As winter sets in and post-monsoon haze thickens across North India, public attention once again turns to air pollution. The familiar cycle resumes: media focus intensifies, governments announce emergency measures, and residents express frustration. Yet, as soon as winds improve and visibility returns, the urgency fades often stalling long-term reform.
This year, cloud seeding has emerged as the prominent proposed solution. The technique involves dispersing chemicals into clouds to induce rainfall, with the expectation that precipitation can temporarily wash pollutants from the air. It joins earlier high-visibility interventions such as smog towers, smog guns, “green crackers,” and wearable air purifiers.
However, experts note that cloud seeding has limited effectiveness during North India’s winter, when dry continental air dominates and rain-bearing clouds are scarce. Even in moments when cloud conditions are favourable, any improvement in air quality is typically short-lived, since emissions from vehicles, industry, construction, and biomass burning continue.
Researchers emphasize that preventing pollution remains more effective than attempting to treat it after accumulation.
Shifting Responsibility to Individuals
During polluted months, many residents seek ways to reduce personal exposure. Questions commonly focus on sealed rooms, indoor air purifiers, and N95 masks. For those with financial means, temporary relocation to cleaner regions is also an option.
However, these approaches largely benefit a narrow segment of the population. Outdoor workers, informal settlements, and those without stable access to housing or heating have limited ability to avoid exposure. In some neighborhoods, residents burn discarded materials at night for warmth a necessity in the absence of reliable heating adding to local emissions.
Health Impacts at Lower Pollution Levels
Medical researchers highlight that the relationship between pollution and health impacts is not linear. Even cities with half of Delhi’s pollution levels can experience most of the long-term cardiovascular and respiratory harm, particularly in children and the elderly. Persistent, year-round exposure across the Indo-Gangetic Plain remains a systemic concern, including in smaller towns and rural districts where monitoring is limited.
Costs and Trade-offs
Public health experts warn that high-profile but low-impact measures can divert funds from proven interventions. Ensuring compliance on construction dust, improving waste management to prevent open burning, expanding reliable public transport, electrifying freight systems, and strengthening industrial emission monitoring are widely documented to reduce pollution but require sustained coordination and investment.
Additionally, researchers caution against overstating the benefits of unproven methods. Once projects are publicly funded and expectations raised, reversing course can be politically difficult, even if evidence later shows minimal impact.
Long-Term Solutions Known but Slow to Implement
Many of the recommended systemic measures are well established but require political and administrative continuity across seasons and state boundaries. Analysts note that addressing emissions at the source would require enforcement affecting sectors with significant economic and political influence, which can slow decision making.
As pollution levels decline later in the season, public attention historically wanes, often delaying action until the next winter’s crisis. Without sustained pressure and year-round monitoring, experts warn the cycle may continue.