Breathing itself a risk: Plea before NGT flags India's air pollution crisis

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Monday sought the response of the Union government and other authorities on a plea raising concerns that the worsening air pollution across Indian cities has created a public health crisis [People's Charioteer Organisation (PCO) & Anr. v. Union of India & Ors.]..A Bench of NGT Chairperson Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Expert Member A Senthil Vel observed that a similar issue is already under consideration in another application pending before the tribunal. Both cases have been tagged together. Both applications are scheduled to be taken up for further hearing on May 14..The latest application highlights that India has been facing a long-standing and worsening air pollution crisis that has now assumed the dimensions of a national public health emergency. “Indisputably, India today is enveloped in a persistent and pervasive blanket of polluted air, with concentrations of particulate matter, noxious gases and toxic pollutants consistently exceeding nationally prescribed standards and internationally accepted health thresholds. This grim condition is persistent since more than a decade, worsening and killing countless Indians each year," the plea says. .It adds that deteriorating air quality has begun to threaten the most basic conditions of human existence, and that air pollution in India could no longer be treated as a seasonal or localised problem, but is a structural, national condition. “The quality of air has deteriorated to such an extent that breathing itself has become a health risk, undermining the most basic condition of human existence,” said the petition.According to the application, multiple scientific studies and reports have demonstrated the scale of the public health burden caused by polluted air. Citing findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study, the plea notes that 1.67 million deaths in India in 2019 were attributable to air pollution, accounting for 17.8 per cent of all deaths in the country.The study further estimated that 0.98 million deaths were linked to ambient particulate matter pollution and 0.61 million to household air pollution, while the economic loss from premature deaths and illness attributable to air pollution amounted to $36.8 billion, or about 1.36 per cent of India’s GDP.The application further referred to media reports based on the State of Global Air (SoGA) report which stated that around 464 children under the age of five years die every day in India due to air pollution.The plea also relied on a 2025 Climate Trends analysis of air quality data from 2015 to 2025, which found that no major Indian city met safe air quality standards during the decade. According to the report, Delhi remained the most polluted city, with AQI levels peaking above 250 in 2016 and staying close to 180 even in 2025, while Lucknow and Varanasi often recorded AQIs above 200. Even relatively less polluted cities such as Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai reported AQI levels between 80 and 140, exceeding recommended limits..Against this backdrop, the applicant characterised air pollution as a continuing public health emergency.“The unchecked, unaddressed and unabated alarming each year-round epidemic of air pollution, constitutes a national public health emergency causing millions of premature deaths annually, imposing an enormous disease burden and inflicting severe economic losses at a population level,” states the plea..The application further criticises what it described as fragmented governance and short-term responses to the problem.According to the plea, regulatory action has largely focused on temporary measures during severe pollution episodes, instead of addressing long-term emission sources and the cumulative health impacts of polluted air.“Executive responses to air pollution remain largely reactive, seasonal and cosmetic, often triggered only during episodic spikes or region-specific crises, while the underlying structural drivers of pollution remain unaddressed,” the plea says.Despite existing statutes, including the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 and the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, the plea argues that enforcement responsibilities are spread across multiple authorities that often function without effective coordination.It also highlighted the absence of comprehensive data and monitoring mechanisms for pollution-related harms. “Manifestly, what is not counted is not governed; what is not recorded is not prevented," the applicant points out. .The applicant has sought structural and institutional directions to address air pollution at a national level. It has urged the NGT to issue directions for:Framing an integrated national framework to address air pollution across India. Recognising air pollution as a serious public wrong within institutional accountability systems. Integrating environmental governance with public health monitoring to track pollution-related harm. Ensuring coordinated action among government ministries and agencies to tackle the crisis. Issuing structural and supervisory directions to secure the right to clean air under Article 21 of the Constitution..The plea adds that the persistence of the crisis reflects systemic governance failures rather than a lack of legal frameworks.“The present crisis is not the result of absence of law, but of absence of implementation, coordination and accountability,” it states. .Advocates Shashwat Anand and Manan Agrawal represented the People’s Charioteer Organisation (applicant). .[Read Order]