Farmers Movement Archive

Worst episode of smog negates all good air records in Delhi

More stubble fires than previous years and unsuitable weather conditions have negated the gains made in terms of more good and satisfactory air days as well as the annual average PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations on account of a prolonged lockdown to curb the spread of Covid-19, experts said. They said consecutive days of severe air quality days or an air emergency episode like the present one wasn’t recorded since 2016. The present smog episode will be the worst since AQI is being measured if severe air quality persists till Wednesday. Experts said the improvement in air quality over Delhi being recorded in the past two years will be negated because of severe air pollution this winter.In 2018 and 2019, 159 and 182 good to moderate air quality days were recorded compared to 108 and 152 in 2016 and 2017. In 2018 and 2019, 206 and 183 poor to severe air days were recorded compared to 246 and 213 in 2016 and 2017 according to CPCB. One of the signs of air quality improving is the absence of any severe air quality or smog episodes which are linked to higher hospital admissions and complications of respiratory and cardiovascular conditions in the vulnerable population. . Officials from anti-pollution agencies said one of the reasons Delhi couldn’t sustain its improvements in curbing severe air episodes is an unusually high number of stubble fires flared this year and possibly because of the reopening of the economy after curbs imposed to control Covid-19 spread coinciding with adverse meteorological conditions like calm winds for the past one week.This time there have been at least 62,000 fire points compared to less than 60,000 in the past two years.“There is no doubt that 2020’s annual average concentrations will be lower than last year. Even if you consider AQI, we have had a very high number of good, satisfactory and moderate days this year because of the national lockdown for Covid 19 pandemic. Severe days occur every year whether they were consecutive or not will not matter much,” said a senior Central Pollution Control Board official on condition of anonymity.Scientists said the satellite data indicates a very high number of stubble fires this year. “The satellite data we assessed indicates that crop stubble fires have been relatively higher than the average number of fires recorded in the past five years from 2015 to 2019. This has mixed with poor meteorological conditions. It is definitely true that number of severe air days had reduced in 2017, 2018 and 2019. There were a very high number of severe air days in 2016 and we experienced one of the worst smog episodes. This year again this has happened because of higher stubble fires, lack of surveillance because of Covid-19 related restrictions,” explained Sagnik Dey, associate professor at IIT Delhi. He also flagged that Delhi needs to reduce its own emissions by at least 30% during the winter months beginning October to avoid such spikes. “Air pollution has doubled in October-November compared to say August-September even though local emissions have remained nearly the same. Stubble fires have only added to the emissions. If neighbouring states do not cooperate, Delhi will have to reduce its own emissions even further so that we don’t see such hazardous air quality episodes. We also need to fine tune the graded response action plan so that strict control mechanisms kick in even before we have severe air continuously for six days,” Dey said, referring to NASA satellite images which show a smoke plume has descended over Delhi and surrounding regions from the north.Trilochan Mohapatra, director of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), and farmer leaders in Punjab have been saying more stubble fires are being reported in the state because of agitation and discontent over the three farm bills introduced by the Centre. Farmers are in no mood to comply with regulations and labour shortage due to the national lockdown has also made disposing stubble very difficult.“This year we have started recording several severe air quality days even before Diwali has arrived. The entire region is suffering severe air quality because pollutants get trapped here due to adverse meteorological conditions. We need significant curbs locally to reduce the intensity, duration and frequency of such episodes. Its important to monitor how fast such episodes clear up with emergency action. I am not aware of how effectively Grap is being implemented on a regional level right now,” said Anumita Roy Chowdhury, executive director, Centre for Science and Environment.

Hindustan Times

11-11-2020

Delhi