Air quality concerns

A new analysis by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) delivers a devastating verdict: Jammu and Kashmir fails every clean-air test across winter, summer, and post-monsoon seasons. Every monitored district exceeds India’s own national standards for PM2.5. This is not a seasonal discomfort. It is a public-health emergency.

For a place whose economy leans heavily on tourism unclean air is an environmental concern. A Valley that attracts millions of tourists cannot look like New Delhi in winter. Yet that is exactly where current trends point - albeit, situation in Delhi is worse by far.

Satellite-derived data from 2023 shows PM2.5 levels in J&K consistently surpassing the National Ambient Air Quality Standards. The problem is not isolated; it is structural. Kashmir is deeply enmeshed in the Indo-Gangetic airshed, one of the world’s most polluted atmospheric belts. Emissions from industrial centres, power plants, crop-residue burning, and transport across northern India do not respect political boundaries. They flow across states, spilling into the Valley.

But blaming transboundary winds alone is not enough. J&K’s own weaknesses worsen the crisis. Air-quality monitoring remains sporadic, often absent. Real-time AQI data is rarely available on the Central Pollution Control Board’s website. Without reliable numbers, planning becomes guesswork.

CREA’s findings show a brief improvement after the monsoon, but this window is shrinking. Winters, which once brought only snowfall and biting cold, now arrive with a haze that hangs low over Srinagar, trapping pollutants and triggering respiratory illnesses. Doctors report more asthma cases, more bronchial infections, more vulnerable elderly patients.

For Kashmir, the stakes are uniquely high. Tourism thrives on perception, and perception is shaped by imagery: clean water, fresh air, unblemished horizons. A reputation for polluted winters can undo years of promotional campaigns. No visitor wants to inhale smog at 7,000 feet.

The response must therefore match the urgency. J&K needs year-round clean-air action plans, not seasonal firefighting. District-level strategies must be built on granular satellite data. The UT must strengthen its monitoring network, enforce emission norms, regulate construction dust, upgrade public transport, and coordinate with neighbouring states on airshed-level management.