Blog: Why This Is Already A Landmark Year In The Pollution Fight

An unprecedented police action took place on December 10, around the time the Supreme Court was hearing the Delhi air pollution case. In nearby Gurugram, a group of citizens tweeted how they had been taken away and detained by police while they were protesting against a waste-to-energy plant, a potential source of pollution, about to be inaugurated by Haryana Chief Minister ML Khattar.

In a particularly dismal, but action-packed, peak-pollution season this incident is one in a long list which should make this a landmark year in the battle against air pollution. The build-up of tensions has now come to a head. How the court or the central government resolve these will show just how determined they are to cut air pollution. It's a crisis that's prompted the top court to exclaim, "look at the signal we're sending to the world."

No lessons learnt?

The air pollution last month made it the worst November in seven years since records began. This is a setback to the central government's already modest target to cut air pollution by 20-30% by 2024.

The capital's smog towers, a first for the peak pollution season, haven't delivered clean air. Scientists had warned smog towers don't work. To clean Delhi's air, an IIT report estimates, it would take a million such towers, which would cost about $ 2 trillion, almost as much as India's GDP.

Stubble burning fires this year have been much more than in the last few years. NASA analysts estimate (here and here) these to be at least the second worst, if not the worst, since 2016; the contribution to Delhi's PM 2.5 pollution was about a third for several days in November.

Schools in Delhi and parts of neighbouring cities have been closed for a number of days and are seemingly erratic. While in the past years air pollution has shut down schools, it has never been for so many days.

There is a renewed scramble for public transport buses; the reasoning is that these should reduce private vehicles - a major source of air pollution. The irony is that in 1998 the Supreme Court had directed Delhi's fleet to be increased to 10,000. That hasn't happened in over 20 years. Last month the Delhi government announced it would hire 1,000 buses, and this month the CAQM (Commission For Air Quality Management) says that it plans to coordinate and expedite the process.

Biggest hit to business yet

The shut-downs and curbs this year have been widespread, affecting schools, trucks and factories. The loss to business has yet to be calculated but several groups are protesting and some, like UP's sugar mills, even have the backing of officials. Curbs on construction and demolition for the past few weeks to cut dust pollution has also had the builder lobby protesting.

Coal-fired power plants

For the first time in India coal-fired power plants have been closed outside Delhi to cut air pollution in the Capital, six of eleven plants in a 300 km radius. The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) which did this now wants more than just six shut down. The power ministry has quickly rejected that and wants to restart these by 15 December (tomorrow); as of today, the matter is before the Supreme Court. The ministry says it's not possible to keep these plants closed because of rising winter demand for power, that it increases costs because the plants have to arrange alternative power and the capacity charges of the plants shut down.

The shut-down was a part of several actions the CAQM announced it took as a matter of "extreme emergency and abundant caution" after air quality worsened to Very Poor and Severe levels.

Sugar, Rice, Paper

In a series of directions, the CAQM ordered curbs on industries, construction and demolition sites, and diesel generators, triggering an immediate, bitter fightback before the Supreme Court.

The commission says in an affidavit industrial pollution is one of the major factors causing deterioration of air quality, which can be seen from the fact that a little over half the 228 closures in these segments were industries in the early-December crackdown, making it clear that industrial pollution is a major contributor particularly to air pollution in winter. The CAQM wants all industries to switch to PNG or piped natural gas, seen as a relatively less polluting fossil fuel than, say, diesel or coal. Those which couldn't switch could only function eight hours a day and not on the weekends.

Rice mills, paper mills and sugar mills, all protested with the backing of the officials in some cases. The CAQM relented and allowed sugar mills to function. But all these industries, in lengthy affidavits, essentially say the same thing - that the demand is untenable and unfeasible. Some even questioned if their factories were polluting at all. The rice millers' association's affidavit says they burn rice husk as a fuel which is "better, healthier" and "less damaging" to the environment. They've been opposing the switch to PNG for two years saying that "no air pollution is caused."

The paper mills trade body, in a more detailed affidavit, says it would cost Rs 40-100 crores for each paper mill to switch to PNG; that there aren't even enough experts to install the equipment; and PNG is about four times the cost of coal and biomass that they currently use as fuel. While they admit to emissions, they claim that the smoke emitted is "within prescribed emission standards." There's no data given on the actual levels of pollution so there's no way that experts can independently assess this. However, the NCR paper mills association says 44 of their units consume approximately 5,000 metric tonnes of coal a day and 4,000 of biomass. It also claims that all units have online continuous effluents monitoring systems (OCEMS) which means authorities can track their pollution data and penalise them if there's any emission above legal limits.

The paper mills' group goes beyond technical objections. One, that the demands being made on them in the Delhi region are unfair and it'll make them uncompetitive as paper mills in Uttarakhand and Gujarat can continue using coal and not the more expensive PNG. The second, that it could lead to the closure of a large number of units and "deliver a severe jolt to the 'Make in India' mission of the Government of India."

The Supreme Court has now put the ball in the CAQM's court to address the complaints of industry.

Silver lining to the smog?

There are some reasons to detect a silver lining to the smog.

The CAQM is planning a 7-10 day air pollution forecast which may make such sudden closures more predictable.

As the shut-downs hurt the wallet, that may trigger some long-term action. For instance, the mills have said, with several ifs and buts, they are ready to use more of the paddy stubble which is currently the cause of tens of thousands of farm fires every October-November after the harvest. Can this demand for parali cut down the farm fires from next season?

There seems to be a rising political cost as we've finally seen that implementation of anti-pollution rules can be done if there's a willingness. Now the CAQM is in-charge, with a team of empowered police and other officials across Delhi and neighbouring states. Probably for the first time there have been a high number of site inspections, as the CAQM almost breathlessly notes that in six days 40 flying squads inspected 1,534 sites to check on pollution sources.

The closure of coal-fired power plants will hopefully jumpstart the much-delayed plan of cutting sulphur dioxide emissions. It's been a colossal failure that the 2015 plan has been delayed repeatedly for most power plants. According to one estimate this would have saved thousands of crores and, more importantly, lives.

The health impacts of air pollution are irrefutable. More and more studies point out that even small increases in air pollution are linked to high risks of acute respiratory infection and death. There may be a great deal of fuss over air pollution in winter, but the fact is that it's a year-round crisis.

The CAQM has shown a willingness to enforce rules and take unpopular action. But it needs to initiate long-term action quickly and cut pollution at the source, and it needs to do so by keeping stakeholders - from parents to industrialists - in the loop and be transparent. Otherwise, Delhi may continue to be seen as the air pollution capital of the world.

(Chetan Bhattacharji is Senior Managing Editor at NDTV)

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of NDTV and NDTV does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.