Even Before The Onset Of Winter, Delhi's Air Quality Has Started To Deteriorate
The north Indian winter is still over a month away, but the air quality in Delhi has already started to deteriorate.?For the past few days, the air quality in Delhi and NCR cities had been deteriorating.
On Tuesday, the air quality index of Delhi¡¯s most polluted hot spot, Anand Vihar, reached the severe category. According to the Central Pollution Control Board bulletin on air quality, the AQI of Anand Vihar reached 418 on the second day of the week.
Worst air quality since monsoon
The 24-hour average AQI, according to the Central Pollution Control Board was 182 on Monday, pushing the air quality under the ¡®moderate¡¯ category.
According to the Decision Support System of the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, the transport sector accounted for 14 to 22 per cent of the PM2.5 pollution in Delhi on Monday.
This was the worst air quality recorded in Delhi since the start of the monsoons.
Just had the first good air quality day
The AQI is likely to remain in in ¡®poor¡¯ category on Wednesday. Air quality is likely to improve marginally on Thursday but will remain in ¡®poor¡¯ to ¡®moderate¡¯ category.
An AQI between zero and 50 is considered 'good', 51 and 100 'satisfactory', 101 and 200 'moderate', 201 and 300 'poor', 301 and 400 'very poor', and 401 and 500 'severe'.?
Incidentally, the AQI in Delhi started to worsen just days after the national capital had a ¡®good¡¯ air day on September 16.
A sustained spell of light rain in the capital had yielded the first "good" air quality day of the year on Friday.
Monsoon withdrawing from Delhi
Monsoon has not withdrawn from Delhi yet and the national capital is likely to receive light rainfall for another four more days, according to an India Meteorological Department (IMD).
A combination of factors, including local pollutants, vehicular and industrial emissions, stubble burning in neighbouring states and slow wind speed in winters make the air toxic in Delhi and adjoining areas every year.
Delhi govt's plan to fight stubble burning?
With the stubble burnings about to start, the Delhi government has said that it will spray the Pusa bio-decomposer on 5,000 acres of basmati and non-basmati paddy fields to prevent the crop residual burning in the capital.
Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai said the bio-decomposer will also be sprayed on farmlands in Punjab on a trial basis.
The Pusa bio-decomposer developed by the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) is a microbial solution that can turn paddy straw into manure in 15-20 days.
It was sprayed on 4,300 acres of land belonging to 844 farmers in Delhi last year. In 2020, 310 farmers had used it on 1,935 acres of land.
According to officials, spraying the bio-decomposer costs just Rs 30 per acre.
In 2021, a third-party audit conducted to ascertain the impact of the microbial solution in Delhi showed that it was 95 per cent effective.
According to the IARI, Punjab reported 71,304 farm fires between September 15 and November 30 last year and 83,002 farm fires in the corresponding period in 2020.
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