Delhi’s air quality discourse has long been dominated by seasonal explanations such as farm fires, unfavourable meteorology, and pollution blowing in from outside the city. While these factors do influence short-term air quality, emerging evidence increasingly shows that Delhi’s pollution burden is now largely self-driven, with local sources playing a growing and persistent role. Among…
“No PUC, No Fuel” — that blunt message greeted motorists across Delhi on Thursday as the city, choking under dense smog, rolled out one of its most stringent enforcement drives yet to curb vehicular pollution. With the air quality index (AQI) hovering at 358, firmly in the “very poor” category, traffic police and transport…
Authorities in Delhi and the National Capital Region (Delhi-NCR) invoked the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP)-IV on December 13, 2025, as air quality worsened to very poor levels. The GRAP framework was approved by the Supreme Court in 2016, and its implementation has since been overseen by the Commission for Air Quality Management. Governments in…