After Delhi, smog engulfs Punjab, Haryana cities

It's not just Delhi that has been witnessing a thick smog cover over the past fortnight. The smog has also engulfed cities of Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and other states.

Updated on: Nov 9, 2012, 12:11:20 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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It's not just Delhi that has been witnessing a thick smog cover over the past fortnight. The smog has also engulfed cities of Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and other states.

The Central Pollution Control Board's (CPCB) air pollution monitoring data shows a sudden rise of particulate matter a primary cause of smog in cities such as Ludhiana and Amritsar in Punjab, Lucknow, Kanpur, Agra and Meerut in Uttar Pradesh, Ahmedabad in Gujarat, and Solapur and Thane in Maharashtra.

"It (pollution-related smog) is spreading like a slow epidemic," said a board's senior scientist.

However, the board has failed to conduct any valuable research to suggest effective remedial measures to state governments. Kolkata-based Chitranjan Institute has already found that high exposure to particulate matter, especially during the smog period, can result in life-long breathing disorders among children.

New CPCB data shows that smog levels in cities of Punjab such as Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Amritsar is high, with respirable suspended particulate matter (RSPM) being above 500 micro grams per cubic metre, five times the national standard.

"The entire region is covered under a thick blanket of smog, showing steady degradation in overall environment conditions in the state," said SS Hundal, head of department of agro-meteorology at Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana.

Haryana is no less affected, with towns such as Ambala, Rohtak and Karnal recording high levels of smog. The picture is similar in the UP towns of Agra, Meerut and Lucknow. A CPCB scientist said the smog had spread up to the industrial towns of Solapur and Nashik in Maharashtra and Ahmedabad in Gujarat.

A spokesperson for the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) said Cyclone Nilam, which hit south India last week, had also exacerbated smog conditions, especially in northern parts of the country.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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