On pollution, new ideas and old battles

Hindustan Times

2 days ago

Just ahead of World Environment Day, Delhi's new government threw down the gauntlet against toxic air with its most ambitious plan yet — a 25-point road map promising electric buses, cloud seeding, AI-driven monitoring, and a crackdown on construction dust and vehicular emissions. CM Rekha Gupta called the Air Pollution Mitigation Plan 2025 the 'most scientific and actionable' strategy to combat the Capital's toxic air, targeting everything from vehicular smoke to smouldering landfills. The plan is heavy on innovation: It mentions pilot projects on cloud seeding, GPS-tracked smog guns, AI-linked air monitors, and a start-up challenge for pollution control. To be sure, some of these remain scientifically unproven or logistically complex. Cloud seeding, for instance, is still in experimental stages, and smog guns, though dramatic, have shown limited effectiveness in large-scale mitigation of pollution. But the real test lies not in ambition, but execution.
Poor implementation has hobbled every pollution plan before this one. Mandating construction sites to curb dust or ordering households to segregate waste are not new ideas. Unless residents, bureaucrats, and civic agencies move in step, these will remain paper laws. Take firecrackers. Outlawed year after year, they are still freely available, not just during Diwali, but also the extended wedding season. Many of these action points were also part of previous plans but were stymied by bureaucratic hurdles, often motivated by political bickering between city and central authorities. This time, the government may have fewer excuses, given that the BJP, which runs the Union government, now controls not only the Delhi government, but also the MCD. For good measure, it is also in power in each of the National Capital Region (NCR) states. That's good because the bigger challenge lies across Delhi's borders. When Punjab (not part of the NCR, and also not a state where the BJP is in power) and Haryana's fields go up in smoke after their harvests, so do Delhi's pollution efforts. The Supreme Court has shown the way — what's needed now is not more vision, but coordination. The BJP has a rare chance — never has the same party been in power in all NCR states.
Ultimately, this plan demands more than just policy — it needs a cultural shift. Delhi's future hinges on citizens viewing clean air as a shared responsibility and not the exclusive responsibility of the government. If this administration can marry public cooperation with states' resolve — on reviving the Yamuna, protecting the Aravallis, and executing the pollution plan — it could script an environmental turnaround for the ages.