The capital is once again covered in smog- a mixture of smoke and fog, a repetitive action that has been occurring for some time now.
The previous year, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that prima facie the “biggest reason seems to be burning of stubble in agricultural fields in Haryana and Punjab in huge quantity”. A year later the situation has not changed much.
As on the morning of 7th November, As visibility dropped to 50 meters today morning due to a thick blanket of smog and the air quality across Delhi was “hazardous”, Chief Minister Kejriwal said that Delhi has “become a gas chamber”.
The severe height of pollution has forced the implementation of stringent emission control measures and health precautions, including closure of primary schools on the 8th of November. A combination of smoke from stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana and moisture turned Delhi into a “gas chamber”, prompting the authorities to announce a series of preventive measures, including a four-fold hike in parking fees and slashing of metro fares.
The smog brought down visibility levels, affecting flight and train operations. The heavy air permeated living rooms and even the underground metro stations in the city, making it difficult to breathe, turning eyes watery.
According to the Central Pollution Control Board, the air quality index (AQI) for Delhi was 448 as of 4 p.m. on Tuesday, making it ‘severe’ — the worst category and one that comes with the warning that healthy people are also affected at this level. The AQI, calculated using data from 15 monitoring stations, also showed that particulate matter — both the smaller PM2.5 and the coarse PM10 — were the prominent pollutants in Delhi. Across the National Capital Region, Faridabad, Ghaziabad and Noida also had severe pollution, while Gurugram fell in the “very poor” category.
The current update has reported that the AQI has risen to 999 as of Wednesday morning.
Delhiites are unlikely to get a respite soon, as the National Weather Forecasting Center (NWFC) said the dense fog seen on Tuesday was likely to continue for three days, reducing visibility in the forenoon as conditions were favorable for the formation of fog.
Last year, Delhi minister Imran Hussain had written to then Union Environment Minister Anil Mahdav Dave, requesting strict action against crop burning in the neighboring states. Dave, however, had said that only 20 per cent of pollution in Delhi is a result of crop burning in neighboring states.
While seeking cooperation from neighboring states and the Center is crucial to fight the winter smog in Delhi, beyond emergency measures, the Delhi government also needs to find out more sustainable and long-term ways to fight air pollution in Delhi.
Last year, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) came down heavily on the Delhi government for failing to check air pollution and not doing enough research before launching campaigns, particularly targeting the government for the odd-even scheme.
The NGT observed that the Delhi government, every year, starts thinking about controlling pollution only after levels cross the danger mark.
NASA images of crop fires driving smoke towards Delhi.
n Delhi, the level of the harmful PM2.5, which is small enough to get embedded in the lungs causing serious respiratory illness, was several times over the standard of 60 micrograms per cubic meter (ug/m3). At the Delhi Pollution Control Committee station at Anand Vihar, the concentration of PM2.5 at 7.10 p.m. on Tuesday was a whopping 732 ug/m3 or more than 12 times the safe level.
Experts, however, said there was a need for a long-term plan to reduce emissions. A member of the EPCA and the director-general of the Centre for Science and Environment, Sunita Narain, said if the long-term measures already identified and suggested by the EPCA are not implemented, “air quality cannot improve”.
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