Meta description: A sobering description of India’s ever-increasing atmospheric decay. From Delhi to Mumbai, India’s smoke crisis has no escape path.
Over the past few years, India has experienced frequent cases of winter pollution. Winters become threatening: blankets of smoke, toxic mist, and even a terrifying apocalypse. Yet, none of these truly capture the scale of the problem dogging India’s cities today. New Delhi, as expected, tops the chart every winter. This is the recurring story to repeat.
But this Time, something has changed; a different experience is emerging. Well, India’s financial capital, Mumbai, long protected by its coastline, has linked the Toxic Hall of Fame. The city that once prided itself on its air quality is now facing a similar fate to Delhi: stagnant air, rising PM2.5 levels, and an AQI that refuses to improve or show positive numbers. Pune also experienced a sharp increase last month, and Kolkata surprised everyone when its AQI jumped from 144 to a dangerous 417.
In today’s India, you can dream of a house, a car, or even a job. But then, dreaming of breathing clean air and having a clean environment has quietly become unrealistic. Anti-smoke procedures won’t save us. A weeklong ban won’t help. An emergency conference won’t either. The problem India faces is not seasonal; it’s a structural catastrophe that grows more serious day by day.
The government must take action to confront this issue. Measures must be executed to address these serious man-made threats. Apart from our environmental governance is rebuilt from the ground up through clean energy-driven construction, strict emission checks, reforestation, and accountability that persists beyond winter, every winter will return, and the skies will grow darker.
In India today, True Privilege Is Not Wealth but Its Breath of Fresh Air