Living in the Indian capital is like watching a dystopian movie over and over again.

Winter is here in Delhi and with it comes a familiar feeling of gloom. The sky here is gray and there is a thick, visible blanket of smog.

If you stay outside for more than a few minutes, you can almost taste the ash. If you try to run or walk fast in the smog, you’ll find yourself short of breath within minutes.

Newspapers have started using words like poisonous, deadly and poisonous in their main headlines.

Most schools have been closed and people have been advised to stay indoors – even though those whose livelihoods depend on working outside cannot afford to do so.

According to various monitoring agencies, Delhi’s air quality score was between 1,200 and 1,500 on Monday and Tuesday. The acceptable range is less than 100.

These scores measure the level of particulate matter in the air – called PM 2.5 and PM10. These small particles can enter the lungs and cause many diseases.

People on social media are expressing shock, dismay and grief that this is happening again.

Along with the sadness, there’s also a strong sense of déjà vu – as we’ve seen it all before many times over the past 15 years.

I recorded. This video While commuting to the office in 2017, when smog reduced visibility to less than 2m.

On Tuesday, my drive to the office looked even worse.

And we’ve covered every twist and turn of this story over the past two decades.

We have reported how pollution is making people sick and shortening their life expectancy. Here, Here And Here.

We have informed the Supreme Court of India. To order The government should take immediate steps to control pollution every year. The court has done the same this year.

We have reported how pollution affects children the most and how their freedom is taken away. Here, Here And Here.

We’ve written about how politicians blame each other for this problem every year. Here, Here And Here.

We have discussed the root cause of the problem. Here, Here And Here.

We’ve also talked about solutions – both those that worked marginally and those that failed miserably. Here, Here And Here.

We’ve shown how pollution hits the poorest the hardest and how many people have no choice but to work in the smog. Here, Here And Here.

Covering this story feels like watching (and being involved in) the same dystopian movie every year – following the same characters, plot and script. The result is always the same – nothing changes.

Parks are empty again – people, especially children and the elderly, have been told to stay indoors.

Those who should be working – daily wage labourers, rickshaw pullers, deliverymen – are coughing but still going out.

Hospitals are seeing an increasing number of people presenting with respiratory problems.

And in the midst of all this, we’re back to the same question again – why doesn’t anything change?

The simple answer is that solving Delhi’s air problem requires monumental efforts and coordination.

The sources of the problem are many. One of them is that farmers burn crop residues to quickly clear their fields for planting seeds for the next crop.

It mostly occurs in the neighboring states of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. Smoke from farm fires engulfs Delhi every winter and is reduced in the atmosphere during the winter months due to reduced wind speed.

But the farmers cannot be entirely blamed for this as it is the cheapest way to clear the fields.

Various governments have talked about providing machines and financial incentives to stop crop burning, but little has happened on the ground.

Delhi itself produces a huge chunk of pollution – emissions from vehicles, construction and factories.

Every year during the winter months people get angry, journalists write and prepare reports, politicians blame each other and the courts rage – until we do it again next year.

Such a public health emergency would spark mass protests in most democracies. But the anger in Delhi is mostly confined to social media.

Activists say that’s because pollution doesn’t cause immediate problems for most people. Ingestion of high amounts of PM 2.5 leads to gradual deterioration of health. Oh Lancet study It found that pollution caused more than 2.3 million premature deaths in India in 2019.

And then there is the class divide. Those who can afford to leave town temporarily do so, those who can afford air purifiers do so, and those who can get out on social media do so.

The rest, who don’t have these options, just live their lives.

Collective anger has so far not materialized into mass protests and, as the Supreme Court once observed, politicians simply “pass the buck” and wait for the season to die out.

Experts say that governments at the federal level and in various states need to leave behind their party politics and work together to solve this problem. They need to focus on long-term solutions.

And citizens need to hold politicians accountable, and courts need to make decisions months before pollution escalates.

This year, we are once again under the weather bell and temporary measures have been announced, such as a ban on construction work.

But can it bring back Delhi’s blue skies? The evidence of the last few years does not give much hope.

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