Delhi cold brings pollution, illness

Onset of cold weather in the Capital has brought its adverse side --- air pollution five times higher than the national standard and worse that India’s most polluted hubs such as Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh and Ankleshwar in Gujarat. Chetan Chauhan reports.

Updated on: Nov 2, 2012, 02:00:54 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Onset of cold weather in the Capital has brought its adverse side --- air pollution five times higher than the national standard and worse that India’s most polluted hubs such as Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh and Ankleshwar in Gujarat.

The air pollution data available with the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) shows that the pollution levels in Delhi on Thursday was highest in 2012 with Anand Vihar recording respirable suspended particular matter (RSPM) level of 709 in per cubic meter of air (ug/m3).

The average RSPM – general measure of pollutants in air --- in Delhi was 571 ug/m3 more than five times the national standard of 100 ug/m3 for the pollutant in residential areas.

The worrisome fact for health of Delhiities is that the winter RSPM levels has more than doubled in the last five years and is higher than the mid-1990s level when public transport used to run on diesel.

Till mid 2000s, busy Central and South Delhi areas were high air pollution zones. Now the dirty air has spread to even cleaner residential areas such as Rohini in north Delhi and Dwarka in west Delhi with RSPM level of more than 500 ug/m3.

“The data clearly shows that the increasing number of vehicles in the Capital is the biggest contributing factor for rising air pollution,” said Anumita Roy Choudhary of advocacy group Centre for Science and Environment.

Unlike other cities, industrial activity is restricted in Delhi and therefore, around 90 cars for every 1,000 people in the city is the prime contributor for rising pollution levels.

Winter is bad for people with heart ailments and breathing problems as the pollution remain suspended in air for long period in absence of heat for quick disbursal of the pollutants.

Its health impact is also obvious. Doctors at All India Institute of Medical Sciences and Patel Chest Institute said there was an increase in number of patients coming with breathing problems.

“We are advising asthmatic patents to remain indoors for as much time as possible or wear a air filter mask when on the roads,” said a doctor at Patel Chest Institute.

The situation is unlikely to improve in the coming days. The Meteorological Department has forecasted dry weather for the next one week with marginal dip in temperatures.

One will have to bear high air pollution as the Delhi government is yet to finalise its action plan to check the rising dirty air.

Earlier this year, Yale University had ranked Delhi’s air as most polluted in the world.

Air pollution levels in Delhi on Thursday afternoon

Punjabi Bagh (West Delhi)

478

Mandir Marg (New Delhi)

480

RK Puram (south-west Delhi)

630

Anand Vihar (east Delhi)

709

Civil Lines (north Delhi)

561

Note

: all units in ug/m3 (micro grams in per cubic meter of air) for respirable suspended particulate matter (RSPM)

National standard for RSPM is 100 ug/m3.

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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