Jubilee Post News & Views
Dr. Seema Javed
The Delhi government has launched a ‘green war room’ to combat air pollution for 24×7 monitoring and implementation of the Winter Action Plan. Since the national capital’s battle with air pollution is long standing and takes a particular hit in the winters.
Though Delhi’s fight for clean air started in the 1990s. The capital’s captive air pollution from vehicles, industry, construction activities, etc is already very high, according to New Delhi-based think tank Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).
Recently a report released by Respirer Living revealed that- A list of the 10 most polluted cities in the last year shows that Delhi and other
cities in the National Capital Region (NCR) still dominate air pollution rankings Delhi’s air quality improved marginally, yet it was the most polluted city between 1 October 2022 and 30 September 2023, with a PM2.5 concentration of 100.1 micrograms/cubic metre (μg/m3).This is more than thrice the government’s ‘good’ level and 20 times the WHO’s safe limit.
Numerous reforms have been initiated over the years including shifting to cleaner fuels and enhanced fuel efficiency norms. Due to these reforms overall-the number of days with good air quality in Delhi has increased while the number of days with poor to extremely severe air quality has decreased. According to CSE Currently, Delhi enjoys nearly 151 days of good air quality up from about 81 six years ago. But Delhi’s air quality needs to improve substantially to meet the health standards. But as winters approach, Delhi’s air quality takes a dip. Among the Seven cities in the top 10 are in Delhi-NCR.
When Punjab and Haryana farmers start burning rice stubble in the beginning of the winter season, the smoke from their fields add to the captive pollution of Delhi. This increases air pollution in Delhi taking it beyond the severe level.
The war room is able to see how much pollution is there in which area of Delhi. Earlier there were just nine teams allocated, now it has been increased to 17 teams. Nandita Moitra has been made in charge of the same.
