SUNDAY BYTES: No AQI, No Accountability
Who Owns the Air We Breathe? Smoke, Public Health, and the Shared Responsibility We Continue to Ignore.
Dr. Fiaz Maqbool Fazili
The air we breathe belongs to everyone, yet responsibility for protecting it often seems to belong to no one. Why Kashmir’s air pollution crisis remains hidden in plain sight, This Question always baffles me.
Across Kashmir, particularly during autumn and winter, neighbourhoods increasingly disappear behind a haze of smoke from burning leaves, household waste, and other pollutants. Residents shut their windows, children cough, the elderly struggle to breathe, and those with asthma quietly endure the consequences. Yet the issue rarely receives the public attention it deserves. We speak of pollution as though it were a problem confined to distant cities while ignoring the deteriorating air quality outside our own homes.
Public debate usually begins with demands for government action. Government certainly has a crucial role, but many environmental problems originate much closer to home. No law can substitute for civic responsibility. A healthy society depends not only on effective institutions but also on considerate citizens.
One of the most overlooked examples is the routine generation of smoke in residential areas. Whether caused by burning leaves, garden refuse, household waste, or other smoke-producing activities, the consequences are borne by entire communities. What appears insignificant to one household can become a health hazard for dozens of others.
Children, elderly citizens, pregnant women, and individuals with respiratory or cardiovascular disease have no choice but to inhale the same air. Polluted air respects neither property boundaries nor social status. Once released, it becomes everybody’s problem.
This is ultimately a question of neighbourly rights. Across cultures and faith traditions, consideration for neighbours has long been regarded as a measure of personal character and social maturity. Islam places particular emphasis on avoiding harm and showing consideration for others. The principle is simple: one should neither inflict harm nor become the cause of avoidable hardship. That responsibility extends beyond physical injury to include conduct that creates discomfort, inconvenience, or health risks for fellow citizens. The issue, therefore, is not merely environmental. It is ethical. Freedom carries responsibility. No individual right can be exercised without regard for the welfare of others.
Yet there is another dimension to the problem that deserves equal attention,” No AQI, No Accountability, ‘Who is monitoring the quality of the air we breathe? Environmental and public-health authorities are entrusted with safeguarding citizens from preventable health risks. Yet air quality remains one of Kashmir’s least visible public’s-health concerns.
Is the Air Quality Index (AQI) being monitored consistently across the Valley? If it is, the evidence is scarcely visible. One rarely sees AQI display boards at major intersections, hospitals, schools, government offices, or public spaces. Nor are regular air-quality updates communicated through FM radio, local media, or other public-information channels.
More importantly, are citizens informed when pollution levels become unhealthy or show the potential to become hazardous? Are timely health advisories issued for children, the elderly, pregnant women, and those living with respiratory or cardiovascular illnesses? In environmentally sensitive areas such as Achan and its surrounding localities, these questions become even more pressing.
The concern, however, is no longer confined to Achan, or vulnerable areas around it. Increasingly, residents across several parts of Srinagar report a noticeable deterioration in air quality after sunset as smoke and pollutants linger in the evening air. Yet public reporting, official alerts, and health guidance remain largely absent. The absence of information should not be mistaken for the absence of risk.
For more than fifty years, I have observed Kashmir through its changing seasons, yet I cannot recall a sustained system of public air-quality alerts. In contrast, residents of cities such as Delhi routinely receive AQI updates and health advisories whenever pollution reaches unhealthy levels. Awareness may not eliminate pollution, but it enables people to protect themselves.
In public health, what is not measured is often ignored, and what is ignored eventually becomes normal. Months ago, as a member of a Concerned Citizens Group, I attempted to the draw attention of Hon’ble Cm and Chairman House Committee , to air-quality concerns, including those surrounding the Achan dumping site. The objective was simple: to encourage scientific assessment of whether environmental exposures might be contributing to some of the common health problems seen in surrounding communities.
The issue, however, failed to attract the urgency it deserved. Pollution may be invisible, but its consequences are not.
From concern to policy, If Kashmir is serious about protecting public health, it needs more than seasonal concern. It needs a coherent air-quality strategy.AQI monitoring stations should be expanded across major urban centres, and their readings publicly displayed through digital boards, mobile platforms, newspapers, local television, and FM radio bulletins. Monitoring, however, is only the first step. Pollution data must be linked to a formal public-health advisory system. Whenever air quality deteriorates beyond acceptable limits, timely warnings should be issued, particularly for vulnerable populations and residents of high-risk areas.
Local authorities must also discourage the open burning of leaves, plastics, and household waste while providing practical and affordable alternatives for disposal. Medical colleges, public-health institutions, and environmental agencies should periodically assess the relationship between air pollution and respiratory and cardiovascular diseases in the Valley so that policy is guided by evidence rather than assumptions.
Most importantly, air quality should be treated as a core public-health indicator deserving the same attention as safe drinking water, sanitation, and disease surveillance. Citizens have a right to know the quality of the air they breathe. Without monitoring there can be no accountability. Without public reporting there can be no awareness. Without health advisories there can be no meaningful protection of public health.
Governments can enact laws and impose penalties, but they cannot manufacture civic consciousness. Consideration, empathy, and shared responsibility sense are cultivated within families, communities, educational institutions, and places of worship. Every resident contributes, positively or negatively, to the environment in which neighbours live. Every thoughtful action strengthens social trust. Every careless action weakens it.
Clean air should not depend on luck, geography, or the tolerance of those forced to endure pollution created by others. Citizens have a responsibility not to foul the air their neighbours breathe. Equally, public authorities have a duty to monitor air quality, disclose the findings, and issue timely advisories whenever pollution levels become unsafe.
The air over Kashmir is a shared resource. Every household draws from it. Every child depends upon it. Every resident contributes to its quality. As smoke increasingly fills Kashmir’s neighbourhoods, the real crisis is not merely pollution but the absence of monitoring, public reporting, and health advisories. Clean air cannot be protected by the government alone. As smoke increasingly fills neighbourhoods it requires both accountable institutions and responsible citizens. Pollution control demands both responsible citizens and accountable institutions. The question before us is no longer whether air pollution exists. The question is whether we will acknowledge it, measure it, and act before a preventable environmental problem becomes a larger public-health crisis. Clean air is not a luxury. It is a right. Protecting it is not somebody else’s responsibility. It is ours.
(STRAIGHT TALK COMMUNICATIONS EXCLUSIVE. Author is a senior medico, public health commentator, and columnist who writes on healthcare, civic responsibility, and social issues.)
