ANNOUNCEMENTS
Air Pollution in Delhi NCR has been a bone of contention for over a decade now. Every year starting late October, we see the governments in Delhi and the neighboring states of Punjab and Haryana engaging in a “blame game”, as the Air Quality Index (AQI) drops from average to poor, to very poor, to severe. The narrative often shifts to seasonal activities such as ‘stubble (paralli) burning’ by farmers and even to bursting of crackers during the festivities. Although, these factors do contribute to the precarious condition in the region, the agencies and the masses fail to take into consideration factors which go beyond the season and contribute to the air pollution, throughout the year1. Every year new policies are enacted to curb the problem of air pollution, however to no avail.
In 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared Delhi as one of the most polluted cities on the planet2. Faridabad which happens to be a part of the National Capital Region (NCR), had also made its way on the same list, securing an alarming ranking amongst the top five worst polluted cities.3 It was found that Faridabad had excessively high PM 2.5 levels as the annual average value were around three times higher than the annual standard. Further, in case of Faridabad a drastic increase in PM2.5 levels during winters was observed, which leads to extreme deterioration of the air quality.
The present study is aimed at analyzing the predicament of air pollution in Delhi NCR region with specific context to the city of Faridabad. The key concern of the study is to focus on “what factors render Faridabad as one of the most polluted cities in the world?” The study takes into consideration various causes which lead to this condition in context to the effect they create, and their implications from a socio-legal perspective.
