Come Winters – Annual Delhi’s Gas Chamber Fraudmongering?

Come October-November and Winters, media sensationalises ``Gas Chamber Fearmongering ''. In retrospect, it is “Fraudmongering”!

None pseudo intellectuals (both media and climate experts) and political leaders have ever discussed the specific annual winter meteorological phenomenon that is the root cause airpollution not only in Delhi but also covering the Gangetic Plain.

Nature unleashes its fury annually during winters. Delhi's air pollution is severely aggravated by specific meteorological phenomena that transform consistent local emissions into a hazardous "toxic cocktail". Ipso facto, the city's air quality remains poor year-round, but winter climate conditions act as a "lid," trapping pollutants close to the ground.

Media dismally fails to highlight that effect of temperature inversion in winter. A layer of warm air settles above cooler air near the surface. This "lid" prevents the natural vertical rise and dispersion of pollutants, forcing them to accumulate at breathing levels.

As a result, the atmospheric "mixing height"—the space available for pollutants to disperse—shrinks from about 1 km in summer to just a few hundred meters in winter. Stagnant winds fail to move pollutants horizontally out of the city.

To compound the problems, high humidity and fog create dense smog (smoke + fog), which persists longer in the cold. Unlike the monsoon season, which "washes out" pollutants through wet deposition, the dry winter months lack natural cleansing mechanisms.

Whilst serving in Punjab in early 1972, I experienced for the first time the adverse effects of “air pollution” due to surface inversion compounded by ‘fog or smog’ and dust storms known as “Loo”. The “Fog or Smog” clouds used to float from Pakistan side also. Air flow patterns from Afghanistan and Pakistan pick up emissions as they move over the densely urbanized regions of Punjab and Haryana.

The trouble with even the scientists is that they have not analyzed air pollution in the Indo-Gangetic plain from a holistic angle. Most importantly, people must also first understand “Nature’s” phenomena. They can’t go against “Nature’s” seasonal visitations like effect of temperature inversions.

Since the nights in the winter season are longer, surface inversions are stronger and more common. So, conditions favor the development of a strong surface inversion due to calm winds, clear skies, and long nights. The warm air above cooler air acts like a lid, suppressing vertical mixing and trapping the cooler air at the surface.

Once the sun goes down, the ground loses heat very quickly, and this cools the air that is in contact with the ground. It results in cooling of air near the ground at night, surface inversions form. During the daylight hours, surface inversions normally weaken and disappear as the sun warms the Earth’s surface, ie, after around 9 or sometimes even 10 A.M.

FACT: Delhi is situated in the landlocked Indo-Gangetic Plain, bordered by the Himalayas to the north and the Aravalli Hills to the southwest. These natural barriers block air movement, trapping regional pollutants like smoke from stubble burning within the region. In late 2024 and 2025, climate models indicated that La Niña conditions often lead to colder winters in north India, which can worsen pollutant trapping. However, La Niña can also slightly increase wind speeds, which may occasionally offer brief relief compared to the more stagnant El Niño patterns.

While weather traps the air, human activity provides the toxins. During winter, vehicles and industries contribute 85–94% of the PM2.5 load because their emissions are no longer dispersed by summer heat. There is also increased burning of biomass (wood, coal, waste) for heating, which can account for up to 26% of winter particulate matter.

Winter nights also provide ideal conditions for chemical reactions between gases (like ammonia and sulfur dioxide) to form new fine particles, increasing smog density.

Finally, “Hay/stubble” burning adds fuel to fire. As per media reports, 20% of air pollution over Delhi is due to stubble burning from agricultural lands of neighboring states. What about the rest of 80%?

Furthermore, there are exhaustive studies on "Air Pollution" available, who have identified the main sources to include vehicle (12 millions) exhaust emissions, heavy industry such as power generation by Bhadrapur Thermal Plant contributing to 80 to 90% of the particulate matter pollution, small-scale industries like brick kilns, suspended dust on the roads due to vehicle movement and construction activities, wood-burning fires, cow dung cake combustion, open waste/garbage burning (Bhalswa landfill fires), combustion of fuels for cooking, lighting, and heating, Heavy metal-rich fire-crackers, and so on.

Add to them other reasons contributing to air pollution to include: human emissions (galloping increase in NCR (Broader Region) population from barely 17 lakhs in 1951 to over 715 lakhs as of 2025 - carbon dioxide during respiration); hazardous gases emitted by ammonia used extensively in agriculture, besides insecticides, pesticides and fertilizers; carbon dioxide emissions from green cover; domestic use of air conditioners and refrigerators; cattle release methane during digestion; and pre-monsoon dust storms.

Delhi generates approximately 11,300 to 13,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste (MSW) every day as of 2025 much of which is eventually burned in three landfills: Ghazipur currently in use; Bhalswa commissioned in 1994 and declared exhausted in 2006, but still receiving waste; and Okhla, adding particulate pollution to the air.

And, the proposal for creation of waste management infrastructure particularly waste segregation and recycling by local bodies and utilising portions of large parks for composting and bio-methanation of wet waste (200 tons per day for every five lakh population) at community level is yet to fructify in Delhi.

Next, from April to May and October to November each year, farmers mainly in Punjab and Haryana burn an estimated 35 million tons of crop waste from their paddy fields. Smoke from this burning produces a "toxic cloud" in New Delhi, resulting in declarations of an air-pollution emergency annually.

Although harvesters such as the Indian-manufactured "Happy Seeder" that shred the crop residues into small pieces and uniformly spread them across the field are available as an alternative to burning the crops, some farmers complain that the cost of these machines is a significant financial burden. There are several types of indigenous farm machinery (Hay Baler) available at costs varying between Rs.2 to 11 lakhs to cut, collect and compress crops (hay, cotton, flax straw, salt marsh hay, or silage) into compact bales.

Ipso facto, Hay/Stubble burning is as good as burning money. “Hay/stubble” - grass, legumes, or other herbaceous plants - can be profitably used for a variety of purposes like as animal fodder, particularly for grazing animals such as cattle, horses, goats, and sheep. Quite often in the past, media reports had been highlighting the plight of animals in “Drought Affected” areas. Also, one can see animals eating paper and plastic in cities.

Yet another high value usage of “Stubble/Hay” is to convert it into organic compost for agriculture and domestic gardening usage by three methods like aerobic (use oxygen and bacteria), anaerobic (natural process in landfills – not recommended as it produces bad smell) and windrow composting (efficient).

Municipal waste – garbage – can also be profitable to produce both compost manure and even energy. Waste-to-Energy, also widely recognized by its acronym WtE, is the generation of energy in the form of heat or electricity from waste. (The process is also called Energy from waste to EfW). Using developing technology, these various methods aim to compress and dispose of waste, while attempting the generation of energy from them.

NDA Government can announce 50% subsidies for purchasing "Balers/Happy Seeders". Also, stop the “Waste Burning” and use the waste for other purposes.

In sum, the levels of ‘smog’ and air pollution can only be addressed on a “Holistic” basis in cooperative and constructive manner at the political level – Central Government in conjunction with the State governments of Punjab, Haryana, UP, Rajasthan and Delhi. Also, it must be addressed at the bi-lateral level with Pakistan. Otherwise, it would remain a vexatious health hazard on a recurring and repetitive annual basis. And, political blame games will continue accentuated by media sensationalism with utter disregard to human lives - over 10,000 per annum.

Policies and strategies to mitigate or reduce pollution levels must not only be formulated but implemented effectively including construction activities and vehicle explosion.