Air quality falls across north India

New Delhi: The air quality across north India deteriorated on Thursday, following a sudden fall in temperature, with Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh the most polluted

New Delhi: The air quality across north India deteriorated on Thursday, following a sudden fall in temperature, with Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh the most polluted across 102 cities monitored by Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), as winds from the north and west brought pollutants towards the northern plains.

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Experts said that the high base level in the region led to the air quality being in the “severe” category.

According to CPCB 4pm buletin, AQI in Ghaziabad on Thursday was 436, in Lucknow 320, and in Kanpur 400. In several parts of western Uttar Pradesh and south Haryana, including Gurugram, Rohtak, Sonipat and Panipat, the AQI was over 400.

“Pollution levels are high in December because of the drop in temperature and increase in local biomass burning due to the cold weather,” said a senior CPCB official, who asked not to be named. Air quality was likely to remain in the “severe” zone over the next 24 hours, he said.

Since the first week of October, air quality in the northern region hovered between “poor” and “severe”. Till November 20, stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana were said to be the reasons for high air pollutions levels. A sudden dip in temperature, low wind speed, and high humidity were said to be the main reasons for the rapid accumulation of pollutants from local sources. Low temperature and high humidity lead to the formation of mist, haze and shallow fog, which blend with pollutants, and cause air pollution.

Mahesh Palawat of Skymet Weather, a private forecasting agency, said only light winds were blowing over the Indo-Gangetic plains for the past few days. “Dust, vehicular and industrial emissions remain suspended near the ground in the absence of favourable wind speed,” he said.

According to data from the UP Pollution Control Board, Lucknow did not have a single day of “satisfactory” or “moderate” -- below 100 AQI -- air quality since Diwali.

Chief minister Yogi Adityananth on November 1 directed the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board to prevent stubble burning and check other factors contributing to air pollution. On Thursday, state agriculture minister Surya Pratab Shahi said 4,871 incidents of stubble burning were been reported across the state and close to 1,867 first information reports (FIRs) were lodged.

In Bihar, where Patna witnessed its worst air quality in decades with AQI touching close to 490 in the first week of November, the government ordered the closing of polluting industries and banned running of vehicles older than 15 years. Diesel autos in municipal areas of Patna will be banned by January 31, 2021, and in other urban pockets such as Danapur, Khagaul and Phulwari Sharif by March 31 the same year, said an official of the state pollution control board on condition of anonymity.

On Thursday, environmental advocacy organizations requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to declare a national health emergency with pollution levels in north India rising at an alarming rate over the last two days.

“Almost all of north India, from West Bengal to Punjab, is reeling under severe air pollution, almost verging on ‘hazardous’. This is causing irreversible health harm to every single resident of these areas,” according to The Clean Air Collective, a network of organisations, citizens groups and institutions. “We request the Prime Minister and all state governments to declare a national health emergency, enforce existing laws on trash and biomass burning strictly, and focus on controlling emissions arising from all sources urgently,” it said in a statement.

(With inputs from Patna and Lucknow)