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Local government actions can curb air pollution in India and Pakistan

Burning crop waste causes devastating pollution in South Asia. When local administrators have appropriate incentives to control burning, incidents go down — a finding that could guide future efforts to manage air pollution.
  1. Satchit Balsari

    1. Satchit Balsari is at the Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA; and the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

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  2. Manoj Mohanan

    1. Manoj Mohanan is at the Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708, USA.

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In the region that straddles India and Pakistan, seasonal burning of leftover material from harvesting crops, known as crop residue, results in extreme air pollution. This is especially severe in the winter months, when the air quality index (AQI) reaches hazardous levels (above 300 on a scale of 0–500; anything above 150 is considered unhealthy) and occasionally levels that far surpass the top of the scale (see airquality.cpcb.gov.in/AQI_India and iqair.com/pakistan). At a time when the effects of human activities on the environment and their global implications for well-being present challenges, a study in Nature by Dipoppa and Gulzar1 sheds light on the potential for bureaucratic incentives to address sources of air pollution from crop-residue burning at the local level.

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Nature 634, 1055-1056 (2024)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-03314-4

References

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Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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