Weather, green-cracker push provide small mercy
NEW DELHI: On Monday, as Delhi woke up after a night of Diwali festivities, the air was a little less hazy than previous years.
Weather experts and environmentalists said that this time several factors worked for Delhi, including “green crackers”, albeit in limited supply, and favourable weather conditions. Strict and early action by government agencies also helped.
HT took a look at what helped Delhi.
PRE-EMPTIVE ACTION
The Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority [EPCA] enforced “severe” category measures under the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP), such as mechanised cleaning of roads and regular sprinkling of water, from October 15 itself.
VK Shukla, in-charge of air quality management at the CPCB, said that increased ground level enforcement played a critical role. “All government agencies were on their toes. CPCB itself had 46 teams in Delhi and NCR that checked for any violations. Our teams were passing on real-time information on violations to all agencies for prompt action,” said Shukla.
Shutting the Badarpur power plant in Delhi, completion of the eastern and western peripheral expressways for vehicles not destined for Delhi, ban on PET coke as industrial fuel, and the introduction of BS-VI fuel have also made a big difference.
GREEN CRACKERS
This time, the limited availability of the newly introduced “green crackers” became a major reason behind fewer crackers being burnt in Delhi.
These crackers are known to have nearly 30% lower emissions compared to the traditional varieties, which were banned by the Supreme Court.
“The significant drop of about 30% in PM 2.5 (fine particulate matter with diameter less than 2.5 micrometres), SO2 (sulphur dioxide) and CO (carbon monoxide) all point towards the findings that people have burnt much less fire crackers this year,” a statement released by Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) read on Monday.
The less polluting variant of firecrackers only had two variet i es, anar ( f l owerpot) and phuljhari (sparklers).
Awareness campaigns, especially targeting children, also reduced cracker bursting. Experts, however, said that trends on Sunday night show that the residents in Delhi-ncr did not hesitate in burning crackers.