To answer the first question, let me give you a clue. What is common in every winter, every summer, and every monsoon in the national capital of India? Still not getting it? Think about it—what remains unchanged in Delhi, no matter the season? The answer is simple: pollution. It is as easy as that. I have been following national news for more than four years now, and the pollution problem in New Delhi has become so cliché that people over there have accepted it as their fate. If you have friends from Delhi, you've probably heard them talk about this too.
It is, in fact, a common concern for all of us as Indians that our national capital was in the list of top 5 most polluted major cities of IQAIR ranking 2023[1] and was the most polluted capital city in the world. Not to mention, most recently, an American entrepreneur, Bryan Johnson, also famously known as an 'anti-aging influencer,' made headlines because he abruptly left the podcast midway hosted by the Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath, citing the deteriorating air quality of AQI 130 (far from the ideal 50). The irony is that some netizens started criticizing his move to show their love for this country.
Moreover, it is estimated that around 2 million people die annually because of the poor air quality in India[2]. So, by doing simple arithmetic, it can be concluded that approximately 228 people are dying every hour! To give you a perspective, the next time you finish one episode of your favorite Netflix series, this many people will have lost their lives to air pollution. Sadly, it is just one of the major issues people in our national capital face yearly. Be it summer' heatstroke, winter smog, or the monsoon transformation of the National Capital into the lake city of India. Besides, it is impossible to unsee the visuals of toxic foam flowing over the surface of the holy Yamuna River, giving a sense of white clouds floating above the valley of doon seen from the cloud end of Mussoorie. Every citizen of this country, be it literate or illiterate, is aware of the ill effects of pollution, and his life is affected by it directly or indirectly. Not to argue that its impact is not proportionate to each stratum of society. But the question arises: Is our government aware of this issue? Sadly, the most recent Delhi assembly election results say the contrary.
As a national politics enthusiast, I know that environmental and sustainable development was never a political issue in Indian political discourse. In the recent Delhi assembly election, the opposition parties might have raised the Yamuna pollution issue for a while, but the freebie politics again shadowed this. Ironically, the same party had previously criticized such programs as 'Revadis'. Politics aside, it is high time to question our government (both central and state) and ask them to do their jobs properly, for which they are paid handsomely and even incentivized by themselves.
The statistics cited above clearly manifest a systematic failure of the government machinery. It has not only failed to provide the right to a clean and healthy environment, incorporated as a fundamental right under Article 21 of the Constitution of India, but also failed the people of this country by suppressing these life-threatening issues by buying votes of the public in the name of welfare schemes (Revadis).
The landmark judgment in Subhash Kumar v. State of Bihar (1991) recognized the right to a clean and healthy environment as a fundamental right under Article 21. This gives citizens the legal standing to sue the government under Articles 32 and 226 of the Indian Constitution. In fact, this was done by a nine-year-old girl from Uttarakhand in 2017 when she approached the National Green Tribunal of India, arguing that public trust doctrine, India's commitment to the Paris Agreement, and India's existing environmental laws and climate-related policies require more significant action to mitigate climate change[3]. Sadly, the case was dismissed by the NGT, citing that climate had been covered in various legislations. Hence, it cannot be said that the Paris Agreement and other international laws are not reflected in the government's policies. While the NGT was legally correct in its reasoning. However, the deteriorating conditions in New Delhi and other Indian cities prove that merely enacting legislation is insufficient. Without strict implementation and accountability, laws remain ineffective against this ticking environmental crisis.
Among its many duties, the government's primary responsibility is to protect its citizens' lives, liberty, and property. The deplorable conditions of Indian cities make it clear that both the legislative and executive branches have failed in this duty. Perhaps it is now time to knock on the doors of the Judiciary again.
[1] “World Air Quality Index (AQI) Ranking | IQAiR,” n.d. https://www.iqair.com/in-en/world-air-quality-ranking?srsltid=AfmBOooohLK1qR7_hLeagTQ6tXKm0rwUZ8HKJH3SOdLPFJDKngjQIgWV.
[2] Pti. (2023, December 1). Air pollution causes over 2 million deaths annually in India: BMJ study. The Hindu. https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/health/air-pollution-causes-over-2-million-deaths-annually-in-india-bmj-study/article67590177.ece
[2] Ridhima Pandey v. Union of India - Climate Change Litigation. (2024, December 16). Climate Change Litigation. https://climatecasechart.com/non-us-case/pandey-v-india/
1 Comments
great going Basant. keep up the hard work
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