Air pollution levels in the national capital continued to be ‘severe’ as dense smog engulfed the city, leading to delays in flight and train services. Here’s what is happening on ground today:
The Delhi government has brought back odd-even plan to check rising pollution level in the capital. It will be implemented from Nov 13 and will end on Nov 17, and like last time two-wheelers and women drivers will be exempt.
STORY SO FAR
Delhi and Punjab governments announced complete closure of schools till Sunday following weather forecasts that situation is unlikely to improve soon with very dense fog expected to cover many places in Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and north Rajasthan in the morning hours till November 10. People rushed to buy masks to save themselves from the toxic smog as level of particulate matter 2.5 over Delhi touched 517 microgram per cubic metre, which is more than ten times the safe level.
SPIKE IN AIR PURIFIER SALES
Air purifiers manufacturers are witnessing a spike in sales in the Capital and adjoining areas as consumers resort to panic buying with air pollution in Delhi-NCR breaching critical limit. Companies like Xiaomi, Eureka Forbes, Blue Air, Panasonic India, Honeywell and Sharp said they have witnessed multi-fold jump in demand for air purifiers in the last couple of days.
Air purifiers from different brands are available at a price range of Rs 9,000 to Rs 36,000 depending on power and features.
MORE METRO TRAINS
The metro and Delhi Transport Corporation announced decisions to augment services by pressing more trains and buses into service, in a bid to reduce dependence on private vehicles.
Delhi lieutenant governor Anil Baijal on Wednesday banned entry of trucks into the capital until further instructions.
Trucks carrying essential commodities like food items have been exempted. He has also instructed civic bodies and the Delhi Metro to hike parking fees, as directed by the Supreme Court appointed Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA) to dissuade use of personal cars. The three civic bodies are yet to implement parking fee hike, but Delhi Metro has decided to increase train capacity by carrying out 186 additional trips from Thursday.
NO RESPITE TILL WEEKEND
According to the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR), which tracks air quality of different cities in India, strong winds blowing at 15 to 20 km per hour at a height from ground have been bringing external pollutants from Punjab and Haryana into Delhi. With high humidity of 90% and low wind speed, pollutants are getting trapped. SAFAR has forecast increase in the concentration of fine particles of pollutants on Thursday.
DELHI HIGH COURT ISSUES EMERGENCY DIRECTIONS TO CURB KILLER FOG IN DELHI
As the killer ‘pea soup fog’ continued to engulf the city, the Delhi High Court today issued a slew of directions to improve air quality, including watering of the roads to minimise dust.
Calling it an “emergency situation”, a bench of Justices S Ravindra Bhat and Sanjeev Sachdeva asked the government to consider the option of “cloud seeding” to induce rainfall artificially, as an immediate step to bring down the dust and particulate matter in the atmosphere.
It directed the Delhi government to seriously consider a ban on further construction in the city to the extent possible and implementing the ‘odd-even’ vehicle usage scheme as a short term measure.
“What we are facing today has already been faced by London. They call it a pea soup fog. It is a killer. Stubble burning is the visible villain in it, but there are other elephants in the room,” the bench said.
It said the fog here was a “deadly mixture of vehicular pollution, construction and road dust and stubble burning.”
Pea soup, or a pea souper, also called black fog, killer fog or smog is a very thick and often yellowish, greenish or blackish fog caused by air pollution that contains soot particulates and the poisonous gas sulphur dioxide. Such a fog had engulfed London in 1952.
Directions were also issued by the bench to the Delhi Traffic Police to ensure there is no vehicular congestion on the roads and provide masks to the personnel on duty.
The bench also ordered the Union Environment Secretary to hold a meeting in the next three days of the chief secretaries of Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh to work out a joint short-term plan to bring down air pollution.
The bench issued the directions, after senior advocate and amicus curiae Kailash Vasdev told the court that emergent steps were required to improve the air quality in the city.
The court also took on record the steps proposed to be taken by the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) after a meeting held with the Lieutenant Governor yesterday.
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