The graphic clearly shows the extent of pollution hazard caused by PM 2.5 to Delhi.

On an average day,
the residents of the Indian capital breathe air fouled by fine particles at a concentration of 153g/m3.
This is close to three times the Beijing mean and 15 times the WHO Guideline of 10g/m3. PM2.5 is not
the only form of air pollution but it is responsible for the greatest number of deaths worldwide. Another
notable killer is NO2 now notorious because of VWs scandalous attempt to rig its emissions reporting
The silver lining to Delhis smog is that the stigma is forcing the government to act which is seeking to
introduce tougher regulations on vehicle makers building a bypass around the city.In line with the
objectives the State Governnment introduced some measures to improve the air quality in the capital
including shutting down thermal plants,massive plantation drive,vacuum cleaning of raods
proposal,reducing time for trucks movement in city but the one that gained maximum attention was to
allow private vehicles to ply on alternate days based on odd and even registration numbers(odd-even
road rationing)
The odd-even experiment established that Delhi can cope with an extreme situation arising out of
multiple causes and conditions some related to its geography, others to the compulsions of life that
its citizens lead. Dust caused by rampant construction, smog caused by industries and vehicular
traffic, smoke from stubble-burning in the fields of Haryana and Punjab, and garbage in the city are
among the well-recognised factors of its misery. This year, the misery hit a hurtful point. People stopped
taking their morning walks and the lack of oxygen caused a feeling of chronic exhaustion. The judiciary
built up the pressure that finally led the government to take some drastic steps.The 15-day odd-even car
experiment the largest ever tried in a city in India resulted into an audacious attempt to redirect public
outcry over citys dirty air in to an actionable, but singular agenda for citizens and the subsequent largescale mobilisation of people raised expectations of a visible and substantial outcome at the end of the
fortnight.

The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) presented calibrated, but positive answers to the
question of how pollution had been impacted by the scheme, while the Delhi state government took the
technically specific plea that the purpose was to reduce peak level pollution loads. Both particulate and
nitrogen oxide load from cars reduced substantially during the odd-even programme by as much as 40%,
the court was informed based on CSEs analysis. IIT Kanpurs study was pointed to note that vehicles
were the second highest contributor to particulate matter below 2.5 microns. But 31% of the load out of
this comes from two-wheelers which were not covered by the scheme. The decongestion of roads
improved efficiency of public transport. During the days smog prevailed it was not as intense as it could
have been even though the weather conditions were worse than previous months - peak load of
pollutants in the atmosphere had been curtailed.
The calibration came in the prescription for future action. CSE said, This is an opportunity in the city
to create and test out the plan for augmented public transport services which can be sustained even after
the program is over. This will help Delhi catalyse longer-term solutions to the mobility crisis that is
worsening the air pollution impacts. It is one out of a menu of emergency actions it is temporary and
deployed only when there is an emergency. Naturally its not done during monsoons when rains wash
away the pollutants faster. Cities like Beijing deploy the off-road policy more stringently and other
emergency actions as well during such emergencies to get better results.

Source: Safar-India

It is certain today that two major causes of air pollution in Delhi are road dust and vehicles. The other
source of pollution is burning of coal in power stations, industries and biomass for cooking. Therefore
plan for air pollution control can succeed without hard steps to restrain the growth of vehicles, mainly
the grossly polluting kinds. Road dust generation is also a function of the vehicles because the more we
drive the more dust is raised and re-circulated. Worse, the coating of vehicle fumes makes the dust toxic.
There are three major segments - trucks, two-wheelers and cars. In Delhi, buses and three-wheelers have
already switched to compressed natural gas, which emits less particulate than diesel vehicles.

Trucks are bad news for pollution. They are old, mostly overloaded and still operate on even dirtier
diesel and technology, an environment compensation tax be imposed on these vehicles if they are
transiting through the polluted air shed of Delhi. CSE has also asked for cleaner fuel and technology to
be introduced today, not tomorrow. The Supreme Court hearing them imposed the tax and already there
are some 20 per cent fewer trucks in Delhi. The Central government also paying heed to them decided to
leapfrog to Euro VI, the European fuel-vehicle emissions standards that can bring drastic improvement
to diesel vehicles by 2020, an advancement of over four years and will be a big game changer.
Then come private vehicles, of which two-wheelers because of their sheer numbers contribute the bulk
of emissions. Cars add to some 10-15 per cent of vehicle emissions but this contribution is much more
when you take the impact of congestion on the road. It is for this reason that the report of source
inventory - estimating the pollution sources - by the IIT Kanpur, finds that in certain congested areas of
Delhi cars, particularly diesel cars, add up to 60-90 per cent of the PM 2.5 - tiny particulates that are
most toxic. It also finds that secondary particulates-formed from gases like nitrogen oxides and emitted
from diesel vehicles and coal burning-are a big cause of air pollution in Delhi's air shed.
So, cars, particularly "clean" and "new" diesel ones, which are legally allowed to emit seven times more
than petrol, are important part of the pollution story. That's why the rationing of vehicles based on their
odd-even number plate has had impact in Delhi. This winter Delhi has seen weather conditions that are
horrendous for pollution - still air, high moisture levels which trap particles and winter inversion. It is a
fact that in the first week of odd-even, pollution levels increased but this was because weather
conditions turned foul. The emergency step of taking half the cars off the road meant that the pollution
spike was moderated. This is a big achievement. Congestion came down temporarily. This was an
inevitable positive outcome of the experiment but in the long-term decongestion too would require
overhauling public transport.
The actual exposure of people to harmful pollutants depends on the nature of the city planning. The
impact on public health is disproportionately higher when people live closer to roads than those who
live further away. It takes prolonged exposure to some pollutants such as particulate matter and a
shorter exposure to other more toxic chemicals that can lead to health problems. In sum, you can take
out any number of cars off the city roads for a fortnight but the net consequence of this on public health
would depend in the least on the following parameters the vintage and health of cars that went offroad, the distance they would have run otherwise and in what traffic situations, what mode of transport
did the people use as replacement, how did the weather fare that fortnight and the physical planning and
mobility plans of the city itself.
In view of this, people in general wondered and the courts at times asked if removing the cars from the
roads had a positive impact in reducing air pollution or not and how much public health had been
safeguarded by the measure the answer would necessarily have to be full of caveats. Pollution varies
with time and weather conditions for reasons that have nothing to do with the odd-even pilot. Reflecting
these challenges, different assessments so far have been contradictory, ranging from complete failure
to massive success, however, it is concluded by research organisations like Energy Policy Institute at
the University of Chicago that the odd-even pilot did have some impact reducing hourly particulate
air pollution concentrations by 10-13 per cent.

Source: Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago

It bears no doubt that the odd-even experiment in Delhi was educative. It taught the government that the
public is now ready to support radical measures on air pollution. The public learnt that cynicism is not
the only response to a hopeless situation. The odd-even fortnight is now a pleasant memory, but will it
also be an inspiring one? The answer depends on the so-called aspirational classes. More specifically, it
depends on their willingness to engage in a deeper debate on the meaning of development. An
aspirational lifestyle symbolises the primacy of consumption as a source of happiness. In this case, the
freedom to produce unlimited amounts of garbage becomes a natural right. No matter how this garbage
is disposed off, it will contribute to pollution. When most of the garbage is burnt, it will make a major
contribution to poor air quality. This is what has been happening in Delhi.
While the odd-even policy reduced pollution during its first two weeks in effect, there are reasons to
wonder about its ability to reduce pollution over the longer run. A natural concern is that the odd-even
policy could easily be gamed or otherwise undermined. Further, Mexico Citys experience with the
implementation of a similar policy suggests, it could even make pollution worse by encouraging
households to purchase second cars that are old and very pollutingSuccessive governments have ignored
the growing crisis of Delhis environment. Despite expert advice, diesel-driven cars were promoted to
fuel the demand for automobiles. The mistaken perception that diesel is a cheaper alternative to petrol
was condoned and promoted. Delhis green cover suffered a heavy loss during the Commonwealth
Games when the government permitted thousands of trees to be chopped by contractors who never
fulfilled the promise they were asked to make that these trees would be replaced.
The odd-even fortnight had a feel-good effect on Delhis citizenry. Children stayed at home as all
schools stayed closed in order to let their buses be used as additional public transport. In its second
week, the experiment was assisted by favourable weather conditions. This was also a period without
weddings, so there were no crackers. The wedding season is now back, and thousands of crackers have
started to fill the night sky with beautiful lights, loud explosions and toxic chemicals of Chinese origin.
A sickly smog has started to cover the sky and the placid air at dawn is ready to choke the morning
walker. Within a few weeks from now, thousands of trees will start dropping their leaves which will be
burnt and add to the citys already wounded pollution woes.

A more durable effect on pollution might come from a congestion-pricing programme, in which drivers
are charged for using the roads at certain places and times. This approach, which has been successful in
places like London and Singapore, allows cities to effectively reduce car use at periods of peak
congestion and pollution. The Delhi government should pilot the use of congestion charging, and invest
any income from the charge in high-quality, high-capacity public transport with zero local emissions
which would again help to reduce demand for driving, congestion, and pollution.Investment in public
transport needs to be done at a scale never done before. Today only 10-15 per cent of Delhi and its
neighborhood drive cars, but this is already the cause of congestion and pollution. This is why odd-even
should become our way of life the citizens should share cars; take a bus or metro; cycle or walk.
Delhis crisis may look rather specific, but it points to the price that any region might have to pay for
mistaken policies that affect the environment. Air pollution is not an isolated phenomenon, nor can it be
fully grasped by specialised analysis. Such an analysis will remain one-sided and it will lead to false
hope that temporary cures, such as the odd-even formula, arouse. Problems of environment demand
holistic inquiry and objective acknowledgement of mistakes made in the past.Air pollution is shortening
lives in Delhi and too many other places in India and elsewhere. The odd-even scheme has delivered
over these two weeks, but may not over the long term. There is no shortage of creative ideas and
potential pilots, but what is all too often lacking is evidence on which ones work as intended. In one
effort to improve matters, the University of Chicago has launched a competition with the Delhi
Dialogue Commission to crowdsource ideas for reducing air and water pollution (the Delhi Urban Labs
Innovation Challenge).
CSE and other expert groups have long pushed for a much wider set of actions some short term in
times of emergency and some structural and long term - to help arrest deterioration in Delhis air. From
congestion taxes to parking rationalisation, enhanced and integrated public transport systems to
regulating other sources of pollution than vehicles. Arvind Kejriwal, the chief minister of Delhi, had
picked up one small prong to spike the city in to action with. He did well this time around in mobilising
collective civic action rarely witnessed in the capital using the right language to not say as much but
make same people give up road-space to public transport at a city-wide level, albeit temporarily.
He has given a positive direction to the building anxiety in the city over air pollution though it is to be
seen to whether this step is one in the process to deliver on the more structural changes that require
government action and not civic mobilisation or only helped ease some pressure on his government to
act this rather warm and easier winter. The Delhi CM though informed that during odd-even, Metro
services saw an increased traffic of about 0.4 per cent and bus services saw a 7 per cent increase in
ridership with minimal number of defaulters.
More generally speaking, governments need to accept that we dont have all the answers to policy
problems and adopt a culture of trying out new ideas, testing them carefully, and then deciding which
ones to adopt at scale. The Delhi also asked people to send their suggestions by mails adding that MLAs
will hold meetings in their respective constituencies to get feedback from people who have largely
supported the drive, get their view points and suggestions on how, when and in what shape do they want
the next phase to be implemented.