Marginal dip in Delhi’s air quality, strong winds to bring down pollution

In almost a week, the national capital’s air quality has improved from ‘emergency’ on Sunday to ‘severe’, ‘very poor’ and then ‘poor’ category on Wednesday.

Delhi’s air quality saw a marginal dip on Thursday morning, but continued to remain in the ‘poor’ category.

Strong winds and likely rain is expected to improve Delhi’s air quality on Thrusday, November 7, 2019. (ANI / Twitter)

At 7am, the average air quality index (AQI) of the city was recorded 241, slightly above Wednesday’s overall AQI 214. Scientists at the India Meteorological Department (IMD), however, said that strong winds are expected through the day, which will help bring down the pollution levels on Thursday.

“There was some shallow fog in the morning (Thursday). But as the day progresses, we have a forecast of strong winds and a possibility of rain in certain parts of the city. All this will help improve the air quality,” a senior scientist at the IMD said.

The wind speed on Wednesday ranged between 20-25kmph in the easterly direction, which means that the residue from crop stubble burning from the neighbouring states of Punjab and Haryana was not reaching the Capital. On Thursday too, the wind speed is expected to remain above 22kmph.

In almost a week, the national capital’s air quality has improved from ‘emergency’ on Sunday to ‘severe’, ‘very poor’ and then ‘poor’ category on Wednesday.

IMD scientists on Wednesday said higher wind speed helped clear pollutants, adding that air quality in the national capital is expected to improve further in the coming days.

Delhi has been experiencing the worst air days since Diwali on October 27, when the AQI levels nosedived to reach 337. The situation progressively became worse since then and on October 30, Delhi recorded its first ‘severe’ air day.

On November 1, a public health emergency was declared in the city. Measures such as the closure of schools and a blanket ban on construction activities had to be imposed. Schools in the national capital, shut till November 5, re-opened on Wednesday after the pollution levels improved.

A major reason for the thick smog cover over Delhi in the past couple of weeks has been the stubble burning by farmers of neighbouring states of Punjab and Haryana.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court took the Union government and the administrations of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh to task for failing to stop the problem of farm fires, ordering officials to immediately offer cash incentives as well as foot the cost of hiring machines that can take care of crop residue for farmers with small and medium landholding.

The judges were hearing a suo motu matter – an issue they themselves took up -- three days after one of the worst spells of smog choked the capital with near-record levels of pollution. Most of it was due to smoke from farm fires, exacerbated by weather conditions.

“This is due to your failure. Pollution is pollution. It’s bad for everybody. How can you say there is no solution? We expect little more from the responsible democratic government of the day,” justice Arun Mishra, who was on the bench along with justice Deepak Gupta, said at a hearing that went on for two hours, during which the chief secretaries of three states and the top lawyer of the Union government were chastised.