Managing air quality: Answer is in airsheds
The NCR and large swathes of North India could benefit from the decision to operationalise air quality management of the Indo Gangetic Plain airshed
Plummeting air quality in most parts of North India and particularly the National Capital Region (NCR) has put pollution management in the spotlight yet again. In September 2024, the ministry of environment, forests and climate change (MoEF&CC) ordered the constitution of a coordination committee to manage air quality in the Indo Gangetic Plain (IGP) airshed. The underlying premise for establishing this committee is significant. Its mandate recognises the complex, interconnected nature of the region — covering eight states and Union territories — through geography and meteorology.

The IGP airshed has high baseline levels of air pollution, and the committee is expected to prepare and implement a regional air quality management plan. This approach is a welcome step towards reforming India’s air quality governance that is largely city-focused, regulated (poorly) by state governments and state pollution control boards (SPCBs), and pays little attention to peri-urban, regional, and transboundary sources of pollution.
India’s air quality management strategies have met with limited success over the years — across sources, geographies, and sectors. One reason for this failure is the regulatory framework’s focus on the sources of pollution and where they are situated, thereby giving the relevant state or city governments jurisdiction to regulate those sources. The framework ignores how people are exposed to the pollution — a factor agnostic to where the source is located. Further, source-apportionment studies conducted in many cities across India indicate a significant contribution from transboundary sources.
Acknowledging the exposure side of the problem makes an airshed-level approach to air quality management a sound policy choice. But implementing such an approach is not easy, and several pieces of the puzzle must fall in place before it can be successfully done.
Expanding air quality management beyond strict administrative boundaries has started taking root in India in the past few years. The wide territorial jurisdiction of the Commission for Air Quality Management in NCR and Adjoining Areas (CAQM), set up in 2021, allows it to take a regional approach to air quality management. Recently, a handful of state governments have launched pilot programmes to operationalise regional air quality management but within their state boundaries. Bringing these efforts into a coherent framework will form part of the MoEF&CC committee’s mandate, and we outline four additional issues that need consideration when it kicks into gear.
First, development of robust knowledge and information systems. The current regulatory system sorely lacks scientific and technical capacity. Airshed management needs a standardised emissions inventory platform for the entire region, monitoring from micro to regional scales that feeds into a publicly accessible and reliable data sharing system, and modelling and decision support tools (such as those for forecasts). Such tools will aid policymakers in implementing appropriate source-specific actions in the right geographies and initiating preventive actions in time. The data generated from these tools can help determine baseline levels of pollution in different parts of the region and establish differentiated benchmarks, allowing us to measure progress against pre-determined targets.
Second, appropriate institutional structure. Whether set up by an executive order, as a statutory authority empowered under an existing statute (e.g. the Environment (Protection) Act 1986) or by a new Act of Parliament, the institution in-charge of an airshed must have a clear mandate to coordinate efforts while transcending administrative boundaries. It must be suitably empowered to exercise its powers beyond the limited regulatory reach of the SPCBs, coordinate fragmented mitigation efforts, and streamline inconsistent regulatory practices between states. Further, the composition must reflect the multi-faceted nature of air pollution exposure and the significant political and economic ramifications of the pollution crisis. There must also be seats at the table for experts in air pollution, health sciences, and community outreach, as well as representatives of urban local bodies.
Third, clearly articulated powers and functions. While its primary function is coordination, the airshed authority would also be involved in rule-making, knowledge generation, setting regional goals, conflict resolution, and ensuring accountability for agreed-upon actions. The institution would be navigating a crowded regulatory landscape with rules and regulators that have been around — albeit rather ineffectively — for more than four decades. It would need to overcome jurisdictional overlaps and assert its mandate, while at the same time perhaps leaving certain functions like enforcement to existing actors.
Fourth, accountability for default. Unless most actors in an airshed follow directions, airshed-level regulation will fail. However, if the authority is designed to be a focal point for coordination, planning and knowledge generation, “hard regulation” through enforcement actions is likely outside its remit. As it stands, a lot would depend on the willingness of states to carry out the institution’s directions. The presence of high-ranking state bureaucrats in decision-making and the strategic use of incentives for compliance may reduce default. Failing that, the institution could approach the National Green Tribunal for compliance.
Going beyond the IGP, the government must identify and delineate other airsheds across the country, which suffer from poor air quality. Recent studies show even air pollution well below India’s current levels can cause significant harm. Maintaining a uniform air quality standard for a country of such diverse background levels of air quality, meteorology, and source profiles does not effectively protect public health. Authorities regulating these airsheds, both in the IGP and elsewhere, will generate new knowledge, set context-specific standards, coordinate regional action, and ensure accountability with state governments and private actors.
India needs to transition to airshed-level air quality management urgently. Economic and public health gains would be enormous, and it would be a true manifestation of the precautionary principle, a cornerstone of environmental policy.
Shibani Ghosh is an environmental lawyer and visiting fellow at the Sustainable Futures Collaborative. Bhargav Krishna is convenor at the Sustainable Futures Collaborative. The views expressed are personal