Dust from West fouls up Delhi air

Jasjeev Gandhiok | TNN | Updated: Apr 14, 2020, 10:04 IST

Picture used for representational purpose only

NEW DELHI: Dry and arid conditions have led to a spike in air pollution in the region with Delhi recording three ‘moderate’ days of the past four days. System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR) has also forecast rise in dust transport from the western parts of India in the next 48 hours, which could push the air quality to the ‘poor’ category.
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On Monday, the city saw a ‘moderate’ day at 126 — the highest so far this week. Delhi’s air has largely been in the ‘satisfactory’ range during the lockdown, with one ‘good’ day on March 28 when the AQI fell to 45.

“Lifting of local dust is expected to increase, while the ratio of PM2.5 to PM10 has declined significantly, indicating missing sources of fossil fuel emissions and an enhanced role of natural summer dust. The SAFAR model suggests AQI is likely to deteriorate and stay in the moderate category on Tuesday. The rise in dust transport is expected by Wednesday, which can further deteriorate AQI to the higher end of moderate to poor category. This forecast considers an estimated reduction in local emissions due to lockdown,” said SAFAR on Monday.
Kuldeep Srivastava, scientist, IMD and head Regional Weather Forecasting Centre, said crop burning was not a problem yet, while the current primary pollutant was PM10. “Local dust is being raised and also coming from Rajasthan. Due to dry conditions, we can expect pollution levels to rise in the next few days,” he added.
The hourly PM10 concentration too touched around 248 micrograms per cubic metre at 8am on Monday — almost 2.5 times the safe standard of 100 micrograms. The overall 24-hour average of PM 10 has also spiked across NCR in the past 24 hours.