The quality of the air in the national capital has not improved and has continued to be in the ‘severe’ and ‘very poor’ categories in many areas.
According to the Air Quality Index (AQI) data, major pollutants PM 2.5 on Wednesday morning was recorded at 500 which falls in the ‘severe’ category while PM 10 was recorded at 379 which falls in the ‘very poor’ category in the Lodhi Road area in New Delhi.
Meanwhile, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday appealed ‘with folded hands’ to Punjab and Haryana to take concrete steps against stubble burning to prevent the national capital from turning into a ‘gas chamber’.
Punjab and Haryana have recorded an increase of at least 2,400 farm fires, a major contributor to the air pollution in Delhi, till October 27, government data shows.
Here’s everything you need to know about Delhi air pollution:
1. “I appeal to the Punjab and Haryana governments with folded hands on behalf of the residents of Delhi to take strong steps and prevent Delhi from becoming a gas chamber. At our level, we are making all possible efforts and will continue to do so,” Kejriwal said in a Tweet.
2. The Delhi government also said that the latest NASA images show a drastic spurt in crop residue burning in the neighbouring states. The stubble plume from north-west regions has become one of the significant factors in adversely affecting Delhi’s air quality.
3. “The effective stubble fire counts of Haryana and Punjab have increased from 1,654 to 2,577 during the past 24 hours, which is a matter of extreme concern for the residents of Delhi,” the state government stated.
4. According to a report by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) says that fireworks on Diwali night played an “overwhelming” role in the rapid deterioration of air quality in Delhi-NCR.
5. “From a very clean afternoon, the change to severe pollution levels after 10:00 pm at (Diwali) night was drastic. There was a 10-fold jump in PM 2.5 concentrations between 5:00 pm and 1:00 am due to bursting of firecrackers. The peak level during 1:00 am to 3:00 am was quite similar to the peak levels observed in 2018,” the report said.
6. Meanwhile, some environmentalists have written a letter to BCCI President Sourav Ganguly requesting him to shift the venue for India’s match against Bangladesh from Delhi citing “damage to our cricket team’s health in the long run”.
7. “On the 3rd of November India is scheduled to play against Bangladesh in a T20 match at Feroz Shah Kotla at a time when pollution levels are expected to be between severe to hazardous,” wrote the environmentalists in their letter.
8. “We would also like to request you to consider setting up of responsible sports protocols which take into consideration the AQI of venues and cities while scheduling cricket matches be it domestic or international,” they added.
9. Earlier, SAFAR had analysed that the air quality in Delhi after Diwali may not be as bad as that of last year and will likely remain severe for a shorter period as compared to that in 2018. However, it had also said that “the impact of stubble burning incidents is also expected to rise over the next few days, as wind direction changes. The fire count has almost doubled in the past two days, but surface winds prevented accumulation of particulate matter”.
10. Meanwhile, doctors in Delhi-NCR have warned that even though the impact of air pollution may not be immediately visible, it may have long-term effects, especially for pregnant women and their unborn babies. Some hospitals have also reported rise in visits by patients due to conditions linked to hazardous air quality after Diwali.
WhatsApp us