High contribution of stubble burning affects AQI in NCR

Ghaziabad: A sharp decline in air quality on Thursday in the national capital region region was primarily attributed to stubble burning that contributed nearly 36%

Ghaziabad: A sharp decline in air quality on Thursday in the national capital region region was primarily attributed to stubble burning that contributed nearly 36% to the pollution, according to the system of air quality and eather forecasting and research.

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Around 2912 incidents were recorded, the agency said.

According to statistics from the Consortium for Research on Agroecosystem Monitoring and Modelling from Space (CREAMS) Laboratory, the instance of stubble burning combined in three states of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh have reached 24819 during the period October 1 to October 28 with share of Punjab at 21335.

During the same period in 2019, the total counts were 21015 with Punjab’s share of 15575 while the counts during the same period in 2018 were 187708 with Punjab’s share at 12878.

The officials of the Indian Meteorological Department said that low speed north-westerly winds brought the effect of stubble burning to NCR.

“Even if we assume that stubble burning has about 36% contribution, the other factors including vehicular and industrial emission, dust generated from roads, construction sites and garbage burning, etc share the rest of the percentage. There is absolutely no decisive plan to deal with such sources. Even if the Centre has announced to bring in a new law to control air pollution for the Delhi/NCR, it will take time for implementation,” said Akash Vashishtha, a Ghaziabad-based environmentalist. “It would mean that this winter season too, the residents of NCR will have to battle the high pollution levels. Even during the period when stubble burning is not in prevalence, the pollution levels remain high throughout the year.”

During the current month when the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) is already in effect from October 15, there had been regular instances of stubble/garbage burning at Kushaliya, Morta, Indirapuram and Mohan Nagar among others.

“We are keeping checks on instances of local stubble or garbage burning and FIRs are also getting lodged. On Thursday, the major factor responsible for deterioration in AQI was due to high contribution of 36% due to stubble burning besides the local polluting factors. The Ghaziabad city was more affected as the pollutants affecting Delhi further came down towards Ghaziabad and deteriorated the AQI here further,” said Utsav Sharma, regional officer of UPPCB. “The monitoring station at Loni was affected as AQI went to 431 under ‘severe’ category while the other three stations remained under higher side of ‘very poor’ quality.”