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Delhi’s air quality may enter ‘poor’ zone on Sunday
New Delhi: With a dip in mercury and farm fires picking up in the neighbouring Haryana and Punjab, Delhi’s air quality may turn ‘poor’ by Sunday (October 4), government
New Delhi: With a dip in mercury and farm fires picking up in the neighbouring Haryana and Punjab, Delhi’s air quality may turn ‘poor’ by Sunday (October 4), government agencies have warned.
The last time this year Delhi’s air quality was in the poor zone was in March.
As per Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) 4pm bulletin, Saturday’s average AQI was 189 -- in the moderate zone, close to the poor mark (at 201).
So far this year, air quality has remained between good to moderate zones only. Overall, this year has so far seen cleaner air than 2019 with Covid-19 induced lockdown and a good monsoon keeping air quality under check.
On a scale 0-500, a value of 0-50 is considered ‘good’ (minimal health risk), 51-100 is ‘satisfactory’ (minor discomfort to sensitive people), 100-200 is ‘moderate’ (breathing discomfort to people with lungs and heart disease), 200-300 is ‘poor’ (breathing discomfort to most people on prolonged exposure), 300-400 is ‘very poor’ (respiratory illness on prolonged exposure) and 400-500 is ‘severe’ (affects healthy people and seriously impacts those with existing diseases).
According to the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR), the Central government’s air quality monitoring and forecasting wing, Delhi’s air quality could deteriorate over the next few days.
“Air quality may deteriorate to the lower end of the ‘poor’ category by October 4. An increase in stubble burning fires observed recently in Punjab, Haryana and bordering regions is likely to start impacting Delhi in the coming days,” the SAFAR bulletin released on Saturday said.
According to officials in Haryana and Punjab, this year the crop stubble burning started at least a week earlier than last year. “Last year stubble burning incidents were recorded from October 1 , which is the usual scenario, however, this year farmers started burning paddy residue from September 25. This is why by October first week we have already had over 200 farm fires, of which a few are accidental fires as well, which we are verifying from field officers,” said S Narayanan, member secretary, Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB).
From September 25 to October 2, Haryana has recorded 256 farm fires. Last year by the same time, only 35 incidents were recorded, according to HSPCB officials.
National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA) satellite imagery between September 22 and October 1 shows 880 farm fires in Punjab. Of this, the maximum, 554, were reported from Amritsar. In 2019, only 224 fires were recorded by October 1.
“We have been monitoring the fire counts through satellite imagery. This year the farm fires started earlier than last year with Punjab recording a 100% increase than last year. But it also indicates that since the burning has started early, it is likely to not peak around Diwali when pollution levels spike the most and weather conditions are not favourable for dispersal of pollutants. The crucial period begins from October 15, when weather conditions start stagnating,” said Sagnik Dey, associate professor at IIT Delhi’s Centre for Atmospheric Sciences.
According to scientists in the India Meteorological Department (IMD), there has been a consistent drop in night temperature over the past few days. On Saturday, night temperature settled at 20.3 degrees Celsius, a notch below normal while maximum settled at 36.1 degrees, two notches above normal.
“Both day and night temperatures are likely to decrease from October 5. Also, the wind pattern and speed are changing. Falling of temperature and slow wind speed are not favourable for dispersal of pollutants. This combined with higher density of farm fires may lead to a deterioration in air quality,” said Kuldeep Srivastava, IMD’s head of regional weather forecasting centre.
