Air Quality Index in New Delhi reaches alarming Levels

The Supreme Court says that the central government has stated that stubble burning contributed to only four percent of Air Pollution in Delhi. Delhi government rejects centre's assessment despite the fact that air quality in the neighbouring states where stubble is being burnt is not as bad as Delhi. The Union environment minister Anil Madhav Dave in 2016 had stated that ISRO images show that Delhi's neighbouring states were responsible only for twenty percent of the pollution in Delhi. 

Car exhaust fumes and industries contribute the most to the thick smog and weak air quality index in Delhi. Delhi air pollution is not new. It has been a seasonal winter occurrence where the dust particles ande emissions from vehicles and industries get trapped in the atmosphere due to lack of wind in winter and drop in temperature. The safe level for PM10 is 100 but delhi has 876 micrograms per cubic metre. The safe level for PM2.5 is 60 but Delhi has 680 micrograms per cubic metre. 

IIT Kanpur and Delhi government joint report sometime back said that road dust accounted for nearly fifty six percent of PM10. Road dust contributed to 38 percent of PM2.5. Rapid Urbanization is a curse to the environment as seen in New Delhi & Mumbai. Mumbai being a coastal city has the advantage of sea winds blowing over the city but Delhi being landlocked has stagnant winds in winter. Some parts of Mumbai like Colaba, Andheri recorded worst air quality this november. Chennai faced smog on Diwali night post bursting of crackers taking air quality index to hazardous levels. 

Delhi has cleanest air post during and after rainy season.Commuting to work is the prime reason for the air quality decline since the thousands of cars on Delhi roads cause toxic fumes emissions. .Having stayed in Delhi during winter, stinging eyes and poor visibility while driving is common in winter. Many residents complain of Asthma & Breathing difficulties in winter. Last year's lockdown proved beneficial for Delhi for with limited economic activity,vehicles were off the roads. Schools were closed.  

 Every winter for the past few decades, Delhi has been facing this problem. Tough measures are being enforced in Delhi by the Commission for Air Quality Management in NCR and Adjoining areas. The five thermal plants are being shut down till November 30. Barring essential commodities,all other trucks are being banned. Petrol vehicles older than 15 yrs are being kept off the road. Construction activities are being banned till November 21. Educational Institutions are back to Online Mode. Close to fifty percent of private and public employees have been asked to work from home till November 21. Weekend lockdown is being imposed. 

In Air Quality Index rankings of polluted cities, North India has all the cities while the least polluted places are in South India & in Hill stations in North East.. Among capital cities too,southern states capitals Chennai, Hyderabad,Vijayawada,Thiruvananthapuram, Bangalore have within limits or less air pollution than New Delhi. So the safest place in India are obviously the hill stations when it comes to clean air. 

Even globally, Bangladesh, Pakistan,India,Mongolia,Afghanistan,Oman,Qatar, Kyrgyzstan,Indonesia,Bosnia are the top 10 most polluting countries. China ranks thirteen while the USA ranks 84. Puerto Rico is the cleanest country. Among the top 6 economies, only India has a weak air quality Index. Bangladesh,Pakistan,India,Indonesia have huge populations, weak public infrastructure and weak public transport which is causing a lot of air pollution. Globally, Urbanization has contributed to huge economic activity and the world’s cities house fifty percent of the global population. Rapid Urbanization in the west has not caused so much vehicular emissions because in the west, people prefer to stay in the outskirts and commute to work rather than stay within the cities like most developing countries do. 

In countries like the USA, nearly eighty percent live in urban areas caused by a real estate trend which caught up from the early 2000s. Large Box Retail, Computer Engineering, Financial & Housing sector caused huge increase in Urbanization jobs. The USA has now become a freelance nation with more than forty percent of its workforce working as freelancers. Shift to the online world has changed perspectives. Even companies are shifting their offices to mid sized cities and adopting a eighty twenty model where only twenty percent of their staff work in offices. This has caused a rapid counter urbanization since covid lockdown.