Air pollution in Delhi rises to severe but farmers not responsible

The AQI has crossed 400 marks at several stations of the Central Pollution Control Board. It’s not only during the night hours, the air quality is very low in Delhi throughout the day.

Delhi is again facing haze due to increase in air pollution. The Air Quality Index (AQI) at all the 35 observatories of Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) installed at prime locations in the city are in the range of very poor to severe but this pollution is without stubble burning by the farmers. The weather forecasters of Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) have predicted the situation to continue till Tuesday due to low wind velocity.  

However, Delhi average air quality (AQI) on Saturday morning was 370. It was higher than average at several places in the city which worsened further by the evening. At 4.11 pm on Saturday, the air quality at Anand Vihar was 400 which had gone to 450 on Friday night. As air pollution is not going up, the AQI is likely to dip further in the night. The AQI was also very poor at Ashok Vihar (389), Aya Nagar (374), Bawana (398), Wazirpur (400), and ITO (365). Almost all the stations of IMD were showing dangerous level of pollution with an increasing trend. According to IMD, the fresh western disturbances are likely to arrive in the city on Wednesday till then the air pollution is most likely to rise. 

This smog in the city is caused by Delhi’s own pollution load as no major stubble burning is reported from the neighbouring states of Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. This again highlights that the Delhi’s own pollution load is sufficient to cause haze in the city if it is not cleaned by high wind velocity on daily basis.

In a recent order, Delhi High Court asked the city government to remove encroachments from ridge area and focus on plantation along the busy roads. Earlier, air pollution in Delhi was blamed to stubble burning by farmers in Haryana and Punjab. The stubble burning in neighbouring states causes increase in Delhi’s air pollution but only for about a fortnight in the month of November. However, for almost rest of the year Delhi’s own pollution load is responsible for the smog in the city.