Never in its long and storied history has Delhi and the current grand-sounding National Capital Region (NCR) felt quite so wretched and neglected as in the 21st century. Time was when emperors and mystics, conquerors and courtesans, poets and plebeians arrived and thrived in these very plains and Aravalli outcrops. Now it is permanently blighted by unrestrained ‘development’ activity and seasonally masked in thick pollutants as a consequence, with no recourse in sight.
Most Delhiwallas have grown up hearing that the region is a sort of natural bowl, making it ideal for any sort of particulate matter, whether dust, sand, soot or pollutants, to hover indefinitely overhead unless pushed away by beneficial winds. That is why we GenXers resigned ourselves to spells of dusty skies, particularly during the pre-monsoon period. Winter brought fog but that was mostly water vapour, utterly unlike today’s dust-and-chemical fug.
But the 21st century’s annual November-December murk is the result of changing crop patterns in the surrounding areas with ‘modern’ harvesting methods adding to the industrial and construction-related pollution. It is indeed ironic that rising rural and urban prosperity in this region is collaborating to dramatically elevate pollution levels as well. That leaves the city, which boasts of India’s most powerful people, gasping for breath but totally helpless to remedy it.
Even feelings of schadenfreude in India over news of Lahore and Multan being cloaked in a mephitic miasma last week have been short-lived as New Delhi has overtaken those Pakistani cities in the air pollution stakes now. Farmers in both Punjabs clearly think alike when it comes to the issue of what to do with their crop residue, now better known as “stubble” but with none of the trendiness of the ‘No Shave November’ bristles of Hollywood and Bollywood hunks.
Noxious November is not the only pollution problem for the NCR, of course. Vehicular and industrial emissions (we still want cars and manufactured goods), sustained construction activity, Thar desert’s fine sand, garbage mountains and the frothy plight of the Yamuna are permanent problems. The Delhi High Court pulled up the Delhi government yet again for failing to remedy Yamuna’s pollution, pointing out the inadequacies of sewage treatment plants.But despite the heavy concentration of VIPs of all kinds, for decades the situation has only worsened.So, those who can afford it, isolate indoors in controlled air quality as much as they can, drink bottled water and regularly escape to holidays in cleaner climes. The less fortunate live with itchy skins and eyes, besides chronic stomach and lung issues. What this endemic pollution is doing to lakhs of children growing up in NCR today does not need reiteration.
But do governments in Delhi or adjoining states care? Are votes cast and elections lost (or won) on pollution issues? No. Government agencies and the people of NCR need to unite to combat air and water pollution before it reaches the point of no-return. Then the only solution would be to abandon this asphyxiating city and move to a brand new location to start afresh. Once the pressure is off, maybe this region and its river would be able to slowly rejuvenate again.