In the shadow of Delhi’s toxic air and Mumbai’s flooded streets, India’s urban centres face an environmental reckoning. As reported by World Air Quality Report, with 11 of the world’s 20 most polluted cities located within India, the urban environmental crisis has become a fundamental threat to economic development, public health, and quality of life. As India pursues its vision of progress, there is an urgent need for systemic rather than symptomatic interventions.
The True Scale of Urban Pollution
Cities have gained disproportionate economic significance by generating over 60% of India’s GDP while occupying less than 5% of its land area. It is, therefore, not surprising that cities are the sites with maximum human impact on environment and pollution-led costs on our quality of life. Data based research has shown anthropogenic burden in urban centres in the form of particulate matter, vehicular and industrial emissions, biomass and crop residues. Urban environment policies must take into account costs due to worsening healthcare and low productivity.
The Complex Web of Urban Environmental Challenges
This pollution challenge is inextricably intertwined with transportation systems, energy choices, industrial activities, and ultimately climate change. Such a tangled web defies single-solution approaches. Pollution and congestion erode aspects of urbanity like spaces for community, culture, and leisure. People retreat indoors, parks lie empty, and public spaces become transit corridors; rather than vibrant community spaces. The diverse leisure urban opportunities – from serene parks and common cultural venues to open marketplaces and recreational facilities – are fundamental to government’s vision for the ‘Ease of Living’.
The Transportation Transformation
At the heart of pollution problem is a prioritisation to moving vehicles rather than moving people. This transport paradigm raised private vehicle ownership by outpacing public transportation and consequent detrimental impact on environment. The Delhi Development Authority acknowledges that the capital region adds approximately 1,400 new private vehicles daily to despite an extensive metro rail. Bengaluru’s 2019 Comprehensive Mobility Plan documented public transport’s share declining substantially to 48% from previous decade.
Delhi Metro demonstrates that when high-quality public transportation is available, citizens willingly abandon private vehicles. Yet the “last mile” problem often forces commuters back into polluting transport modes. Ahmedabad’s Bus Rapid Transit System is projected to cut 288,000 tons of carbon emissions yearly, according to the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy. A transformational approach would prioritize transit-oriented development, pedestrian infrastructure, and cycling networks, not as adjuncts to car-centric planning but as its replacement. Cities like Kochi and Pune offer emerging examples of integrated multi-modal transport systems that can increase mobility for all citizens.
People-Centered Urban Solutions
Transformative change must involve people, not as passive beneficiaries but as active agents of urban transformation. A two-pronged approach, empowering citizens with actionable knowledge while creating systems that make sustainable choices easier, is needed. Resident Welfare Associations, neighbourhood committees, and civil society organizations must be empowered to collaborate with municipal authorities on local environmental management. The urban poor face greatest exposure to industrial pollution, waste burning, and traffic congestion, while having the least resources to mitigate against impacts. Women and girls face additional barriers in urban environments, like safety concerns, restricted mobility and access to public spaces, inadequate street lighting and inadequately designed public transportation.
Urban Forests: Essential Infrastructure, Not Amenities
Mitigation against urban pollution requires nature-based interventions integrated by design into urban planning. Tree cover in our cities is already below the mandated 33% mark and in cities like Bengaluru vegetation cover has plummeted rapidly in the last 5 decades. This vegetation loss has strong impacts on microclimate. It is demonstrated that urban parks can be 2-3°C cooler than surrounding built-up areas during summer months. This affects energy consumption, thermal comfort, and public health. As climate change intensifies, these urban heat islands will become increasingly dangerous without robust green infrastructure.
The creation and maintenance of urban green spaces like parks and gardens are essential infrastructure that improves air quality, reduces urban heat islands, provides leisure opportunities, and enhances public health. According to studies, proximity to green spaces is associated with reduced mortality, improved mental health, and increased physical activity. This is exemplified in cities like Chandigarh, Gandhinagar and Kolkata to an extent. Therefore, maintaining substantial tree cover in Indian cities must become a fundamental parameter to provide healthy environments for their residents.
Construction: Building Environmental Problems or Solutions
The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change estimates construction activities contribute between 20-30% of particulate matter pollution in major Indian cities during non-monsoon months. The National Green Tribunal has noted inadequate implementation of dust mitigation measures as a key contributor to poor air. The occasional water sprinkling and dust screens represent token gestures. The Bureau of Energy Efficiency estimates that implementing India’s Energy Conservation Building Code could reduce energy consumption by 25-40%. However, implementation remains inconsistent with only a few buildings across cities complying. Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment (GRIHA) system offers a framework for sustainable building design adapted to Indian conditions.
Urban sustainability requires closing resource loops in a circular economy approach. This includes construction waste recycling facilities, mandatory organic waste composting, extended producer responsibility systems, and material recovery facilities integrated with informal waste sector workers. Pune’s integration of waste pickers into formal solid waste management through the SWaCH cooperative provides valuable lessons.
Governance: The Hidden Barrier to Change
The 74th Constitutional Amendment devolved significant responsibilities to urban local bodies, but financial and administrative powers remain largely concentrated at state and central levels. Thus, the problem is not just technical but also administrative. The Indian Institute for Human Settlements found that urban local bodies control only about 3-5% of total public expenditure, compared to 20-35% in developing countries. The 15th Finance Commission confirmed that most Indian cities have limited fiscal autonomy to implement environmental measures. Most metropolitan regions have multiple agencies with overlapping responsibilities and lack coordination. This fragmentation dilutes accountability and hampers integrated approaches to complex urban systems.
Modern governance approaches based on data, such as integrated urban data platforms, digital twins of cities, predictive analytics, open data initiatives, and performance dashboards, must be utilised in a more impactful manner to understand how urban services are delivered and experienced by different sections of urban population especially the vulnerable sections. Urban challenges demand multi-level coordination through metropolitan planning committees, state-level urban climate action plans, centre-state coordination mechanisms, and regional authorities.
Climate Vulnerability: Present Risk, Not Future Threat
Rising intensity and frequency of weather events in our cities are a warning sign that climate change no longer a distant threat to Indian cities but a present reality. Most Indian cities face increasing vulnerability. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs’ Urban Flooding Manual acknowledges that most cities have stormwater drainage capacity designed for rainfall intensity far below what climate models project for the coming decades.
Proactive planning can significantly reduce heat-related mortality as demonstrated in Odisha and Gujarat. Chennai’s water management reforms following recent flooding events are particularly instructive. Disaster resilience infrastructure to be built-in-design instead of merely disaster response with sustainable financing measures through municipal green bonds, land value capture mechanisms, polluter-pays levies, climate finance mechanisms, and public-private partnerships for green infrastructure development.
From Incremental to Transformational Thinking
Indian urbanisation is both rapid and top-heavy, with a few congested cities with inadequate chain of tier-2 and tier-3 cities. The haphazard sprawls can only be addressed through transformational interventions rather than incremental. We need to shift from car-centric to people-centric mobility systems, recognize green spaces as essential infrastructure, integrated metropolitan planning with real authority and resources, and from reactive disaster management to proactive climate resilience.
Conclusion: The Imperative for Action
These daunting challenges present opportunities to leapfrog outdated models. This requires comprehensive transformation connecting public health, mobility, industry, energy, and urban form. Cities should be recognized as complex social ecosystems that provide spaces for work and leisure, commerce and culture, individual expression and community building. The evidence shows that bold, system-wide transformations – not just quick fixes – are both necessary and possible.
As Delhi’s residents don masks and Mumbai’s commuters wade through flooded streets, India cannot afford to continue with insufficient incremental approaches. Crippling pollution and climate vulnerability
demands a shift from conventional wisdom to unconventional solutions. Our urban centres can become engines of sustainable, equitable growth, where parks and public spaces foster community well-being, where streets are designed for people rather than just vehicles, and where everyone—regardless of gender, age, or socioeconomic status—can thrive. The time for incremental change has passed. What’s needed now is transformation.
Avinash Pandey is an IRS officer. Saurav Pandey is an IAS officer of West Bengal cadre. Views are personal and do not reflect that of the governments.