Fighting Pollution, Not Tradition

Every year, in late October, Diwali’s spectacular lights begin to flicker against a dreary, grey sky. In the northern plains, the joy of the season is increasingly obscured by a thick blanket of haze that arrives not after the festival but before the diyas are lit. India’s “air emergency” is no longer a post-Diwali tale; it is a prelude. This year, the national capital is already gasping as the Air Quality Index (AQI) reached the “severe” level in the first week of October.

The annual smog crisis is presented as a struggle against firecrackers. However, the truth is far more complicated—and far more uncomfortable. The festival of lights has become an annual litmus test for India’s environmental leadership. Fireworks are only a spark. The true fire is being fueled by legislative inertia, lax enforcement, a fragmented state response, and the absence of any cohesive, national emergency mechanism to address predictable seasonal pollution. Every winter, particularly in North India, dropping temperatures, standstill breezes, and temperature inversions trap pollution closer to the ground. However, unlike unexpected natural disasters, this is not an unpredictable crisis. The causes are well understood: post-harvest stubble burning, unregulated construction dust, vehicular emissions, power plant smoke, industrial pollutants, and household biomass burning.

Satellite data from Delhi-NCR repeatedly reveal that stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana is responsible for 40% of particle pollution during this time period. Another 30-35% is ascribed to urban sources such as transportation, construction, and manufacturing. Crackers contribute to short-term surges, but they are not the main cause. However, each year, policy attention is almost entirely focused on prohibiting or regulating firecrackers, enforcing token “Graded Response Action Plans,” and issuing last-minute public advisories. This performative cycle perpetuates itself, yielding little more than headlines and court rulings. Meanwhile, the smoke becomes thicker.

Banning crackers has become the default political move—simple to proclaim, difficult to implement, and even less effective in altering the AQI trend. Enforcement on the ground is spotty, local policing is stretched thin, and illegal transactions continue unabated. More importantly, it undermines accountability. Governments avoid structural reforms in agriculture, construction regulation, transportation planning, and interstate coordination by portraying fireworks as the major villain. The pollution story is limited to a few days of cultural debate rather than a long-term environmental strategy. However, Diwali is not the cause of India’s pollution crisis. It has become the most visible mirror. Each state operates in isolation, frequently pointing fingers at others. Punjab claims that Delhi does not control its automobiles. Delhi blames Punjab for the stubble, while Haryana highlights industrial growth. Uttar Pradesh looks away. This governance fragmentation ensures that each winter is a replay of the previous one.

The Commission for Air Quality Management in the National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas (CAQM) was set up in 2020 to deal with this issue. While it remains essentially toothless, it gives advice instead of orders and suggests steps instead of making them happen. India needs an Air Quality War Room, which is a seasonal command center that makes real-time decisions, makes the state government legally responsible for lowering emissions, and quickly responds to pollution spikes. According to the World Health Organisation, air pollution causes approximately 1.6 million premature deaths in India each year. Data from the Central Pollution Control Board indicates that particulate matter (PM 2.5 and PM 10) levels in Delhi frequently exceed 700 µg/m³ during Diwali week, which is about ten times the acceptable limit. But, more importantly, pollution builds up weeks before Diwali, implying that emergency intervention during the celebration is too little, too late.

This isn’t a cultural issue. It’s a public health emergency. Emergency situations necessitate war-room control rather than dispersed firefighting efforts. The seasonal smog crisis is rooted in agricultural policy failure. Post-harvest paddy residue burning is a sound economic decision for farmers who do not have economical alternatives for clearing fields promptly for the next sowing season. For years, the state has relied on prohibiting stubble burning and subsidising expensive machinery. Neither strategy has been effective at scale. A more successful technique would be to directly procure or buy crop leftovers, generating economic value through biomass energy or composting.

A farmer paid to collect rather than burn will not refuse. This requires financial commitment, supply chain planning, and real-time implementation, not court rulings. While stubble burning makes news, construction dust and automobile emissions contribute significantly to pollution. India’s construction boom is inadequately controlled; sites frequently lack dust containment, and infractions are rarely punished.

Similarly, the increase in private vehicles, along with insufficient public transportation connectivity, contributes to large exhaust emissions during the holiday season, when urban mobility peaks. Banning crackers does nothing to address this continuous flood of contaminants. What India requires are temporary mobility initiatives, such as dedicated clean transport days, enhanced bus and metro services, and congestion pricing zones during high pollution times. Most Indian cities respond to smog outbreaks with ad hoc measures, such as prohibiting building for a few days, closing schools, and encouraging residents to stay indoors. This is reactive governance. A legally enforceable AQI Trigger Protocol would be a more effective solution. When pollution levels exceed predefined criteria, automated, graded response systems kick in, reducing emissions at the source rather than just encouraging people to wear masks.

This protocol must be supported by enforcement capabilities and punishment systems designed to deter noncompliance. While air quality is making headlines, public health systems remain dangerously unprepared. Seasonal pollution is associated with increased hospital admissions, yet few communities have respiratory emergency protocols, targeted public advisories, or real-time health monitoring systems. A national approach must integrate health and environmental concerns, including ensuring that hospitals have surge capacity, air filtration devices, and early warning systems for vulnerable populations. India does not require another ban. It requires a centralised, empowered war room for October-December, supported by legal authority and real-time information.

A national clean air policy must be based on an interstate command structure that allows for daily coordination between Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and government agencies, supported by legally binding emission objectives. It should include a crop residue procurement system supported by the national clean air mission pool and linked to biomass energy, as well as temporary clean mobility campaigns, stringent dust control measures, and real-time AQI-triggered protocols with clearly defined duties. Crucially, it must improve health readiness by implementing hospital surge plans, mobile respiratory units, targeted public notifications, and transparent dashboards that track emissions, enforcement, and compliance. This isn’t an unachievable vision. Many countries, including China and portions of the EU, use this method to deal with seasonal smog occurrences. When Beijing was suffering from harmful smog in the early 2010s, the city set up a real-time emergency command center model that included shutting down factories, limiting transportation, stopping construction, and coordinating health advisories. As a result, after ten years, the PM 2.5 level dropped by 40%.

India’s air pollution problem is more complicated because it affects many states, political leaders, and socioeconomic levels. However, a coordinated response mechanism is within grasp. What is lacking is political will. Diwali should not be regarded as the time for coughing fits, hurting eyes, and disguised parties. It should not serve as a metaphor for state failure. The event has long symbolised the triumph of light over darkness. However, it now clearly demonstrates how India’s environmental governance has slipped into a cloud of inertia. A country that aspires to be a climate leader cannot allow its citizens to choke in October. It’s time to stop fighting the wrong battles. Bans on crackers are symbolic. War-room governance is structured.

Views expressed are personal. The writer is a columnist and political ecology researcher with prior experience as an ESG analyst