new delhi
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It’s easy to know when smog season is in New Delhi. The air becomes dark and heavy and begins to scratch the throats and test the lungs of the city’s 34 million residents.
Pollution has long been a problem in India’s capital, with the city’s famous Red Fort turning black. This is the outward sign of a growing health and political crisis, with angry residents taking to the streets.
“I just want to be able to breathe again,” Sophie, 33, said at a protest near Delhi’s India Gate earlier this month. “There doesn’t seem to be any political will to solve the problem,” she added, surrounded by dozens of demonstrators wearing masks and carrying sprayers.
Successive Delhi governments have developed air pollution plans dating back to 1996, but even decades later, conditions remain dangerously unhealthy, especially at this time of year when cold air traps smoke and smoke from fireworks, crop burning and city traffic.
India’s fight to clean its air stands in contrast to neighboring China. In China, a multibillion-dollar and years-long effort to crack down on India’s notorious skies pollution is yielding major results.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government in New Delhi insists it is taking action, launching a costly and failed cloud-seeding experiment last month to flush out the toxic air.
According to IQAir, pollution levels have now reached ‘dangerous’ levels and Delhi consistently tops the list of major cities with the worst air quality in the world.
“Imagine what that would do to a baby’s lungs,” said Dr. Vandana Prasad, a pediatrician who participated in the protest. “Children are forced to go to school under these circumstances, and masks are not even recommended for children under 12,” she said.
“We are literally killing children.”
Late last month, a small plane buzzed over the city and fired flares into the clouds, showering them with small amounts of silver iodide and sodium chloride compounds.
India has used cloud-seeding technology to bring rain to other parts of the country, but it has never curbed pollution. This is part of the expensive promises made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which was inaugurated in New Delhi earlier this year.
“We want to convey to the people of Delhi that the government is installing anti-smog guns in high-rise buildings, providing dust mitigation with water sprinklers, and monitoring ongoing construction,” Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa said in a statement.
However, Sirsa added, “10 years of damage cannot be undone in seven months,” while trying to shift the blame to the previous government.
Manindra Agarwal, director of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur, which collaborated with the government on the cloud seeding project, said three attempts at cloud seeding last month were “unsuccessful” because there was not enough precipitation in the air.
Scientists say cloud seeds can only cause rain if there is already enough moisture in the atmosphere. Agarwal said it was about 15% on the day of the test.
Two further trials were planned. However, it was later postponed partly due to insufficient moisture in the clouds, IIT Kanpur said in a statement.
The capital woke up to a thick layer of smog on October 20 after residents celebrated Diwali and set off fireworks at India’s Festival of Lights. The Delhi government has given the go-ahead for cloud seeding despite expert warnings that the chances of success are low due to worsening air quality.
“Effective cloud seeding requires specific cloud conditions, which are usually absent during Delhi’s cold and dry winters,” the experts said in a letter to the environment minister.
A letter from the India Meteorological Department, National Capital Region (NCR) and Adjacent Regions Air Quality Control Board, and Central Pollution Control Board said, “Even if adequate clouds are present, the underlying dry atmospheric layer may cause any precipitation that develops to evaporate before reaching the surface.”
“Honestly, this is the worst choice for reducing air pollution,” M. Rajeevan, former secretary of the Ministry of Earth Sciences, told CNN. Even if cloud seeding were successful, it would only be a temporary solution, reducing pollution for a few days rather than tackling the root of the problem, Rajevan said.
CNN has contacted the Delhi Chief Minister and the Environment Minister for comment.
The scale of Delhi’s problems can be seen in the walls of the Red Fort. The Red Fort gets its name from the red sandstone used to construct the structure in the 1600s.
A research report published earlier this year said a “black crust” has formed on the Red Fort’s 20-metre-high walls from “amorphous carbon and various heavy metals” found in the atmosphere.
“Given the alarming state of air quality in Delhi, studying important archaeological sites like the Red Fort is critical to fostering effective conservation policies and interventions,” the study said.
“Of course, the fort went dark,” said Raman, 64, who gave only one name and has been working at the fort for four years.
“What about the pollution levels in Delhi? There’s a lot of dust. After a day outdoors, when you come home and wash your face, you see how much black stuff is falling off.”
“I remember seeing the Red Fort when I first visited Delhi about 30 years ago,” Raman said. “It was definitely more red then. It looked like the color of an apple. Now that apple is rotten.”
Earlier this month, a petition was filed in India’s Supreme Court asking for air pollution to be declared a “national public health emergency”, asking the court to oversee a new anti-pollution strategy, ensuring its timely implementation.
The petition, filed on behalf of Luke Coutinho, a health expert who spearheaded PM Modi’s Fit India campaign, accuses the government of failing to target industrial polluters and spending too little to curb vehicle emissions.
“Temporary measures such as mist sprayers, anti-smog guns, and artificial rain tests may provide symbolic relief, but do little to reduce emissions at the source,” the petition states.
Meanwhile, environmental pollution has been blamed for millions of deaths in India over the past three years. The 2025 State of Global Air report estimates that India will account for nearly 30% of air pollution-related deaths worldwide in 2023.
“Our life expectancy has been reduced by five to 10 years and the government is not doing anything,” said pediatrician Prasad, who said he was seeing three-year-olds at his clinic suffering from “unbearable coughs”.
Prasad does not underestimate the importance of personal responsibility. “My neighbors had just had a baby and were baking crackers to celebrate. I wanted to go and say, at least for the sake of the baby, they shouldn’t be baking crackers,” she told CNN.
The India Gate protests did not last long. Protesters, including women and children, were detained because they did not have permits to demonstrate. Some said they were forced into police vehicles and then released on the outskirts of Delhi. CNN has contacted Delhi Police for comment.
As air pollution levels in Delhi worsened from ‘very poor’ to ‘severe’ last Tuesday, the government has implemented enhanced pollution control measures as part of a phased response action plan.
Under the measure, schools up to grade five will operate in “hybrid” mode, with some classes held online and others in-person. While this measure is in effect, all non-essential construction will be suspended and the most polluting vehicles will be banned from the roads.
The demonstrators said they had made multiple requests to meet with Delhi’s prime minister, but each request was refused. They claim that the government’s refusal to engage with them has led them to take to the streets and show no intention of backing down.
“We are protesting here because it is our responsibility to speak out,” Prasad, a doctor, said at one of at least three protests this month. “I hope the government will listen.”
