This article foregrounds India's challenges: an increase in air pollution and a decrease in air quality standards, mainly after Diwali, and what kind of solutions we should adopt to combat this crisis. On Diwali, many oil lamps or candles are lit up that symbolise victory over darkness; along with this, fireworks are set off as part of the celebrations - their smoke causing pollution that takes days to clear. As people celebrated Diwali with late-night crackers despite being banned in multiple cities, on the next day in Delhi, along with many Indo Gangetic plan's cities, AQI rose severely.
Thick smog turned daylight into dusk in and around Delhi, with the car and building lights only barely penetrating the murk and the ubiquitous detritus of firecrackers coating the ground. Delhi's pollution index surged to 463 on a scale of 500. The air concentration of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) rose to as high as 1000 micrograms per cubic meter at some stations. Still, according to standard guidelines, it should not increase by more than 24 micrograms per cubic meter.
Airborne PM2.5 can cause cardiovascular and respiratory diseases such as lung cancer. And, in India, toxic air kills more than a million people annually. A 2020 report by Swiss organization IQAir found 22 of the world's 30 most polluted cities were in India, with New Delhi ranked the most polluted capital globally. The same year, the Lancet said 1.67 million deaths were attributable to air pollution in India in 2019, including almost 17,500 in the capital New Delhi alone.
Why does air pollution rise in October in Delhi and around it each year?
Farmers' subtle crop burning is often accused of, but crop stubble fires contribute only 35% of Delhi's smog. Air pollution in Delhi and the Indo Gangetic Plains is a complex phenomenon dependent on various factors. Every year in October, Delhi's air quality starts to dip, and a war of words between different governments erupts.
Increases in Air pollution of Delhi and Indo-Gangetic plains are mainly due to three reasons:-
- Input of air pollutants
- Weather factors
- Local conditions
As soon as the monsoon withdraws, the predominant direction of wind changes to northwest. During summers, the movement of the wind is northwestern, and storms carry dust from Rajasthan and sometimes Pakistan and Afghanistan. According to a report published by scientists at the National Physical Laboratory, 72 percent of Delhi's wind in winters comes from the northwest, and only 28 percent comes from the Indo-Gangetic plains. In 2017, a storm that originated in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait led to a drastic dip in Delhi's air quality in a couple of days.
Temperature dip is one of the reasons for the rise in air pollution. In the winter season, when the temperature starts decreasing, it lowers the thermal inversion height. The pollutants will not disperse after a certain height and the concentration of pollutants in the air increases.
At this time, farmers of Haryana, Punjab, and parts of UP are prepare a new sowing cycle, and stubble burning is one of the easiest way of getting rid of the straw stubble that remains after grains, such as rice and wheat, have been harvested. In 2015 IIT Kanpur and SAFAR released a report stating that Delhi's air pollution contains 17-26% of all particle matter from biomass burning.
Other prominent sources of pollution in Delhi and solutions to this hazardous problem
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The central and state government had come up with many policies to control air pollution, but most policies were implemented poorly. Like every year, firecrackers are banned in Delhi by either the government or the supreme court. Still, there are many firecrackers sold due to lack of implementationsss. So these policies should be implemented strictly.
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These policies should not be applied to Delhi only, but other state governments around Delhi should also apply them.
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Vehicular pollution is the second biggest cause of pollution in winters. According to the IIT Kanpur study, 20 % of PM 2.5 comes from vehicular pollution in winters. Government should promote more and more Electric vehicles and the use of public transport.
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Some minor offenses like garbage burning, leaf burning, dust control, etc., are left unseen, but these largely contribute to spreading pollutants should be prohibited.
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Lack of good solid waste management, poor dust control, and construction waste management. Government should improve it.
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Delhi and its surrounding states have a lot of agencies for controlling air pollution, but due to lack of coordination, they used to delay in response. The response system to check pollution should be quick and urgent to improve the results.
Among the above, all points majority of them are the suggestions that government should follow to control the air pollution or the rise of AQI, but instead of these, there are several steps an ordinary person can follow on a personal basis to control it like,
- Use of Public transport instead of a personal vehicle.
- Not only on Diwali, but try to avoid using firecrackers on other occasions and festivals.
- Try to use more and more bicycles.
- Promote electric and CNG vehicles over conventional vehicles
- Team Prakriti, IIT Kanpur