Our air, their privilege: Delhi’s choking reality

The air is free but why is it such a privilege to breathe?’ read one of the several placards at a protest in New Delhi last week, as residents vented anger over the capital’s worsening air.

For years, Delhi’s toxic smog has been a familiar dark cloud — but reports indicating that the government was manipulating data to hide the true extent of the crisis, combined with a recent photo showing two air purifiers flanking the prime minister, seem to have snapped public patience.

That image captured the deep divide between those who could afford 'Made in China' air purifiers and sealed offices, and the millions who cannot. Reports that water sprinklers were being used around air quality monitors to suppress readings — and that several stations had been shut down altogether — brought citizens to the streets.

The government forced the organisers to call off the protest at the last minute. Those who turned up at India Gate were taken into custody and left 50 km away at the Haryana border.

Delhi Aam Aadmi Party president Saurabh Bharadwaj told reporters: “As soon as pollution increases, the government shuts down AQI monitoring stations. Wherever AQI is found to be high, spraying of water is being done… the fraud is happening openly... the intention is not to reduce pollution but to show lower figures”.

On 10 November, the AQI was in the ‘very poor’ category in 26 of the 38 monitoring stations in the national capital. Bawana reported an AQI at 366, Jahangirpuri 348, Chandni Chowk 410, Burari 430 — and at Anand Vihar, despite three trucks spraying jets of water outside the monitoring system set up by the Central Pollution Control Board, the AQI read 400.

The same day, the US embassy in the green belt of Chanakyapuri showed an AQI of 643 with PM 10 levels at 558 and PM 2.5 at 397, placing the air quality at 'hazardous'.

For over a decade the embassy has been independently monitoring air quality in Indian cities and its data frequently contradicts official Indian figures. Why this mismatch, one may ask. An AQI of 0–50 is considered good, 51–100 is satisfactory, 101–200 is moderate, 201–300 is poor, 301–400 is very poor, and 401–500 is severe, according to the CPCB.

Delhi traders wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi claiming losses of Rs 300 crore since Diwali because concerned residents are avoiding stepping out and are ordering goods online. ‘Every third child in Delhi has damaged lungs and faces a life shortened by nearly 10 years compared to children in cleaner environments,’ they said.

Long-term exposure to toxic air raises risks of heart disease, stroke and asthma. Sadly, even when the WHO says most of this is preventable, there is little action on the ground. Meanwhile, greenery in the capital continues to vanish, worsening the crisis.

Public frustration also stems from the government’s lack of credible action. Half-hearted steps like smog towers and cloud-seeding have proved ineffective. But if Beijing, once the world’s most smog-choked city, can clean its air — with a jump from just 13 ‘good air days’ in 2013 to over 300 annual ‘good days’ by 2023 — why can’t New Delhi? Citizens argue, “There are ways to cut pollution. Rounding up protesters isn’t one of them.”

Cities along the coastline like Mumbai and Chennai, which benefit from sea breeze, too have seen their air quality deteriorate. Official AQI averages hover around 250, but independent environmentalists suspect it to be far worse.

The mismatch between official readings and ‘independent’ readings was exposed by a news channel which on 5 November accompanied environmentalist Bhavreen Kandhari, co-founder of a network of Indian mothers demanding clean air for their children, carrying a portable monitoring set.

Her meter recorded AQI levels at Anand Vihar nearing 500, while official CPCB readings showed only 300. At the ITO monitoring station, her device showed 312 against the official AQI of 145. Many monitoring stations, residents note, have quietly stopped functioning. Even the large display board outside the ministry of earth sciences near Lodhi Garden has been blank for weeks. “Could this be deliberate?” citizens ask.

Environmentalist Reenu Paul conducted a similar exercise in Dehradun where she installed an air pollution meter at her Rajpur Road home. The government had set up its monitoring station inside Doon University located near a forest. She found the gap between official and actual readings narrowing — but not because the air had improved. It was because pollution in residential zones had risen sharply, especially in traffic-heavy areas like ISBT and Ghantaghar.

Vehicles, the main culprits

Experts say automobiles now account for over 20 per cent of India’s carbon emissions. Automobile-centric policies, explosive growth in personal vehicles, rise in the number of SUVs and two-wheelers and a shift of freight transport from railways to roadways under the government’s Automotive Mission Plan have worsened the crisis.

In Delhi-NCR, studies show automobile emissions account for 47 per cent of PM 2.5 emission during the winter — contradicting the Delhi government narrative that blames Punjab’s stubble burning. According to the Air Quality Life Index (AQLI) 2025, of the world’s 100 most polluted cities, 93 are in India. Children growing up in Delhi are likely to lose up to ten years of life expectancy due to toxic air.

The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) reports that only 12 per cent of Indian cities have monitoring stations capable of tracking all six key pollutants. Of the CPCB’s 966 operational stations across 419 cities, many are manual and fail to meet the minimum requirement of 104 monitoring days annually.

“A large number of India’s 252 cities have already crossed critically polluted levels,” warns Anumita Roychowdhury, CSE’s deputy director-general. “The government must declare a national emergency and treat air pollution as a war-level crisis.”

Instead, official denial persists. In Parliament, Union minister of state for health Anupriya Patel claimed there was no “conclusive data available to establish a direct correlation of death or disease exclusively due to air pollution”.

Environmentalists say such statements betray the government’s unwillingness to act. They point out that pollution is not an act of nature but a result of bad policy. For citizens, the battle for clean air has become a fight for transparency and accountability. When monitors are manipulated and data is hidden, the poor pay the price with their lungs.

As one protester summed it up: “If breathing clean air becomes a privilege, democracy itself is in danger.”