Delhi's five pollution hotspots
Story by Akanksha Mishra, Muskan Bhatia, and Soumya Pillai
Produced by Soham Sen, Wasif Khan, and Shruti Naithani
Photographs by Manisha Mondal
(5/11/2024)
New Delhi: Every winter, all of Delhi chokes under severe air pollution, but these five neighbourhoods are the worst. AQI levels reach 500 every year between October and January, and the sky is always a dull grey. Proximity to industries, unchecked vehicular emissions, and fumes from open waste are the culprits.
Anand Vihar
For Basant Kumar, 67, living in Anand Vihar means feeling suffocated all year round and literally gasping for breath in winter. This is largely due to the Anand Vihar Inter-state Bus Terminal. The fumes from hundreds of buses passing through Delhi’s largest terminus linger, especially in winter. Anti-smog guns, water sprinklers, and other dust control measures have proven ineffective. As an open-air snack stall owner at the terminal, Kumar bears the brunt of this pollution.
“When my throat starts itching and my eyes get watery, that’s when I know the winter has arrived—not because of the cold,” Kumar said. By his reckoning, winter reached Anand Vihar early this year. In the first week of October, the air quality index (AQI) in Anand Vihar touched 300—‘poor’ on the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) scale— while the rest of Delhi averaged at 250.
Traffic is one of the main reasons for high pollution levels in Anand Vihar, especially due to inter-state vehicles. Additionally, the Anand Vihar railway station and a metro station are located right across from the bus terminal.
“Our Delhi buses are all electric now, but we still have buses from Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Uttarakhand here. How can we control emissions from all these vehicles?” asked Jaginder Singh, one of the guards at the bus stop.
While Delhi has transitioned to electric and CNG buses within the city, ISBT's location means residents are regularly exposed to emissions from diesel-powered buses of other states. Moreover, Anand Vihar is only minutes away from the Ghazipur landfill, which also contributes to pollution levels.
Shabeena, an announcer with the Delhi Transport Department, faces a double whammy of pollution: her home is in Ghazipur and her workplace at ISBT. Even after installing a glass case around her announcement box three years ago, the granite surface is still coated with a thick layer of dust that she wipes off every hour.
To make matters worse, pollution in Anand Vihar has been exacerbated by the construction of the Delhi-Meerut metro line adjacent to the terminal.
“It’s not even Diwali yet, but my lungs are hurting, and I have a sore throat,” said Bharat Singh, a ticket seller at the terminal. “I see the dust blowing from the metro construction site every day I come to work." Now, Singh never leaves home without his antihistamine pills.
R K Puram
Purifiers sputter uselessly against the pollution in Rama Krishna Puram.
“Even at 4 pm, it feels like we are covered in a blanket of haze, as if there’s no sunlight at all,” said Roma Raheja, who has lived in R K Puram for 12 years. “I have started putting two air purifiers in my daughter’s room; I am so worried about her health.”
R K Puram is a largely residential neighbourhood located in Central Delhi. Its air quality is notoriously poor, having reached an AQI of 400 last year. In the first week of October this year, the area recorded an AQI of 320. R K Puram is also included in the CPCB’s list of air pollution hotspots in Delhi.
One reason R K Puram experiences such high pollution levels compared to other South and Central Delhi neighbourhoods is its location. It is enclosed by the Ring Road and the Outer Ring Road. For residents, there is no escaping vehicular emissions.
According to Raheja, pollution levels have only increased over the years. The Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns provided a brief respite. In contrast, environmentalists and residents point to nearby Vasant Vihar, where the air quality is relatively cleaner.
“So while there’s vehicular traffic, there are also improper waste disposal by the municipality, kerosene burning in low-income areas, and firewood burning in [residential] societies,” said Abhir Bhalla, an environmentalist and resident of R K Puram.
Residents in slums of R K Puram don’t have easy access to gas connections, electricity, or reliable water supply. At Asha, a private not-for-profit clinic serving the slums in sectors 1, 6, and 12, nurses and doctors report a rise in patients with breathing difficulties.
“Usually, 40 to 50-year-old women who don’t have a history of tobacco or substance use come to us with complaints of chest pains, breathing problems, and headaches,” said a nurse. “It could be due to exposure to the firewood stoves they use for cooking, but we have noticed the symptoms are more intense during winters.”
Punjabi Bagh
The pollution woes for residents of Punjabi Bagh begins long before the peak winter season. A thick layer of dust settles on parked vehicles and the floors of large multi-storeyed kothis. Many private taxi drivers have relocated from unpaved roadside stands along Road No. 41 to a small patio across the street. Ongoing construction is the culprit here.
“We can no longer sit in our usual spot because of the constant flow of vehicles,” said Montu Singh, a driver and resident of Punjabi Bagh for the past 12 years. “Traffic has been redirected for the last two years from MG Road due to the construction of the Punjabi Bagh flyover, making this entire road heavily crowded and dusty.”
Punjabi Bagh has consistently ranked among Delhi's pollution hotspots every winter for the past five years. In October, the AQI largely remained in the 'very poor' category, averaging 340. After Diwali, pollution levels in the neighbourhood spiked to 390.
“The flyover construction is contributing to Punjabi Bagh’s air pollution this year,” a transport inspector, who wished to remain anonymous, told ThePrint.
He noted that the loading and unloading of cement from trucks and trains near the Shakur Basti railway station releases more harmful particles than the dust generated from the ongoing construction work.
An increase in construction activity in residential areas compounds the problem, as multi-storeyed buildings replace independent houses.
“Most of the old occupants have moved to Gurgaon or Noida, seeking greener spaces with lawns and parks—features lacking here,” said Deepti Prisha, a 39-year-old resident of Shivaji Park for over 16 years.
Prisha experienced the toxic fumes firsthand on Dussehra, when smoke from effigy burning seeped into her home even with windows and doors closed. She dreads Diwali, knowing it only magnifies respiratory ailments, especially among children.
“And yet people burst crackers every year. We cannot do anything to curb the situation,” Prisha lamented.
There is, however, some relief from the drop in cremations at the Punjabi Bagh Crematorium. Before the pandemic, it handled 25-30 bodies per day. This number has now decreased to 10-15, said Rinku Channa, a funeral manager at the crematorium.
“Massive traffic jams caused by the extension of the Punjabi Bagh flyover have forced many Delhi residents to seek other crematoriums for their relatives,” Channa said.
Dwarka
When 72-year-old Muktesh Chand moved to Dwarka in 2009, the landscape primarily comprised open spaces, tree-lined roads, and a scattering of apartment complexes. Positioned away from the city centre, the newly developed Dwarka sub-city promised a serene, traffic-free green space—essentially a correction of past planning errors in Delhi’s residential areas.
However, 15 years later, Dwarka has transformed into one of Delhi’s most polluted zones.
“Dwarka is facing the same fate as the rest of Delhi. In fact, it has become worse. With rampant construction and heavy traffic, the area is always shrouded in a cloud of dust,” Chand said.
Senior officials from the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) attribute Dwarka’s above-average pollution levels primarily to ongoing construction activities. Some big-ticket projects such as the Dwarka Expressway, the India-International Convention and Expo Centre, and local sports and recreation facilities have kept the dust levels high.
“Dwarka is relatively new, and parts of it are still under construction. With so many construction projects ongoing, pollution levels are bound to be higher than normal,” explained a top DPCC official on the condition of anonymity.
Another factor sullying Dwarka’s air quality is the high volume of traffic. During peak hours—between 9 and 11 am and 6 and 8 pm—the roads leading to Dwarka are packed with slow-moving vehicles. This traffic worsens around festival times.
Residents blame the poor public transport system as a reason for their dependence on private vehicles.
“While Dwarka has a great Metro system, last-mile connectivity is a big problem. The sectors are not connected by public buses and feeders. Autos and battery-operated rickshaws charge a lot for short distances,” said Shikhar Sharma, a 28-year-old IT professional who commutes to Nehru Place.
Data shows that even before Diwali firecrackers worsened pollution levels, Dwarka’s air quality had already entered into the ‘very poor’ category by October. Throughout the month, PM10 and PM2.5 dominated the pollution metrics—highlighting the high concentration of dust and vehicular emissions.
Okhla
Every October, the corridors of the Aam Aadmi Party Mohalla Clinic on Khajuri Road in South Delhi’s Okhla fill with residents complaining of coughs, congestion, allergies, and other respiratory illnesses. While many attribute their ailments to the onset of winter and the “sudden change in weather,” the doctors and nurses at the clinic cite pollution levels as a contributing factor.
“The kind of crowd we get here can’t sit in their homes in front of air purifiers, so they are among the worst impacted by pollution,” said an attendant at the clinic, requesting anonymity.
Okhla, a densely populated area located on Delhi’s southern border, has a locational disadvantage. Sandwiched between the Outer Ring Road and the busy Mathura Road, Okhla residents are choked with high levels of vehicular pollution.
A 2022 traffic analysis by the Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) revealed that Mathura Road sees up to 2-3 lakh vehicles daily during peak hours, resulting in persistently high concentrations of toxic gases, including carbon monoxide (CO) and nitrogen oxides (NOx), which cause greater damage to human health than the coarser pollutants.
But the pollution problem in Okhla goes beyond traffic. The area borders Noida, making it vulnerable to industrial emissions. It also has a waste-to-energy plant located in a residential neighbourhood, which, despite official assurances of safety, remains a health hazard.
“We have filed petitions and written to authorities about the health risks of living near a waste-to-energy plant. But have the governments ever cared about the residents? If they did, wouldn’t we have a solution for the annual winter pollution crisis?” asked Vikas Mathur, a resident of Sukhdev Vihar.
Residents first appealed against the Okhla WTE in the Delhi High Court in 2009. The case was later transferred to the National Green Tribunal, which allowed the plant to operate in 2017. Residents are particularly worried about the high emissions of dioxins, furans, and heavy metals.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), dioxins are “highly toxic” compounds that can cause severe health damage from prolonged exposure, including reproductive and developmental problems, immune system damage, and even cancer.
Three kilometres from Okhla, residents of the upscale New Friends Colony are also anxious about rising pollution levels. Mansi Phadnavis, 35, and her husband are contemplating leaving Delhi permanently to provide a cleaner environment for their six-year-old daughter, who has paediatric asthma, which is not uncommon among children in Delhi. But her doctors said that her condition could have been triggered by Mansi’s exposure to high pollution levels during her pregnancy.
“The average pollution levels in the city are high, but in these pockets, they are much higher, which makes residents susceptible to severe respiratory illnesses. It doesn’t end there. Residents would also be more vulnerable to strokes, heart attacks, and cancers in the long run,” said Dr Vikar Mittal, senior pulmonologist and director of the Department of Respiratory Medicine at CK Birla Hospital.
Edited by Prashant
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