[IamNikhil]

Have travelled across rural regions of Punjab and Haryana extensively few years ago and realised that stubble-burning will never cease. Neither is there any political will, nor any alternate solution available with the farmers.

Successive governments at the Centre and the miscreant states will continue to play the blame game and keep passing the football. No amount of consultations, committees, advisories will help, unless there's more to it than mere posterity.

[rishi.roger]

Landscape (elevation, soil/rock type, presence of water bodies), climate (temperature, humidity, wind speed, monsoon, weather) etc. too have a huge say in how the particles and gases in the atmosphere persist.

Unfortunately in places like Delhi, almost every factor plays a negative role in adding up the pollution level particularly in months of Cold when it becomes hazardous.

- Sourrounded by States with Huge Farm Yields that eventually leads to stubble burning.
- Ample amount of space to expand near NCR which has caused rapid infrastrcture development (roads/buildings, etc.). This has also added up the population in the area.
- Lack of huge water bodies that otherwise would have indirectly helped with adding humidity to the soil in dry months.
- A huge chunk of population near NCR is living under poverty line or barely able to make a decent living. This essentially forces them to rely on practices that contribute to pollution. (For e.g. burning firewood, not able to replace or repair their polluting scooters, vehicles).
- Real estate prices are high which means, people don't have space to plant trees/gardens etc. Very few places you will see plants, let alone gardens or lawns/privately owned greenery.
- Government expects people to comply and help but it doesn't seem that government it aggressively pursuing this on ground. Perhaps its lack of staff, or maybe votebank, etc. but the end result you will see is plenty of activities that defy the regulations openly being practiced.


A have seen a lot of people blaming poor transport infrastructure as a cause of pollution in Delhi, however as someone living in Delhi NCR from past 15 years I think we have a pretty good public transport system, might as well be the best in India (it's very affordable too for common person). However I don't think we Delhites use it well enough.
We have good roads as well, so it helps avoid pollution to some extent by reducing traffic jam, unncessary load on vehicle engines. Usage of Private vehicles on road is another factor I believe. Also, I have barely seen people using 2 wheelers here. Almost every one uses a Car and most of them are only carrying 1/2 person. (I personally use 2W wherever possible but I have been asked by many people who know me that why I don't take my car out :/)

As much as I hate to say this Electric Vehicles is the answer to NCR's pollution issue (more so on the Public & Commerical Transportation). I am well aware that EV is by no means a solution to reducing pollution (in some ways it makes the matter far worse) but to Delhi it offers the solution of not causing the pollution at spot and redirect it somewhere else. This too should be in a radius of 200Km at least and not just the Capital city itself.
The other solution is to Promote WFH, and all solutions which reduces people unnecessarily travelling on road. I recall looking at the same NCR's skies in 2020 and 2021 and it was so clean. Unfortunately WFH is considered bad for local economy so that is likely a practice which I feel won't see traction in India for some years to come.

Also, we will suffer from the pollution that comes from rapid modernization for some time until we become a Developed nation or close to it. People in India are making money more than earlier, we're no more a poor country. A huge chunk makes good amount of money and therefore they will expect improvement in infrastructure and lifesystyle/services which adds up to the pollution. It's a vicious cycle that will only break once we have enough money to support a Development infrastructure that is not only profitable and cost efficient but also sustainable in nature. If you do the maths and logic, A Developing country with population, lifestyle and practices like India is expected to suffer from pollution problem until it reaches the peak of the curve.

There's a huge amount of Population here which will put every effort of reducing pollution to shame unless a huge capital is spent (which we simply can't afford being a nation with priority on Deveoplemt over anything else).
Also, a lot of common sense must prevail in population who needs to understand that they should strictly rely on minimalistic lifestyle to curb this. But at least in this City - it is a big NO.
As much as I want to blame the government, it the common people who are fault.
Note, my post was primarily focused on the City I reside in (NCR), where air at times becomes DEADLY.

[PreludeSH]

Now they are saying stubble burning in Punjab is 500 kms away while the burning in Haryana is only 100 kms away. Give it to people who will argue but never be accountable.