By Ranjana Ray Chaudhuri, Associate Professor and Head of the Departments of Natural and Applied Sciences and Regional Water Studies, TERI School of Advanced Studies

Air pollution is one of India’s deadliest health threats, causing 1.5 million deaths in a decade. A coordinated, science-led strategy is now reversing the trend, with strict regulations, biomass use, and cleaner fuels improving air quality—though much work remains.

In India, air has become a public health disaster, challenging both governance and public resolve. A slow, unseen threat that deprives people of years before their time, air pollution caused 1.5 million deaths in India between 2009 and 2019, as per the Lancet Planetary Health study. This accounts for nearly one in every six deaths nationwide. It is one of the country’s deadliest health threats, claiming more years of life lost than even cardiovascular or infectious diseases. Particulate pollution alone shortens the average Indian’s life by 5.3 years. In the Northern Plains, the worst-hit region, the number increases to about 8 years of life lost for nearly 521 million residents.

In 2019, the economic costs from premature deaths and illnesses linked to air pollution reached $36.8 billion, or 1.36% of India’s GDP 4 . This is a multi-faceted attack on health, society, and the economy, in the guise of an environmental issue. The problem looms over India like Damocles’ sword—a scepter that haunts our national productivity, stunts children’s growth, hampers adolescents’ lung and cognitive development and burdens hospitals.

CAQM as a Panacea

Faced with such a crisis, piecemeal interventions are no longer enough. India needs a science-backed authority with the mandate to cut across state lines and enforce tough decisions. The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM), set up in 2020 and given statutory powers under the CAQM Act, 2021, has emerged as that very institution. Its jurisdiction spans Delhi-NCR and neighbouring states, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan, where it can issue binding directions to state agencies, impose environmental compensation, and prosecute non-compliance.

CAQM’s strategy has zeroed in on two critical fronts in the fight against air pollution: managing agricultural residue to curb stubble burning and driving industrial decarbonisation to cut emissions at the source.

In agriculture, CAQM has created Parali Protection Forces for district-level oversight, satellite-based burnt area tracking with ISRO, and the legal empowerment of District Magistrates to prosecute violations. Together, these measures have driven a dramatic decline in crop residue fires. Punjab saw incidents fall from 71,304 in 2021 to 10,909 in 2024, while Haryana dropped from 6,829 to 1,315 . To create a sustainable outlet for farm waste, the Commission has also advanced biomass co-firing in coal-based power plants, blending paddy straw with coal to reduce coal consumption and avoid open burning. This began in 2021, when 11 thermal plants within 300 km of Delhi were directed to co-fire 5–10% biomass.

In June 2025, the mandate expanded to brick kilns in non-NCR districts of Punjab and Haryana, with a phased plan to achieve 50% paddy straw-based biomass use by November 2028.

In 2023, CAQM strengthened industrial decarbonisation by mandating strict and immediate compliance with emission limits for particulate matter, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, mercury, and water use in coal- and lignite-based thermal power plants, in line with standards set and periodically updated by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. This regulatory push has strengthened compliance across the industrial and power sectors. CAQM has also boosted biomass pellet production, including the once-scarce torrefied type, through access to technology, training, and subsidies provided by the Central Pollution Control Board and state governments.

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https://fehealthcare.financialexpress.com/blogs/caqms-blueprint-for-breathing-easier-in-indias-most-polluted-regions

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