Centre launches initiatives to tackle Delhi's toxic air, sees 200 good air quality days in 2025: Ministry

By Suchitra Mukherjee
New Delhi [India], December 5 : The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India, has released a statement regarding the alarming levels of pollution in Delhi.
The statement comes in response to a question raised by MP Dr. Laxmikant Bajpayee in the Rajya Sabha, asking whether it is a fact that "one in every seven deaths in Delhi can be attributed to the city's toxic air as claimed by several studies and reported in media".
The Minister of State in the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Kirti Vardhan Singh, responded, by saying various studies have been conducted by academic and research institutes on impact of air pollution. During the year 2025, not a single day the AQI has reached severe plus level in Delhi.
The government continues to take measures to address the issue in Delhi-NCR.
The government has established the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) under the Commission for Air Quality Management in NCR and Adjoining Areas Act, 2021, to oversee air quality management in Delhi-NCR and adjoining areas. The Commission has been addressing the issue of air pollution in Delhi-NCR in a collective, collaborative, and participative mode involving all major stakeholders.
The Commission has issued 95 Statutory Directions to guide and direct various actions toward the abatement of air pollution in the region and has prepared a Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) to tackle pollution during peak winter months. The government has also implemented stricter emission norms for polluting activities in NCR and conducts regular review meetings to monitor progress.
Some key measures taken by the government include:
Regular review meetings held on October 8, September 16, October 10, November 11, and December 3 under the chairmanship of the Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Bhupender Yadav.
A Minister-level Inter-Ministerial meeting was held on October 7 to discuss crop residue burning management.
Critical gap funding provided to 6 cities in Delhi-NCR under the National Clean Air Program (NCAP) to improve air quality, launch of a centralised air quality portal and mobile app-SAMEER for tracking and dissemination of air quality data.
Operationalisation of the PRANA portal for managing and monitoring the progress of activities implemented by 130 targeted cities under the NCAP
As a result of these efforts, the number of good air quality days in Delhi has increased to 200 days in 2025 from 110 days in 2016, and very poor and severe air quality days have reduced from 71 days in 2024 to 50 days in 2025.
Meanwhile, the national capital woke up to a blanket of toxic smog on Friday morning, with the average Air Quality Index (AQI) hitting 323 at 8 am in the "very poor" category, according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). Despite a slight improvement from the recent weeks, several parts of the city remained shrouded in a dense layer of toxic smog.