OPINION | The AQI Illusion: Why India's Pollution Fight Is Collapsing Under Missing Data |
The Bombay High Court has been hearing the suo moto PIL on air pollution for years now, and recent hearings exemplify the fundamental problems which have resulted in our AQI crisis – we lack the data we need to meaningfully identify sources of pollution, and we certainly don’t enforce measures to curtail pollution.
The Government of India’s response in parliament to the effect that there is no data directly correlating high AQI and lung diseases has garnered some attention. However, no one has called out that there do not seem to be any initiatives underway to collect and collate this data. That there seems to be a connection – correlational or causal – is clear since the same Government response addresses the “…development of material targeting Air Pollution related illnesses…”
This data scarcity is endemic as far as concerns air pollution in our country. In hearings earlier this week, the Bombay High Court noted inter alia that several pollution sensors installed are not functioning.
It is telling that the High Court had to call out the delta between the lived experience of pollution control guidelines not being enforced at construction sites and the ostensible efforts which the BMC has made to enforce those guidelines. The BMC's apparent paper trail, the data, if you will,........