Chokehold Season

November 2025 has turned a few pages. People in Delhi – of all age-groups – are now facing one of the worst, grim annual rituals – of AQI reaching almost 600, with mornings choked with toxic haze. The air quality in Delhi is currently of deep concern. It is 10 PM on November 10, 2025. The real-time Air Quality Index (AQI) has surged to 590 (AQI-US), placing it firmly in the ‘Hazardous’ category. Specifically, the fine particulate matter levels are extremely high – PM2.5 is almost 371 µg/m³ and PM10 is about 504 µg/m³. At these levels, exposure is equivalent to smoking roughly 12.5 cigarettes per day. The situation calls for urgent protective measures.

The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) also confirmed the immediate crisis, logging the city’s overall Air Quality Index (AQI) in the ‘poor’ category. Experts are warning of a further deterioration without a change in weather patterns, highlighting that this life-threatening affliction is not just an inconvenience but a profound systemic failure of policy and will, which effectively converts the right to breathe clean air into a seasonal, precarious privilege rather than a fundamental right.

This “poor” air quality is a serious health risk, affecting the general population and particularly vulnerable groups like children, the elderly, and those with existing respiratory or cardiac conditions. Such polluted air is known to exacerbate asthma, reduce lung function, trigger cardiac events, and ultimately shorten lives. The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) categorises air quality from ‘Good’ (0-50) through ‘Satisfactory,’ ‘Moderate,’ ‘Poor,’ ‘Very Poor,’ and finally ‘Severe’ (above 400). The situation is nearly catastrophic, as the AQI has hit 586 (hazardous), positioning the NCR perilously close to the ‘very poor’ and ‘severe’ contamination levels.

The Seasonal, Structural & Human Factors

As winter sets in, Delhi’s meteorological physiology changes. Cold surface air, low wind speeds, temperature inversions – all conspire to trap pollutants close to ground level. The Air Quality Early Warning system (EWS) flagged a ventilation index (a measure of polluted-air dispersal potential) far below favourable levels through the end of October. As per media reports, October 2025 proved to be Delhi’s second-most polluted October in five years, with an average AQI of 224.

Despite annual warnings and seasonal preparedness plans, the fact remains that, with an AQI of 586, the existing mitigation measures – odd-even vehicle schemes, dust suppression, construction curbs, stubble-burning bans – and this year’s green crackers’ hullabaloo – have either been inadequately enforced or are per se structurally insufficient.

It is evident by example when, on October 14, GRAP-1 (Graded Response Action Plan) anti-pollution curbs were imposed when AQI reached 211. Yet, within weeks, the pollution rose sharply. Does that mean that the system appears reactive, not proactive?

The Choking Quadrangle

Air pollution in the densely urban-agricultural Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) presents a wicked environmental problem, stemming from a complex interplay of systemic and episodic sources, critically intensified by specific meteorological conditions. Year-round poor air quality is primarily driven by escalating urbanisation, industrialisation, and associated anthropogenic activities. The growing fleet of private and commercial vehicles represents a major, persistent source of Particulate Matter (PM) emissions, which also underscores the systemic deficiency in achieving long-term sustainable transport planning.

Secondly, the cyclical challenge of agricultural stubble burning highlights a deeper structural flaw, where obsolete policies necessitate rapid field clearance, illustrating the isolation of agricultural and environmental governance. While farm-fire contributions may fluctuate, their mere potential, coupled with local emissions, is critical.

Thirdly, the festive season, beginning with Diwali, acts as a catastrophic accelerant, triggering substantial spikes in PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations, even with regulated ‘green’ firecrackers. Also, according to studies, crucially, the Indo Gangetic Plan’s geography and winter meteorology finalize this crisis – low wind speed, high humidity, and sharp temperature drops induce a temperature inversion and this inversion traps pollutants close to the ground, preventing dispersion, facilitating the accumulation of local emissions, and consistently driving the Air Quality Index (AQI) into hazardous zones.

The Visible Crisis

Air pollution represents a profound public health emergency, ranking among the top five global risk factors for mortality. Historically, World Health Organisation data attributed up to 600,000 annual deaths in India to air pollution. A more recent 2023 analysis of the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) specifically highlighted the capital, demonstrating that ambient Particulate Matter (PM) pollution was linked to 15 per cent of all fatalities in Delhi, equating to approximately 17,200 deaths.

Ambient PM pollution, derived from sources like combustion, industrial activity, and complex chemical reactions of gaseous emissions, is the primary stressor. Experts confirm that chronic exposure to high concentrations of PM2.5 acts as an invisible, systemic inflammatory trigger, resulting in severe respiratory illnesses, cardiovascular disease, stroke, and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).

Moreover, the air quality crisis is fundamentally one of viability, extending beyond human loss to encompass a monumental economic toll. ‘The Global Burden of Disease Study’ 2019 meticulously quantified this impact across India as the cost of lost national output resulting from premature mortality and morbidity. This financial drain, driven by reduced productivity and soaring medical expenditure, constitutes an unsustainable burden on the nation’s public health infrastructure and workforce.

Amidst all these factors staring at us, while Delhi remains the world’s most polluted capital city and grabs the headlines almost every year, the tragedy is a national one. The Air Quality Life Index (AQLI) 2025 report reveals that all of India breathes air dirtier than what the WHO deems safe. A shocking 46 per cent of India’s population lives in areas where the annual particulate pollution level exceeds the national standard of 40 μg/m³ (key limit in India’s National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS)), which is already more lenient than the WHO limit.

Nevertheless, protecting vulnerable groups like the children, the elderly, and outdoor workers requires immediate measures like air purifiers in schools and hospitals, graded advisories, and flexible work hours on high-AQI days. Finally, clear public communication on pollutant composition, health risks, and forecasted trends must be prioritised to ensure collective and informed action.

Improving air quality could add years to the average Indian’s life expectancy, underscoring that this is a question of both public health and human capital. While the government at the centre and state are making efforts to prevent air pollution by embracing radical, permanent reforms for clean air, the battle for (clean) air requires political courage, cross-sectoral collaboration, regional state’s prevention public welfare policy on this issue, and – most crucially – the unwavering resolve of every citizen to treat this as the national emergency it is.

For now, the present ‘poor’ air condition is not just a daily news update. It is an indictment. It is a tangible measure of the collective failure to secure the most basic element of life for a fifth of the world’s population.

We hope we haven’t forgotten that every breath taken by a child on a ‘poor’ AQI day is a hidden cost against the nation’s future, and a shameful compromise of the fundamental right to a healthy life.

Views expressed are personal. The writer is Programme Executive, Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti