Air pollution is one of the biggest problems in major urban agglomerations and costs thousands of lives every year. In light of the statement, elaborate the mitigation strategies for emission control in India.

“The air we breathe should not be a health hazard.”

The State of Global Air 2024 estimates over 2 million deaths in India each year are linked to air pollution, with PM2.5 as the leading risk; South Asia remains the global hotspot. To address this, India runs the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) across 131 non-attainment cities, aiming for substantial particulate reduction through city action plans.

Why urban air is so bad

Transport (tailpipe and road dust), industry & power, construction & demolition (C&D) dust, municipal waste burning, household fuel use, and seasonal crop-residue fires together drive PM and ozone in cities. (See sectoral measures below with official orders and schemes.)

Mitigation strategies for emission control

Transport clean fuels, vehicles, and mobility management

• BS-VI fuel & standards (since Apr 2020) cut new-vehicle emissions drastically; continued inspection & scrappage needed to realize fleet-average gains.
• EV push & charging: states operationalize EV policies; Haryana EV Policy 2022 provides buyer and charging-infrastructure incentives, with recent steps to restore consumer subsidies (<₹40 lakh) to widen uptake.
• NCR-specific orders by CAQM: migration of incoming and tourist buses to cleaner modes, and directions to aggregators & delivery platforms for cleaner fleets (2025).
• GRAP (Graded Response Action Plan) triggered by AQI restricts polluting activities, curbs DG-sets, tightens transport & dust controls during smog episodes in Delhi-NCR (incl. Haryana districts).

Industry and power compliance, fuels, and markets

• Cleaner fuels & stack controls through CAQM and SPCB directions; continuous monitoring expansion under NCAP city plans.
• PAT scheme (BEE) cut specific energy consumption in 8 energy-intensive sectors; India is now piloting a Carbon Credit Trading Scheme (CCTS) to align directly with GHG (co-benefitting air quality).

Construction & road dust enforcement and tech

• C&D bans/controls under GRAP: mandatory green-netting, anti-smog guns, on-site dust suppression; recent Stage-II/III orders reiterated for NCR including Gurugram-Faridabad.
• City action plans finance mechanized sweeping, paved shoulders, and dust portals for registration and compliance tracking.

Waste burning & municipal management

Open-burning bans under GRAP/CAQM with penalties; CAQM’s 2025 directives also target landfill fires and mandate action protocols for ULBs across NCR.

Household energy clean cooking & heating

Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana has delivered 10.33 crore LPG connections; 32.94 crore active LPG consumers in India (Mar 2025) a major PM2.5 exposure reduction measure for women/children.

Agriculture addressing crop-residue burning

• Decomposer and CRM: promotion of bio-decomposers and subsidized crop-residue management (CRM) machinery; information campaigns to avoid fires.
• NCR-wide, 2025 CAQM direction mandates paddy-straw biomass pellets in brick kilns (including non-NCR Haryana) to create demand for residues and deter burning.

Governance, monitoring & targets

• NCAP progress: independent assessment (CREA, 2025) shows mixed outcomes of 97 cities with good data coverage, only 41 achieved initial PM10 reduction targets, many still above national standards signaling the need to tighten implementation.
• CAQM Act, 2021 created a permanent commission for NCR & adjoining areas for unified, science-based decisions (e.g., GRAP stages, transport, C&D, residue burning).

Haryana: What’s working

• Early-season stubble burning counts fell sharply in 2025 (Sept 15–Oct 15): only 25 incidents vs 559 in 2024 thanks to CRM deployment, strict enforcement, drones/satellite surveillance and delayed harvest; authorities warn numbers can rise with peak harvest but the drop shows enforcement and alternatives work.
• PIB reported a Haryana 45-day fire-count decline (1,094 vs 1,813 in 2022; 2,413 in 2021), indicating multi-year progress.
• GRAP compliance drives: Gurugram /Faridabad frequently activate GRAP-II/III with orders on C&D bans, dust controls, and traffic curbs during spikes.
• Clean mobility: Haryana EV Policy 2022 offers buyer incentives and charging-infra support; the state is now reviving consumer subsidies (<₹40 lakh EVs) to broaden adoption.
• Outcome & gaps: Short-term AQI relief during compliance surges; need more year-round fleet turnover (EV/CNG), permanent dust management, and residue-to-market linkages to sustain gains.

Additional priorities (what more to do)

1. Tighten power/industry norms & enforcement with continuous emissions monitoring and time-bound FGD/NOx retrofits (co-benefits for PM/ozone).
2. Scale clean public transport and parking/road-pricing pilots in metros to cut congestion emissions.
3. Expand monitoring close the CAAQMS gaps found under NCAP; publish open data for city-level accountability.
4. Target ammonia and VOCs (from waste, solvents, fuel stations) to control secondary PM & ozone in cities.
5. Health-based planning: use burden-of-disease metrics to prioritize actions where lives saved per rupee are highest.

Air pollution in Indian cities is a solvable governance and technology problem but it demands year-round, sector-wise execution. The toolkit exists: BS-VI, NCAP, CAQM/GRAP, EV policies, Ujjwala, CRM & biomass markets, PAT, CCTS and Haryana’s recent fire-count declines and GRAP enforcement show what determined action can deliver. The next leap is to institutionalize these measures, align incentives, and measure what matters exposure and health gains so that India’s growth story is also a story of clean air and saved lives