India's Toxic Air Crisis Is Reaching a Breaking Point
3 52New Delhi's air quality index averaged 349 in December and 307 in January -- levels the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency classifies as hazardous -- and the months-long smog season that forces more than 30 million residents to endure respiratory illness has this year sparked something new: public protest. Hundreds of demonstrators gathered at India Gate on November 9 to demand government action; police detained more than a dozen people, and a follow-up protest later that month turned violent.
The government's response has been largely cosmetic. Authorities deployed truck-mounted "smog guns" and "smog towers" that scientists widely regard as ineffective, and a cloud seeding trial in October failed outright. A senior environment minister told Parliament in December that no conclusive data linked pollution to lung disease -- a claim doctors sharply disputed. The government cut pollution control spending by 16% in the latest federal budget. Almost 1.7 million deaths were attributable to air pollution in India in 2019, according to the Lancet. A 2023 World Bank report estimated the crisis shaves 0.56 percentage point off annual GDP growth.
3 comments
Re:There's no simple answer (Score: 5, Informative)
by Jeremi ( 14640 ) on Monday February 16, 2026 @04:52PM (#65992964)
Why not roll out solar, I hear it's the bestest, cheapest way to generate electricity?
I didn't read the article (it's paywalled and I don't want to have Yet Another Account Somewhere just to read it), but according to a Wikipedia article on air pollution in Delhi [wikipedia.org], the main sources of air pollution there are:
Re:There's no simple answer (Score: 5, Informative)
by markdavis ( 642305 ) on Monday February 16, 2026 @05:32PM (#65993046)
Unfortunately, there is no ranking or estimates of which ones are the worst. I suspect vehicles are up there in the list. And also suspect they have TONS of extremely-polluting, old, 2-cycle engines being used in 2 wheeled mopeds/cycles/scooters/generators/etc and micro cars. Just one such engine could produce the pollution of up to 125 4-cycle modern mopeds/scooters, or dozens and dozens of modern cars.
https://rd350.info/blog/post/t... [rd350.info]
I also doubt most of the 4-cycle gas cars are using anywhere near modern pollution controls, and I also doubt most of the diesel vehicles have proper filters and urea injection.
Unfortunately, correcting such issues will take a ton of money and time, neither of which they have.
Re:There's no simple answer (Score: 5, Interesting)
by unixisc ( 2429386 ) on Monday February 16, 2026 @05:21PM (#65993008)
IIT Delhi did a study on this, and they found out that 25-40% of the air pollution is due to construction waste & dust, and publicly dumped garbage. Indian pollution controls focus on industrial waste and vehicular pollution, which come a distant second and third.
So they need to regulate the construction industry, and improve sanitation service, while also cracking down hard on garbage dumping. Oh, and also crack down on farmers who burn crop waste - in Delhi, that exceeds even the construction waste during the Fall months