North India wakes up to ‘severe’ air after Diwali

Bad air to persist for few days; Delhi better than Lucknow, Patna

NEW DELHI: Several cities across north India woke up to “severe” air quality on Thursday after the Diwali night, when revellers burst firecrackers as part of the festivities. Delhi’s average air quality index (AQI), surprisingly, was a notch better than cities in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Bihar, according to data issued by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

A CPCB bulletin on Thursday showed Lucknow, Patna, Bulandshahr, Noida and Greater Noida, Ghaziabad, Faridabad and Patna to be in severe air category — with an AQI above 400. Delhi’s average AQI was 390, marginally better than the rest. On a scale of 0-500, AQI in the range of 0-50 is considered ‘good’, 51-100 ‘satisfactory’, 101-200 ‘moderate’, 201-300 ‘poor’, 301400 ‘very poor’ and 401-500 ‘severe’.

Delhi did record extremely high PM2.5 concentrations early on Thursday but that gradually fell by afternoon as the air quality became “very poor” compared to last year’s “severe”. PM 2.5 are particulate matters that have a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometers. They can lodge deep into the lungs and trigger health hazards.

Experts say the pollution situation in Delhi-NCR could be the result of multiple factors — marginally favourable meteorologi- cal conditions, and fewer crackers due to a Supreme Court order last month that restricted the bursting of fireworks between 8pm and 10pm and allowed only “less polluting” firecrackers in the region.

Also, action has been taken in Delhi-NCR on pollution sources under various action plans since October 15.

Interestingly, Lucknow and Kanpur were in “poor category” last year on October 20, the day after Diwali. Thiruvananthapuram recorded “satisfactory” AQI on Thursday; Bengaluru and Chennai were also in “moderate” range. Diwali is usually celebrated in the morning down south.

Anumita Roy Chowdhury, head of Centre for Science and Environment (CSE’s) clean air programme, said, “It’s difficult to say how much firecracker influence was there in other northern cities. In Delhi, action was taken during pre-Diwali days on pollution sources. It may have aided in a quick clear out of pollutants from here.”

In fact, the dispersal of pollutants in northern cities may be affected due to adverse meteorological conditions from Friday. Geographical and meteorological factors cause air pollution to remain concentrated over northern states. BP Yadav, deputy director general of India Meteorological Department, said, “The conditions are not favourable for the dispersal of pollutants in north India now. It’s getting colder, wind speed is less than 5 kmph, cold from the mountains will affect the region.”

This would mean northern states may see prolonged poor air quality period for the next few days.

PATIALA: Even as people burst crackers well beyond the time limit set by the Supreme Court, still Punjab witnessed a dip in air pollution rise this Diwali as compared to the previous year.

The air quality index data of Punjab Pollution Control Board shows that the rise in air pollution in select cities came down to 20% against 40% in 2017.

As per the data of continuous ambient air quality monitoring stations at Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Khanna, Mandi Gobindgarh and Patiala, the average air quality index (AQI) of Punjab was 234 and it was 328 in 2017, a decrease of 29%.

PPCB chairman Prof SS Marwaha said awareness campaign against bursting of crackers launched by the government and non-government organisations have started showing results.

He said that last year the average PM10 was 430µgm/m3 and PM2.5 was 226µgm/m3,, whereas this year the figures stood at 277µgm/m3 and 126µgm/m3, respectively. There was 36% and 44% reduction in PM10 and PM2.5 levels, respectively, than the previous year.

He attributed it to the school and college students who had said no to firecrackers.

Despite improvement in air pollution on Diwali, the AQI jumped from moderate to the poor level. “AQI was bound to increase due to large-scale bursting of crackers. Firecrackers were used much less this year than the previous years, but even that much are not good for the environment”, said PPCB spokesman Charanjit Singh.

Despite orders of the Supreme Court to burst crackers between 8pm to 10pm only, they were used till midnight. In many cities, including Patiala, Ludhiana and Jalandhar, police have registered FIRs under Section 188 of the IPC against the violators.

Meanwhile, taking advantage of Diwali, farmers in some areas burnt the paddy straw and then gave it the colour of accidental fire. The number of paddy straw fire incidents on Wednesday stood at 3,466, the second highest for a single day this season.

Now, overall farm fire incidents till November 7 have reached 33,687, which were nearly 38,000 on the corresponding day last year.