Noida breathes year’s worst air as stubble burning spikes

Noida and Greater Noida saw the worst air quality of the year so far on Thursday, with meteorological conditions going against the city and its AQI dropping from

Noida and Greater Noida saw the worst air quality of the year so far on Thursday, with meteorological conditions going against the city and its AQI dropping from ‘very-poor’ to ‘severe’ in the last 24-hours.

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According to weather analysts, a sudden change in the wind direction from south-westerly to north-westerly -- through Punjab and Haryana, where stubble burning is at its peak -- led to spike in the pollution levels. The stubble burning has peaked in Punjab and Haryana as the paddy harvest season has entered into its last stage.

“The wind directions changed on Wednesday bringing pollutants in the region, which could not disperse due to weather conditions. Since then, the wind speed is calm and only went to 8-10kmph on Thursday for a short period of time, but that was not enough to disperse the pollution levels. The wind speed is likely to remain low for next few days,” said Kuldeep Srivastava, head, regional weather forecasting centre, India Meteorological Department (IMD).

According to the weather monitoring agencies, the instances of stubble burning too have significantly increased.

“SAFAR synergized stubble fire counts over Punjab, Haryana, UP, Uttarakhand, and neighbouring areas increased significantly and stood at (approx.) 4135 yesterday (Wednesday), the highest of the season,” said a statement from System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR).

The weather analyst believe that the air quality is unlikely to improve over next few days as the wind directions are likely to remain north-westerly. However, a marginal improvement is possible if the incidents of fire or stubble burning reduced.

“The wind speed will remain calm and north-westerly for next few days. Even if they increase a little, the situation will not improve since the pollutant dispersing in the cities will be replaced by additional smoke from stubble burning. Beside the local pollutants are also a factor,” said Mahesh Palawat, director, private weather forecasting agency Skymet.

“We are vigilant to ensure that the local emissions are under control,” said Praveen Kumar, regional officer, UPPCB, Noida

According to the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB), the air quality index (AQI), on a scale of 0 to 500, for Noida was 450 or ‘severe’ on Thursday against 345 or ‘very-poor’ a day earlier. The average PM2.5 for Noida was 372 microgrammes per cubic metres, which is nine times the safe limits, while the PM10 were 571.46 units, also over nine times the safe limits.

For Greater Noida, the AQI was 457 or ‘severe’ a day earlier against 368 a day earlier. The PM2.5 for the city was recorded at 400.65 units -- ten times the safe limits, while the PM10 were 620.89 units – also ten times the safe limits.