Delhi’s Air Crisis: A slow murder, Season 2 – Why waiting for a 'firefighter' isn’t enough

India's capital city needs evacuation. That won't happen. So, it boils down to a question of tackling Delhi's apocalyptic dirty air on a war footing. As we have written in this column in the past, this is not a seasonal crisis that needs firefighting only when conditions are dire. It is a year-round crisis that leads up to seasonal reaction, when reaction, too, should be all-year-round. On Monday, the Supreme Court criticised the Delhi government and Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) for 'delays' in enforcing GRAP (Graded Response Action Plan) measures, and ruled that Stage 4 restrictions will remain in place until further orders. It reminded stakeholders that it is the constitutional obligation of the executive to ensure that citizens live in a pollution-free environment. The intervention is welcome. But why must the judiciary act as a 'firefighter' that demands proactive 'policing' by the executive? Emergency measures such as GRAP, while necessary, are no substitute for a proactive 'law and order' system that prevents these 'fires' from being lit in the first place.

In the 1990s, when Delhi's air pollution levels spiked, Centre for Science and Environment released a report, 'Slow Murder'. That crisis escalated to the Supreme Court, and through a series of legal, regulatory and administrative interventions, air quality improved. Fast forward to today, those hard-won gains have been reversed by a toxic mix of turf-war politics, unplanned urban sprawl, construction and vehicular traffic, polluting factories, and stubble burning in neighbouring states. It's Slow Murder: Season 2.

A trifecta of failures has to be addressed: a central government that remains on the sidelines, either unwilling or unable to enforce accountability across states; a dithering CAQM and a Delhi government that acts only when the situation becomes dire; and a citizenry that whines yet remains reluctant to change its habits. Delhi is choking under its own apathy. Its survival hinges not on passing blame but on collective accountability.