Unreliable data mask just how bad the air quality crisis is in India

NEW DELHI — Recent remarks about pollution from two Indian officials have increased frustration among residents who say policymakers are unwilling to acknowledge the severity of India's air quality crisis.

When Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav told Parliament earlier this month that India's capital, New Delhi, has seen 200 days with good air quality readings, pollution experts and opposition leaders said he chose a figure that overlooked the worst pollution months.

A week later, Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said the air quality index — a measure of air pollution — was similar to a temperature reading and could be dealt with by spraying water. Crowds jeered her at a subsequent public event, shouting ''AQI'' in reference to the city's poor air quality readings.

Gupta had also greenlit a controversial cloud seeding program earlier this year, saying it could produce rain that would lower pollution — despite lack of evidence that the approach would work.

Residents in New Delhi and surrounding areas engulfed in toxic smog over the last few months said these are just the latest examples of officials denying the severity of air quality problems.

''Instead of doing cloud seeding, I hope the government will wake up and take some real action,'' said Anita, a 73-year-old New Delhi resident who goes by only one name. ''It's a shame."

Environmentalists and data experts said India's air quality measurement standards are looser than in countries such as the United States, so moderate readings often mask dangerous pollution levels. India's government air quality standards are also less stringent than World Health Organization guidelines.

Gaps in India's air quality data

India's air quality is measured through a nationwide network of monitors and sensors, as well as satellite data.

The monitors collect robust data, but there are too few of them, said Ronak Sutaria, CEO of Respirer Living, which builds machines and software for air quality monitoring. He said that the system falls short of letting citizens know how polluted the air in their neighborhoods really is.

In 2019, India launched the National Clean Air Program, which set targets aiming to reduce pollution by up to 40% in 131 cities by 2026.

The program has seen relative success, providing millions of dollars for monitors and water-spraying machines to reduce dust generated from vehicles plying the roads, construction activity and winds that blow desert sand into the cities.

A 2024 report by the Centre for Science and Environment, a New Delhi-based think tank, found that 64% of funds under the program went toward reducing dust and only 12% to reducing pollution from vehicles and less than 1% to bringing down industrial air pollution.

''We are making huge investments in air quality monitoring. And so when we are expanding, then it also becomes an imperative that we should be focusing on the quality,'' said Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director at the think tank.

A public health emergency

A study last year by the medical journal Lancet linked long-term exposure to polluted air to 1.5 million additional deaths every year in India, compared to a scenario where the country would have met WHO standards.

Yet earlier this month, Prataprao Jadhav, India's junior health minister, said there is no conclusive data available in the country to establish a direct correlation of death or disease exclusively to air pollution.

''Deaths related to air pollution are not being counted. And the reason why it's not being counted is because there are no systematic mechanisms to do so,'' Narayan said.

Narayan said pollution causes long-term health problems for everyone exposed, but that it's especially bad for pregnant women, the elderly and children.

''As a consequence of exposure to air pollution, we see a lot of preterm births, miscarriages, low birth weight. Exposure at this stage has a lifelong consequence,'' she said.

A lack of political will

Earlier this month, New Delhi residents took to the streets to protest against dirty air and demand immediate government action in a relatively rare instance of public demonstrations.

Jha said authorities are not being honest about the problem and that there is a lack of political will to address the issue.

''There's more headline and image management than pollution management,'' he said, adding that the high levels of pollution have been treated as normal by political leaders.

''The first thing that the government needs to do is to be honest about the problem that we have," he said. "The right diagnosis is extremely critical.''

Regardless of whether policymakers act, the consequences of dirty air for the residents of India's capital are evident.

''Everyone feels the pollution. People are not able to work or even breathe,'' said Satish Sharma, a 60-year-old auto rickshaw driver.

''I want to tell the government to please do something about this pollution," he said. "Otherwise, people will move away from here.''

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Follow Sibi Arasu on X at @sibi123.

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Arasu reported from Bengaluru, India. AP journalists Piyush Nagpal in New Delhi and Aniruddha Ghosal in Hanoi, Vietnam, contributed to this report.