing concerns, the next likely rapid consequence of air pollution will be the economy. Keeping a region's economy in check is one of the major indications of societal stability. Air pollution has begun to show its ability to cripple the economy and damage the lives of everyday citizens, making it the next most pressing and immediate concern for the Delhi government.

Yet, the consequences of poor air quality in Delhi extend far beyond health concerns, wounding the state's economy in magnitudes it has never seen before. According to the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), the economic cost of air pollution for India is tremendously high with health hazards forcing the Indian government’s hand to spend exorbitantly high amounts just to ensure the survival of their citizens. They estimate that air pollution across India causes approximately 5.4% of its total GDP just to address the immediate consequences. A report by the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay concluded that the Delhi government lost the US equivalent of $10.7 billion in 2015 alone due to environmental effects. The poor air quality in Delhi is forcing everyday workers to take involuntary weeks off and lowering the production output of Delhi’s workforce, reportedly driving out top corporate heads and pushing high-value companies to relocate to other areas costing New Delhi billions of US dollars in the long run. The ORF quantifies this finding that exposure to air pollution and sick days due to air pollution has cost the New Delhi workforce almost 490 million work absences since its conception [11]. Delhi’s GDP is estimated to decline a little over 1% each year with that number growing consistently as the problems continue to worsen while losing workers only decreases their potential output even further each year [12]. Yet, most of the consequences are taken on by the lower-class citizens. A Yale study exemplifies this perfectly, indicating that lower class citizens are often the ones who take the immediate economic impact of air pollution and sickness. They are forced to take multiple sick days, often having manual jobs forcing them to work outside in the pollution exposing them to more toxins. Hospitalization rates have increased dramatically among the working class, making the disparity between the upper class and lower class significantly worse.

Potential Solutions to the Delhi Air Pollution Crisis Solution #1 - A Green Revolution

With vehicular emissions alone being one of the forefront problems in terms of hazardous emissions in Delhi, the green revolution in the transportation industry has the potential to turn the game around. Not to mention prolonging any permanent environmental damage to the Delhi region making it the most critical and important solution that the Delhi government can undertake.

As mentioned before, transportation in Delhi is a consistent problem, accounting for just over 50% of its total carbon emissions annually. Addressing the transportation crisis is something that is imperative and will require government assistance through public transport and prompting. The Delhi government’s push for electric public transportation may be one of the most revolutionary environmental practices yet. The electrification of 80% of the public busses currently held by New Delhi could lead to a “significant reduction of Particulate Matter (PM) 2.5 emissions up to 44 tons per year which helps avoid about 1,370 deaths due to air pollution and a reduction in approximately 2,808 respiratory disease-related hospital admissions per year"​ [13]. The New Delhi Master Plan, intended primarily to clear up roads and promote better infrastructure in the city, seeks to address this massive transition. It plans to add nearly 8,000 buses by next year and reach 18,000 by 2041 with the hope of offering viable public transport to 90% of the city. By doing this, reliance on personal vehicles would decrease drastically allowing the total number of vehicles on the roads to drop dramatically. As a result, we see a cleaner environment. The Delhi government has also taken an additional step, resorting to pollution checking of vehicles, public awareness campaigns, and phasing out old vehicles. The sudden change to a greener transportation system is showing huge promise in India, showing little to no resistance from the public and bringing in a rapid urbanization into the country as well [14]. Transportation like the new Green Public Bus in Delhi in Image 3 have the potential to turn the war against air pollution around.

Image 3 - New Green Public Transportation that was introduced in Delhi as part of a “Going Green” initiative [15]

SOLUTION #2 - STRICTER GOVERNMENT ROLE

The issue of highly polluted air in Delhi has stretched for as long as air pollution started to be recorded and government policies that, in theory, would help to combat this have already been rolled out. The only problem is that these orders never came to fruition. Inadequate enforcement of regulations and laws by the Indian government have led to the practice of illegal agriculture and industrial emissions. Fixing this and showing large companies that the government is willing to carry out its regulations would lead to massive improvements across the region.

In the past the Delhi government had missed multiple counts of environmental regulation control which, over time, has accumulated to a massive and irreversible amount of greenhouse gasses and pollutants released into the environment. By ensuring that these regulations are followed by private organizations and enforcing these laws through financial drawbacks and fines, the Delhi government will be able to begin minimizing the damage done to the environment. This is an approach that has just recently been employed by the Delhi government. The government in October of 2022 rolled out a new policy known as the Anti- Dust campaign, a series of checkups on environmental regulations for all infrastructure being built within the capital city. The campaign ran until November 6th where they investigated contractors who were constructing buildings and delivered fines ranging from 10,000 rupees to 5 lakh rupees to construction sites that failed to comply with anti-dust laws. Furthermore, anti-smog guns have been enforced in these construction areas and placed more religiously throughout the construction zone.

The larger the construction site, the higher amount of anti-smog guns it will require and failure to install these devices has led to steep fines - essentially forcing contractors to abide by environmental protection policies. In the past, with no supervision, contractors were known to skip anti-smog guns and environmental policies to cut costs on their sites, especially on larger projects. Tin walls must be built around the construction site as well to prevent the spread of dust and other pollutants that arise from construction which allows the dust to be captured by the Anti-smog guns. Overall, 586 teams were installed to conduct surprise checks at construction sites by the government [16]. Another such powerful policy that Delhi has adopted was a tighter restriction on coaling mines that operate within a 300-kilometer radius of Delhi. However, the Delhi government has allowed the coal plants to miss multiple deadlines to install desulfurization units that reduce sulfur dioxide emissions. These missed deadlines have contributed to over 10 coal fired power plants to miss a December deadline to install pollution devices as they knew the government would fail to notice. Tighter restrictions on these areas along with personnel who focus on the implementation of these laws - as we saw in the Anti-Dust campaign - would lead to a significantly cleaner future for Delhi citizens.

The air pollution crisis Delhi has evolved to become a real danger to its citizens. Its implications spell disaster for the government, economy, and safety of the inhabitants of Delhi. It is because of this that taking immediate steps to rectify the out-of-hand air pollution must become the forefront priority of Delhi policy makers. Taking the steps outlined in this research paper will lead to massive improvements in the climate catastrophe and ensure that the residents of Delhi are given proper safety measures in the future.

The larger the construction site, the higher amount of anti-smog guns it will require and failure to install these devices has led to steep fines--essentially forcing contractors to abide by environmental protection policies. In the past, with no supervision, contractors were known to skip anti-smog guns and environmental policies to cut costs on their sites, especially on larger projects. Tin walls must be built around the construction site as well to prevent the spread of dust and other pollutants that arise from construction which allows the dust to be captured by the Anti-smog guns. Overall, 586 teams were installed to conduct surprise checks at construction sites by the government [16]. Another such powerful policy that Delhi has adopted was a tighter restriction on coaling mines that operate within a 300-kilometer radius of Delhi. However, the Delhi government has allowed the coal plants to miss multiple deadlines to install desulfurization units that reduce sulfur dioxide emissions. These missed deadlines have contributed to over 10 coal fired power plants to miss a December deadline to install pollution devices as they knew the government would fail to notice. Tighter restrictions on these areas along with personnel who focus on the implementation of these laws - as we saw in the Anti-Dust campaign - would lead to a significantly cleaner future for Delhi citizens.

The air pollution crisis Delhi has evolved to become a real danger to its citizens. Its implications spell disaster for the government, economy, and safety of the inhabitants of Delhi. It is because of this that taking immediate steps to rectify the out-of-hand air pollution must become the forefront priority of Delhi policy makers. Taking the steps outlined in this research paper will lead to massive improvements in the climate catastrophe and ensure that the residents of Delhi are given proper safety measures in the future.

REFERENCES

[1] "File:Air pollution, London vs. Delhi, OWID.svg" by Our World In Data is licensed under CC BY 3.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0?ref=openverse. [2] Chatterji, Arpan. “Air Pollution in Delhi: Filling the Policy Gaps.” ORF, December 18, 2020. https://www.orfonline.org/research/air-pollution-delhi-filling-policy-gaps/. 31 [3] M. Hatanaka, A. Blackman, K.J. Button, and M.L. Cropper. “Vehicular Pollution Control in Delhi.” Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment. Pergamon, March 20, 2002. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1361920902000068. [4] Arpan 21 [5]https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/05/india-top-court-orders-halt-to-stubble-burning-to-cutdelhi-pollution [6] “Stubble Burning: Why It Continues to Smother North India.” BBC News. BBC, November 30, 2020. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-54930380. [7] “Delhi's Pollution Levels Can Have Lasting Health Effects.” Hindustan Times, October 31, 2022. https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/delhis-pollution-levels-can-have-lasting-health-effects- 101667242445890.html. [8] Sa Rizwan, Baridalyne Nongkynrih, and Sanjeev Kumar Gupta. “‘Air Pollution in Delhi: Its Magnitude and Effects on Health.’” Indian journal of community medicine : official publication of Indian Association of Preventive & Social Medicine. U.S. National Library of Medicine, January 2013. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3612296/. [9]https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/lung-cancer-rising-among-non-smokers-in-delhistudy/articleshow/70651391.cms [10] "File:AQI 2015 data PM2.5 and PM10 air pollution and Diwali, Delhi India.jpg" by Ms Sarah Welch is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/? ref=openverse. [11] Arpan 26 [12] “Delhi's Economy Suffered the Most Due to Severe Air Pollution Last Year: Lancet Study.” Hindustan Times, December 22, 2020. https://www.hindustantimes.com/environment/delhi-s-economy-suffered-the-most-dueto-severe-air-pollution-last-year/story-7C5Khh1KcVC11KCXbPgQ7J.html. [13] “Increased e-Buses in Delhi Could Reduce Pollution-Related Mortality, Morbidity: Study.” Mongabay, September 16, 2022. https://india.mongabay.com/2022/09/increased-e-buses-in-delhi-could-reduce-pollutionrelated-mortality-morbidity-study/#:~:text=The%20study%20noted%20that%20with,of%20 avoided%20hospital%20 admissions%20 annually. [14] Vinod Thomas, and Chitranjali Tiwari. “Delhi, the World's Most Air Polluted Capital Fights Back.” Brookings. Brookings, March 9, 2022. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/future-development/2020/11/25/delhi-the-worldsmost-air-polluted-capital-fights-back/. [15] "DTC Bus Green Non AC" by Rameshng is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/?ref=openverse. [16] “Delhi Govt Launches Anti-Dust Campaign to Curb Dust Levels at Construction Sites.” India Today. India Today, October 6, 2022. https://www.indiatoday.in/india/delhi/story/delhi-govt-launches-anti-dust-campaignto-curb-dust-levels-at-construction-sites-2009183-2022-10-06. [14] Vinod Thomas, and Chitranjali Tiwari. “Delhi, the World's Most Air Polluted Capital Fights Back.” Brookings. Brookings, March 9, 2022. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/future-development/2020/11/25/delhi-the-worldsmost-air-polluted-capital-fights-back/. [15] "DTC Bus Green Non AC" by Rameshng is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/?ref=openverse. [16] “Delhi Govt Launches Anti-Dust Campaign to Curb Dust Levels at Construction Sites.” India Today. India Today, October 6, 2022. https://www.indiatoday.in/india/delhi/story/delhi-govt-launches-anti-dust-campaignto-curb-dust-levels-at-construction-sites-2009183-2022-10-06.