There is something in the air...

Yeah, you guessed right, it’s pollution — and it’s not just a Delhi problem any more

There was a time when I used to fly to Mumbai (while Delhi was engulfed in thick winter fog) just to see blue skies and breathe some fresh, unpolluted air. Those days are long gone, alas. 

This winter when I travelled to Mumbai, it was to the same grey skies that prevailed over Delhi. Thanks to a largely unregulated construction boom, a miasma of dust and pollutants hung over the Maximum City, making it look like a dystopian hell from the future. Nearly everyone I met had a hacking cough and doctors reported an influx of patients with some pulmonary problem or the other. A quick look at my air pollution app proved what I had suspected ever since I landed: the pollution levels in Mumbai were 

worse than those in Delhi. 

But you know what was worse than the pollution? It was the apathy. 

When pollution levels hit the high mark in Delhi, everyone acts as if there is a national emergency. Prime time debates on television discuss the problem night after night. Newspaper headlines bemoan the polluted air in increasingly hysterical tones. The state government is eventually goaded into taking some kind of action, even if the benefit of this is entirely illusory. For instance, diesel cars are taken off the roads. Odd-even schemes are launched to lessen the number of cars on the road. Construction is banned for weeks on end to get a handle on the problem. 

And that’s just at the macro level. At a micro level, every inhabitant of the national capital scrambles to find an air purifier that suits his or her budget. Offices agree on a work from home policy on days when the pollution is at the worst. And so on. 

But this time in Mumbai, I found that air pollution was just about beginning to register as an issue. Sure, television media in India is very Delhi-centric and tends to ignore stories emerging from other metros, so there were no daily prime time debates on the subject. But city newspapers were starting to focus on pollution, even though it was rarely the main headline. And the only time the state government banned construction to curb pollution levels was when there was a G 20 meeting scheduled in the city. Once that was over, it was business as usual. 

But why single out Mumbai? I was in Kolkata recently, and a quick look at my air quality app showed that the pollution levels here were just marginally lower than those in Delhi. There was the same grey haze enveloping the city; my eyes stung and watered when i ventured out; and my asthma was triggered within hours of landing at the airport. 

Sadly, over the past few years, air pollution has ceased to be a Delhi problem and mutated into an India problem. Open an air quality map and you will see practically all of north India depicted in red, to indicate dangerously high levels of air pollution. But though this is undoubtedly a national issue, we have yet to see a national campaign waged against this bane of our collective existence. 

Instead, we look for temporary fixes. Wearing N 95 masks to protect us against pollution (rather than Covid). Running air purifiers round the clock in our homes and offices. Exercising indoors rather than heading outdoors for a jog. Taking a break in a hill station or a beach resort to breathe some healthy air for a change. 

Sadly, that’s like putting a bandaid on a gunshot wound. It’s simply not going to work.