Choked Capital

Delhi’s winter smog is the symptom of a chronic governance failure.

Delhi

Even with farm fires at a multi-year low, Delhi-NCR’s winter air remains suffocating. For most of October and November, pollution levels oscillated between “very poor” and “severe,” fuelled not by distant fields but by a rising cocktail of PM2.5, nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide from vehicles, industry, waste burning and domestic fuel. According to the Centre for Science and Environment, 22 monitoring stations recorded carbon monoxide above permissible limits on more than half of the 59 days assessed. Dwarka Sector 8 logged breaches on 55 days, followed closely by Jahangirpuri and Delhi University’s North Campus at 50. Smaller towns in the National Capital Region fared no better, with Faridabad, Ghaziabad, and Sonipat reported smog episodes of unprecedented duration.

The picture is no longer confined to isolated hotspots. Jahangirpuri, Bawana, Wazirpur, Anand Vihar and Mundka routinely breach PM2.5 averages of over 100 µg/m³ which is five times the World Health Organization’s guideline. New hotspots from Vivek Vihar to Patparganj underscore a worrying trend of the capital turning into a patchwork of pollution nodes. The message from the data is stark: stubble burning, while widely blamed, contributed less than 5 percent of Delhi’s pollution for much of early winter. Local sources, especially vehicular emissions, are driving the city’s chronic smog.

PM2.5 spikes track nitrogen dioxide during peak traffic hours, with carbon monoxide similarly breaching limits. The synchronised peaks of these pollutants are no accident. Shallow winter boundary layers trap emissions, turning the city into a gas chamber. Yet policy remains fixated on dust suppression, sprinklers and sporadic measures against farm fires while the engines of pollution hum unchecked. Delhi’s local emissions are effectively ignored even as residents cough through the morning commute.

Late last month, a small protest at India Gate against hazardous air quality met a heavy police presence. Deploying the Rapid Action Force to contain peaceful demonstrators sends a message that Delhi’s authorities are incapable of addressing the root causes of smog. Public frustration is rising, as middle-class recourse to purifiers and private vacations no longer suffices.

This is hardly Delhi’s first brush with national embarrassment. In November 2016, after PM2.5 crossed 900 µg/m³ in parts of the city, schools were shut, flights were diverted and the Supreme Court memorably described the Capital as a “gas chamber.” In 2019, the city plunged into another health emergency after post-Diwali pollution sent AQI readings beyond 500, forcing the odd-even scheme back onto the streets.

Air pollution in North India is not merely a Delhi problem. Monitoring stations trace a continuous zone of foul air stretching from Islamabad to Bihar, where industry, power generation, transport and agriculture circulate in a shared airshed. Yet authority is fragmented among central ministries, state departments, municipal bodies and semi-autonomous regulators, each with partial jurisdiction and mixed incentives. The Commission for Air Quality Management was meant to coordinate this tangle, but its interventions have failed to match the scale or persistence of the threat. Treating winter smog as a seasonal emergency rather than a permanent condition has encouraged episodic action without structural reform.

What is required is nothing short of an overhaul with time-bound electrification targets, scrapping of old vehicles, expansion of public transport, congestion taxes, industrial fuel reforms, elimination of waste burning and remediation of legacy dumps. Quick fixes consume public funds and administrative bandwidth without denting emissions. Only persistent, enforceable measures backed by political courage will clear the air.

Meanwhile, pollution refuses to wait. The AQI this week has already risen to 331, with Bawana at 387, Anand Vihar 381 and RK Puram 356. Residents report burning eyes, constant coughing and disrupted routines. With temperatures dropping further and winter settling in, the smog will thicken. Delhi’s air is now an emblem of systemic failure, of a capital choking not just on exhaust fumes, but on bureaucratic inertia and political timidity. It is the mirror of India’s fragmented, reactive approach to environmental governance.

Until policymakers confront the underlying emissions, and until enforcement is scaled to the severity of the crisis, Delhi will remain a city in visible distress and a capital perpetually choked.