NEWSLETTER
AakashNo.

0120 April, 2020

Newsletter for An Interdisciplinary Study toward Clean Air, Public Health and Sustainable Agriculture: The Caseof Crop Residue Burning in North India

Clean Air and Imagined Sustainability: Thecase of India
What does clean air on account of Covid-19 virus induced lockdown hold forenvironmental sustainability in India?
Prakhar Misra, Research Institute of Humanity and Nature

As of April 19, 2020 Covid-19
pandemic has resulted in more thanhundred-fifty thousand deaths andabout 2.2 million people infections[1]. To suppress the spread of virus,
more than 40 countries haveenforced mandatory quarantines(popularly referred to as “lockdown”)
or non-mandatory recommendationsof quarantine, social distancing,closure of certain businesses andgatherings [2]. During a lockdown, apartial or complete suspension of
non-emergency services takes place.
This suspension of non-emergency
services, which include various Figure 1 Himalayan Dhaualadhar range from a distance of about 200km at
Jalandhar, Punjab, India. It was said to be seen for the first time in 30 years.
polluting sources, has produced an Picture credits from Twitter user @Deewalia
unexpected withdrawal of emissions
into environment. At the same time, the public in many polluted cities is experiencing cleaner air quality
days. This implies that a third of the global population is experiencing restrictions but also seeing cleaner
air. As a researcher of human-environment interaction pertaining to air quality, I am interested in how
this co-occurrence may change public perception of environmental sustainability in severely polluted
countries like India. The answer to this question would be immensely important for promoting people’sbehavioural change and policies that incorporate environmental sustainability. Although survey-based
studies would better answer this question, we would like to offer our view based on a compilation from
popular news articles. This letter aims to offer some glimpses into how the coronavirus induced
lockdown and clean air are shaping public’s imagined sustainability.

Clean air and changed
lifestyle during lockdown
National lockdown was initiated on 24March, 2020 in India. The lockdown
approach was first applied in mid-January in
China’s Wuhan province to enforce “socialdistancing” for reducing coronavirus spread.
After little over a month into the lockdown,
first reports emerged about a visible
decrease in nitrogen dioxide over Wuhan,which was observed from European Space
Agency’s TROPOMI sensor. Similarly, a week
into the lockdown in India, various
observations emerged on probable air
quality improvement due to lockdown oftransport and industries. In cities like New
Delhi, people started sharing theirexperience of consecutive blue skies onsocial media. Some news reports quantifying
the reduction in fine particulate matter Figure 2 Decrease in air quality index pre-lockdown (March 22) and during(PM2.5) in both pre and post lockdown lockdown (March 29) in Indian cities. Reproduced from [3].
periods from various corners of the country
also began to appear. These reports showed a decrease of 20%-50% in cities, most notably for cities in IndoGangetic plains. In addition, the public imagination was captured when an interesting observation made in
Jalandhar city, Punjab, showed up. Over there, previously hidden Himalayan Dhauladhar range could now beseen for the first time in 30 years. This “blue sky experience” has convinced the public that lockdown resulted
in clean skies in Indian cities.
At the same time, there are indications that adaptations to the pandemic at the level of daily lifestyle maytranslate to future behavioural change. For instance, masks are not commonly worn by Indian public possibly
due to the feeling of social awkwardness and claustrophobia associated with them [6]. Even during extreme
air pollution episodes, wearing a mask is limited to only those who are gravely conscious of the effects ofpollutants. Currently as masks have emerged as an important tool for self-defence against the virus spread,
there is now a wider adoption of wearing masks. People are strongly encouraged to wear masks with somemunicipalities even punishing those who are not wearing them [7]. Lockdown’s economic costs are being
paid for by the government, industries and the general populace, including those people who are outside thesocial security net. Some industries are adopting telework to survive the lockdown-induced employment loss.
It is becoming clear to them that teleworking would save costs for renting office space , air-conditioning, etc.
and allow mothers to be part of the workforce. Similarly, the Indian government has expanded the featuresof National Agricultural Market web-platform (e-NAM) as a response to the rural lockdown. It now allows
remote bidding, and e-payment for farmers’ produce so that the farmers do not need to physically visit
market or banks. These decisions are not only helping in surviving through the coronavirus but they are also
beneficial for air quality as they lead to a lower travel and energy related emissions of pollutants.

How long will it sustain?
However, questions loom regarding the efficacy of lockdown in cleaning the environment. It has been
pointed out that the optimum level of emission from the traffic cannot and should not be considered as zero
since trucks supplying essential food supplies, medical vehicles as well as law and order vehicles are plying
through the city. Residential emissions from biomass-fuel combustion, large contributor to urban air
pollution, remain active and it is unlikely that the lockdown would significantly reduce them. The lack ofenforcement of environmental management regulatory protocols during the lockdown might give industries

like steel and mining a free hand to pollute without any watchdog. Furthermore, as the fossil fuel industry is
the only industry that can provide energy and materials that are needed immediately, environmental
regulations are being relaxed in US [4] and China [5] to restart economic growth. Thus, any gains in clean air
on account of low emissions are to be short-lived.
Social responses to the policy interventions during the virus spread potentially point to the need for a moreserious embracing of a broader idea of sustainability. In 1983, Benedict Anderson came up with the notionof “imagined community”, in which any large community could be “imagined” by the people who perceive
themselves as part of that group. The concept can be invoked to describe the emergence of an “imaginedsustainability”, within which people share a mainstream perception of sustainability without necessarily
realizing it. According to this perception economic growth always adversely affects environmental health.
This was evident during the clean air episodes when social environmentalists urged the government to heed
this “wake-up call” to stop “obsession” with “(economic) development at the cost of environment”. This is
an imagined sustainability invoked specifically by the virus spread. Such an interpretation can be naïve, anddoes not serve well for a full sharing of a sense of sustainability beyond the short-term behavioural change.
We need a wider appreciation and elaboration of a variety of eco-economic decoupling strategies, including
the one that promotes economic growth without corresponding increase in environmental pressures. Thesestrategies often incorporate environmental accounting into economic growth. Concepts, such as quality ofliving, green growth and inclusive wealth are examples of such strategies.
The current clean air is unequivocally incidental to policy enabled national lockdown. However, it has offered
two encounters which may have a bearing on subsequent public perception. First, the short “blue skyexperience” may offer a vision for future policies to adopt technologies which decouple economic growth
and air pollution. Second, the temporary public behavioural change may lead to greater concern for publichealth. The strong willpower of governance and public engagement is clearly being demonstrated during thecurrent national lockdown in India. It remains to be seen how the same willpower can be exercised to invest
in green growth. In a recent op-ed [8], the former President of Indian Academy of Science made an aptsummary in context of India’s war on Covid-19 which remains true for environmental sustainability as well:
we need “detection, protection, prevention, prescription and, last but not least, … participation”.
-- Postscript-As a technical note we may add that concentrations of pollutant are determined not only by the emission
but the also the dynamics of regional meteorology. Quantifying the role of the lockdown in air quality
improvement is scientifically a challenging question. Currently our team at Aakash is investigating this using
our original surface data from PM2.5 monitors installed in Delhi and satellite datasets.
References from news reports:[1] Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) Situation Report – 90 https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situationreports/20200419-sitrep-90-covid-19.pdf?sfvrsn=551d47fd_2[2] A third of the global population is on coronavirus lockdown — here's our constantly updated list of countries and restrictions
https://www.businessinsider.com/countries-on-lockdown-coronavirus-italy-2020-3#many-countries-have-also-closed-borders-toprevent-international-travelers-from-spreading-the-virus-34[3] Six days into the lockdown, here’s how much air quality has improved in major Indian cities,
https://qz.com/india/1827993/coronavirus-lockdown-means-better-air-quality-for-delhi-mumbai/[4] E.P.A., Citing Coronavirus, Drastically Relaxes Rules for Polluters - The New York Times,
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/26/climate/epa-coronavirus-pollution-rules.html[5] Political decisions, economic realities: The underlying operating cashflows of coal power during COVID-19
https://carbontracker.org/reports/political-decisions-economic-realities/[6] Delhi is engulfed by toxic pollution. Why isn’t anyone wearing masks? https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asiapacific/delhi-is-engulfed-by-toxic-pollution-why-isnt-anyone-wearing-masks/2019/11/14/bb4adfe4-0643-11ea-911825d6bd37dfb1_story.html[7] Coronavirus: Now, you will be punished if you don't wear mask in Mumbai https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/coronavirusnow-you-will-be-punished-if-you-don-t-wear-mask-in-mumbai-1664746-2020-04-08[8] Update on India’s war against COVID-19 https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/update-on-indias-war-against-covid19/article31257161.ece?homepage=true