Odd-even 3.0 in Delhi next Monday to Friday
WHO’S TO BLAME? Went up on Oct 27, 29, 31; mostly in Punjab
The Arvind Kejriwal government on Thursday announced the return of the oddeven plan from November 13 to 17 as air quality in the Capital worsened for the third straight day.
This is the third time that Delhi will try the radical road-rationing scheme during which private cars with even- and odd-numbered plates ply on alternate days.
Top officials of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), however, questioned the timing of the plan, suggesting the emergency measure may not be required any longer because weather conditions would improve from Friday, clearing the toxic haze that has engulfed Delhi since Monday night.
“The air quality has started improving, and from Friday and Saturday weather conditions will be much better. If odd-even was done in the last three days, it would have been more effective,” said D Saha, who heads the air quality laboratory at the CPCB.
“In winter, out of the total 28% vehicular pollution, how much is a car’s contribution? How much improvement it will bring remains doubtful,” Saha added.
The daily average air quality index (AQI) was a season high 486 on Thursday, rising from 478 the previous day.
A dramatic rise in crop residue burning in Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh has pushed the air quality level in the Indo-Gangetic belt to dangerously high levels this week, experts said on Thursday, putting millions of people at risk and forcing authorities to close schools till Sunday in Delhi.
The data from Nasa that captured this trend shows that the burning intensified on October 27, 29 and 31, and was mostly concentrated in Punjab.
Delhi’s air quality index (AQI), which measures the concentration of pollutants in the air, on Thursday morning was 465, indicating severe levels of pollution.
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) banned crop residue burning in 2015, but efforts to check the menace by fining farmers and to provide some compensation for not burning have failed to make a difference.
The Punjab CM suggested that it was essentially a scientific and economic problem that could not be tackled through other means.
Burning crop residue in paddy fields is a cost-effective way of clearing large farms in a short period of time that is available to farmers to prepare for the next sowing season. Farmer groups have argued that they have no better alternative to burning the crop remnants.
Delhi’s air quality index (AQI), which measures the concentration of pollutants in the air, on Thursday morning was 465, indicating severe levels of pollution.
Agricultural stubble running into millions of tonnes is burnt by farmers in northern India every October, before the onset of winter. An estimated 35 million tonnes are set afire in Punjab and Haryana alone to make room for the winter crop.
“It takes about three to four days for the particulate matter to reach a city like Delhi from Punjab,” Sachchida Nand Tripathi, a professor at Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, said.
Tripathi, whose team helped collate the NASA data, indicated that the recent surge in crop burning was to blame for the rise in particulate matter pollution in Delhi and the NCR and in surrounding cities.
Particulate matters are tiny fragments produced by fossil fuel combustion and other industrial processes that can lodge deep into the lungs. Prolonged exposure to these particles can cause respiratory and heart diseases.
Particulate matter acts as a nucleus for the condensation of water vapour in the air forming a dense mass known as fog. When mixed with other pollutants, especially sulphur oxides, it takes the form of the more dangerous smog.
According to Tripathi, the particulate matter gets trapped in this belt because of the Himalayan range bordering the plains in the north which acts as a barrier preventing the particulate pollution from being flushed out of the region.
“Northwesterly winds carry smoke and fog from these areas to the Delhi-NCR,” Mahesh Palawat at Skymet Weather Forecasting, a private agency, said.
The National Green Tribunal banned the burning of crop residue in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab, recognising that they contribute to poor air quality in Delhi and the NCR in 2015, but implementing the order has turned out to be a difficult task.
There has been vigorous pushback from farmers, who find themselves without a viable alternative to get rid of the crop residue from the Kharif season. It is important for them to clear their fields quickly to be able to sow crops for the next season.
NHRC NOTICES
NEWDELHI:Taking suo motu cognisance of several media reports highlighting the life-threatening pollution in Delhi-NCR, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has sought a report within two weeks from ministries and Delhi, Haryana and Punjab about steps taken and proposed. Notices have been issued to secretaries of the Union ministry of environment; health; and road transport, along with chief secretaries of the states.