Shabnam Abdul Ghaffar Shah, 35, is wheezing. The air around it smells of soot and dust in the slums of Mumbai’s Mankhurd, a few hundred meters away from the under-construction metro project. “Everyone at home – my three children, husband and I – have been ill for the past month. We went to the doctor. He said, ‘the air is bad(The air is bad).’ The cough and cold won’t go away,” she says, sitting on a road just outside her one-room house, where schoolchildren run, two-wheelers honk, BEST buses try to cross the dug-up perimeters, and roadside vendors jostle for space in the same chaos. “Medical expenses have become a challenge,” she says.How much medicine will you take?(How much will we spend on medicines,)”
About 15 km away, in Matunga, an area with several top-ranking colleges including Podar and Ruia, professors at Khalsa College are worried about their students who come by public transport and walk through dusty roads to reach the campus. Construction of high-rise buildings is in full swing to replace the old four-storey buildings in the area.
A study conducted by the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) in 2023 to trace the sources of air pollution in 10 cities in the state revealed that dust contributed 30% of PM10 pollution in Mumbai. PM refers to particulate matter that can be inhaled, defined by its diameter: for example 10 micrometres and 2.5 micrometres. These can enter the lungs and have both immediate and long-term adverse health effects if exposure is persistent.
Mumbai’s air quality over the past three years has often ranged from ‘moderate’ to ‘severe’, with PM2.5 and PM10 levels often exceeding safe limits, driven by vehicular emissions, dust and winter conditions that cause stagnant air.
A thick blanket of smog over the city skyline as seen from Bandra on December 5, 2025. , Photo Credit: Emmanuel Yogini
Climate tech start-up, Respirer Living Sciences, released a report this year that said Mumbai saw a 2.6% increase in PM2.5 levels, from 35.2 g/m³ in 2019 to 36.1 g/m³ in 2024, indicating a persistent air quality issue for India’s financial capital. It said Mumbai saw a significant improvement in the number of ‘good’ days, increasing from 164 in 2021 to 184 in 2024. However, the continuation of ‘moderate’ and ‘poor’ days in 2022 and 2023 highlighted the presence of local pollution sources, especially during construction-heavy periods, it said.
Barely 3 km away, lawyer Shweta Mehta lives in a neighborhood touted as coastal Mumbai’s next big connectivity hub: Wadala. Located less than 2 km from the upcoming New Cuffe Parade area, where the Metro, monorail and major infrastructure projects are coming up, the dust is thick in the area.
“Due to the poor air quality in the last few months, I have been stopping my parents from going out. They have lung-related ailments and I have asked them to stay indoors,” says Mehta, who lives in an apartment block. She knows her aging parents are beginning to feel depressed and lonely, their social life disrupted, but for Mehta, it’s a tough choice.
doctors and lawyers speak
Dr Asmita Mahajan, consultant and head of the department of pediatrics and neonatology at Fortis Raheja Hospital in Mahim, believes there should be a pollution lockdown in the city. “When did you last see a clear sky?” She says.
Until a few years ago, she noticed a seasonal increase in the number of children coming to the hospital with respiratory allergy-related problems. “Allergic coughs take months to resolve. Children with asthma tend to have an increased incidence of symptoms.”
Mahajan says, until last year, she would see two children every week suffering from respiratory problems. Now it has increased to six per week. “Children, especially those with asthma, are frequently admitted to hospital. Some even require hospitalization and ICU admission,” she says.
Dr. Sameer Garde, a pulmonologist in Mumbai, says, 25 years ago, the main cause of lung cancer was smoking. Now, many non-smokers develop serious lung diseases, including cancer. He cites air pollution as one of the reasons for this. He hopes that the government will give priority to public health. In view of the persistent problem of air quality, the Bombay High Court tookspontaneouslyCognizance of the matter in 2023. It filed a PIL to address the deteriorating air quality levels and increasing pollution from construction dust. In October 2023, the court issued detailed orders, which included 28 guidelines to be implemented by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) at construction sites. These included mandatory installation of air quality sensors and water sprinklers and fitting of covers on vehicles transporting construction materials. On November 27 this year, the court marked a sharp decline in the air quality index (AQI) (to 270, classified as ‘poor’) and rejected the ‘volcanic ash from Ethiopia’ theory.
amicus curiaeAnd senior advocate Darius Khambatta highlighted the deterioration of air quality from 2023 and non-compliance at construction sites. Of the nearly 1,000 construction sites in the city, only 400 have had mandatory sensors installed as per an earlier order of the court, and 117 of them are non-functional. Moreover, these sensors are still yet to be linked to the central monitoring system, he pointed out. The court emphasized that Mumbai needs a sustainable plan to deal with rising pollution and ordered the formation of a committee to ensure strict compliance with the existing guidelines for construction sites. It also noted that previous committees have failed to submit weekly compliance reports from March 2025. The new committee is expected to submit its findings within a week, after which the case will be heard again on December 15.
data point
This month, BMC Commissioner Bhushan Gagrani announced Project MANAS in collaboration with IIT Kanpur to set up a hyperlocal sensor-based ambient air quality monitoring system.
“What will you do even if monitors are installed? Don’t we already have enough air quality data?” Says Rakesh Kumar, president of the non-profit Society for Indoor Environment and former director of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research’s National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (CSIR-NEERI). He says the real problem is not the unavailability of data to measure ambient air quality, but putting that data into action.
He also points out that the data is normal. “Let’s talk about the transportation sector. You have a mix of vehicles of different vintages. Out of 100 vehicles on the road, 50-60 are on the road regularly. Some are for construction activities: vehicles carrying materials and debris. They go to different construction sites. That’s the data we need,” he says.
He says it is necessary to go into detailed data on road movement. They believe the immediate response is to impose a sudden ban on all construction activities and impose overnight restrictions under Phases III and IV of the Graded Response Action Plan. “We’re missing some information. That won’t come from ambient air quality measurements,” he says. Tuhin Banerjee, a former CSIR-NEERI scientist and current coordinator of the non-profit International Center for Climate and Sustainability Action, feels the government knows the solutions but is unwilling to invest in them. “Everyone is just talking about monitoring. No one is doing anything about removing these pollutants. There are molecular filters that can selectively remove pollutants from the atmosphere,” he says.
He gives a list of interventions such as electrostatic precipitators to remove particulate matter; WAYU (Wind Augmentation Purification Unit), an outdoor air purification device developed by CSIR-NEERI to tackle air pollution in high-traffic areas; and the Techno Green Yuka device, a patented solution to air quality. He also laments the “lack of bureaucratic will” to implement them.
People stroll at Girgaum Chowpatty on December 5, 2025 as the city’s skyline is seen shrouded in smog. Photo Credit: Emmanuel Yogini
Environmentalists have accused officials of obscuring important data on air quality. Sumaira Abdulali has been monitoring air quality for years. As part of her awareness campaign, she posted PM2.5 level data every day for more than a year. Then, suddenly, in May this year, PM2.5 data was not available on the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB)’s Sameer app, which gives real-time updates on AQI and other parameters.
“By May 2025, all readings were in the red. In fact, in April this year, PM2.5 levels in Kandivali (Mumbai suburb) were 434, well above the red zone,” she says. AbdulAli raised the issue of data unavailability with the authorities and asked questions for some time, but he says he did not get any answers.
“We know that PM2.5 is more dangerous. The structure of your nose can block PM10. But PM2.5 particles get into your lungs. They can cause all kinds of problems: coughing, wheezing. Long-term exposure can cause cancer,” Banerjee says.
When asked why PM2.5 data is no longer available on the Sameer app, MPCB officials said the data was controlled by the CPCB. “You will have to ask them,” says Satish Padwal, joint director (air), MPCB. He adds, “There should be one monitoring station per 10 lakh population. Currently, there are additional stations in Mumbai.” Sameer app shows that 23 out of 30 stations were active.
Gagrani believes that air quality is an important public health and governance priority.
“Stop work notices have been issued to 321 sites. We are spraying road water, misting, conducting site-wise visits and urging bakeries to switch to clean fuel,” he says.
However, experts say spraying mist does not work to prevent air pollution. BMC has deployed 94 flying squads to ensure strict adherence to the 28 guidelines framed for construction sites. BMC Additional Municipal Commissioner Ashwini Joshi says that show cause notices were issued to the Bullet Train Project and Dharavi Redevelopment Project.
vinaya.deshpande@thehindu.co.in
