Environment Minister Gopal Rai on Monday said that Delhiites are working hard round the clock to curb pollution level in the Capital but stubble burning has remained the biggest contributor of pollution in the city in the run-up to Deepavali.
He said that the Delhi government was doing everything in its capacity to curb pollution but its hands were tied when it comes to stopping toxic haze from stubble burning from polluting the city.
“Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar says stubble burning contributes 4%-6%, whereas statistics clearly state 40% contribution on Sunday, which was the highest this season,” Mr. Rai said.
He requested the Centre to take some action rather than just making a commission, because “pollution combined with the current pandemic can cause catastrophic consequences for the people of Delhi”.
“Pollution is not defined by State boundaries, it is defined by air sets. It has an air set of around 300 km, which means pollution will affect the radius of 300 km. People are being ignorant of this fact. Collective effort is required to deal with this issue,” Mr. Rai added.
He was speaking after launching an awareness drive against pollution and its damaging effects. “We are launching the ‘Red Light’ campaign in all 272 wards to reduce the local sources of pollution in Delhi,” he said.
Stubble burning
It is repeatedly being said that the rising pollution level is due to stubble burning in neighbouring States, and the response we received from the Central government and States was that there is no alternative to stubble burning, Mr. Rai said. “We want to tell the States and the Central government that there is a cheaper alternative to stubble burning, which is a bio-decomposer developed by the Pusa Research Institute that has shown extremely positive results,” he added.
Meanwhile, the air quality in the Capital on Monday improved and settled in the ‘poor’ category due to high wind speeds. The average air quality index was 295, according to the CPCB.
Delhi’s AQI on Sunday was 364 (very poor).
According to the air quality monitor of Ministry of Earth Sciences, SAFAR, the share of stubble burning in Delhi’s pollution was 16% on Monday.
“Increased local surface wind speed and the decrease in the strength of night time inversion have improved dispersion conditions and are likely to influence positively for the next two days,” the SAFAR bulletin read.
It added that a marginal deterioration towards the middle of the ‘very poor’ category is forecast for Tuesday and Wednesday.