Living in India’s capital is like watching a dystopian movie over and over again.

Winter has arrived in Delhi, and with it comes a familiar gloomy atmosphere. The sky here is gray and thick smog is visible.

If you’re outside for more than a few minutes, it can taste almost like ash. If you try to run or walk briskly through smog, you’ll feel short of breath within minutes.

Newspapers are back to using words like poisonous, deadly, and poisonous in their main headlines.

Most schools are closed and people are advised to stay indoors, but those who make a living working outdoors cannot afford to do so.

According to various monitoring agencies, Delhi’s air quality score was between 1,200 and 1,500 on Monday and Tuesday. The allowed limit is less than 100.

These scores measure the levels of particulate matter (called PM 2.5 and PM10) in the air. These small particles can enter the lungs and cause various illnesses.

On social media, people are expressing shock, disappointment and pain that it’s all happening again.

Along with the darkness comes a strong sense of déjà vu. This is something we’ve seen many times over the past 15 years.

This video was recorded driving to the office in 2017, when smog reduced visibility to less than 2 meters.

Tuesday, my drive to work seemed to get even worse.

And we’ve covered every twist and turn of this story over the past 20 years.

We’ve reported on how pollution is making people sick and shortening lifespans here, here and here.

We reported that India’s Supreme Court has ordered the government to take emergency measures every year to control pollution. The court issued a similar ruling this year.

We’ve reported here, here and here about how pollution affects children the most and how their freedom is being taken away.

We’ve written here , here , and here about how politicians blame each other on this issue every year.

I’ve explained the root cause of the problem here, here, and here.

Also, we’ve talked about solutions that both barely worked and those that failed miserably here, here, and here.

We’ve reported here, here and here about how pollution is affecting the poorest people, and how many have no choice but to work outside in the smog. I did.

Covering this story feels like watching (and starring in) the same dystopian movie year after year, following the same characters, plot, and script. The result is always the same, nothing changes.

The park is empty again. People, especially children and the elderly, are being told to stay indoors.

People who have to work, such as day laborers, rickshaw drivers, and delivery drivers, are going out even though they are coughing.

Hospitals are increasingly seeing patients with respiratory problems.

In this context, we come back to the same question. Why hasn’t anything changed?

The simple answer is that solving Delhi’s air problems will require a lot of effort and coordination.

There are many causes for the problem. One of these is the practice of farmers burning crop remains to hastily clear fields to sow seeds for the next crop.

This is mainly happening in the neighboring states of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. Smoke from farm fires engulfs Delhi every winter, hanging lower in the atmosphere as wind speeds drop during the winter months.

However, farmers cannot be completely blamed for this, since this is the cheapest way to clear fields.

Various governments have talked about providing machinery and financial incentives to stop crop burning, but little has happened on the ground.

Delhi itself generates a large amount of pollution, including emissions from vehicles, construction, and factories.

Every winter, people get angry, journalists write and produce reports, politicians blame each other, and courts rage – until the next year we do it all over again.

Such a public health emergency would spark mass protests in most democracies. But Delhi’s anger is largely confined to social media.

Activists say this is because pollution poses no immediate problem for most people. Ingestion of high levels of PM2.5 leads to a gradual deterioration of health conditions. Pollution caused more than 2.3 million premature deaths in India in 2019, according to a Lancet study.

And then there is the classification. Those who can afford to temporarily leave the city will do so, those who can buy air purifiers will do so, and those who can vent on social media will do so.

The rest, who don’t have that option, just move on with their lives.

The collective unrest has so far not led to mass protests, and as the Supreme Court once acknowledged, politicians are simply “dodging responsibility” and waiting for the season to end. Only.

Experts say federal and state governments need to move beyond partisan politics and work together to solve the problem. They need to focus on long-term solutions.

And the public needs to hold politicians accountable, and the courts need to issue firm orders months before the pollution worsens.

This year’s season is in full swing, and temporary measures such as a ban on construction have been announced.

But will this bring Delhi back to its elusive blue skies? The evidence from the past few years doesn’t offer much hope.

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