1 week Ago By Akanksha Mishra
New Delhi: Delhi’s air quality remained ‘severe’ for the third consecutive day on Friday, while the temperature dropped to the season’s lowest of 11.2 degrees Celsius. The Stage III of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) came into effect in Delhi National Capital Region from 8 am, as dense fog continued to engulf the city and the air quality index (AQI) remained in the ’severe’ category.
On Tuesday, the air quality index (AQI) was 334 in the city and it shot up to 418 on Wednesday, which is an increase of almost 100 data points. The AQI was 424 on Thursday. “It doesn’t just affect your breathing and lungs, but exacerbates cardiac issues and skin infections too, even in relatively healthy people,” cautions Dr.
Suranjit Chatterjee, senior internal medicine consultant at Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals. “People have already started showing up at hospitals complaining of respiratory illnesses, due to the increased pollution.” While the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) decides to implement GRAP-III, ThePrint looks at the prevailing weather conditions in the city and what additional GRAP-III measures entail.
Also Read: Delhi’s five pollution hotspots The GRAP is a policy implemented in 2016 as a set of emergency measures to combat smog and air pollution in Delhi. The measures are installed by the CAQM, depending on the stage of air pollution the city sees for e.g.
poor, very poor, severe or very severe AQI. All authorities including the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, Central and State Pollution Control Boards, are involved in the carrying out of GRAP measures which restrict construction, transport, waste management and traffic measures. “When the air quality is so severe, it isn’t just people with existing illnesses like asthma or bronchitis that are affected,” said Dr.
Chatterjee. “Even normal people will experience breathlessness, red eyes, irritation and wheezing.” As part of GRAP-III measures, there will be a strict ban on a number of construction activities including earthwork, excavation, demolition, drilling, sewer lines laying, brick laying, road construction, flooring, painting, duster transportation and major welding operations in the city.
Even activities like cementing, painting, varnishing, cutting tiles, water proofing and loading or unloading of “dust-generating materials” will be banned. However, these activities are permitted if the project is for railways, metro, airport, hospitals or other ‘linear’ public road projects. The order issued by CAQM also reads that they will not “permit Inter-State buses from NCR states other than EVs/CNG/BS-VI diesel to enter Delhi.
” Any car or Light Motor Vehicle (LMV) that operates on BS-III petrol or BS-IV diesel from Delhi, Gurgaon, Faridabad, Noida and adjacent areas will not be allowed to operate in the entire NCR. These restrictions are also applicable for trucks and goods carriers, where BS-III and below diesel operated vehicles that are registered outside Delhi won’t be allowed into the city, unless they’re carrying essential goods. To reduce people’s exposure to the polluted air, GRAP-III recommends states to discontinue physical classes for primary school children and shift to online mode, but it is not a mandatory measure.
Similarly, to push people to use more public transport and less cars, the order also says that the government will introduce differential rates to encourage off peak travel.” In case the bad air quality continues and GRAP-IV measures are enforced after AQI above 450, these measures will intensify and more industries will be shut down, including essential and linear construction projects. It would also lead to offices working on 50 percent strength or full work from home, according to GRAP recommendations.
On a personal level, Dr. Chatterjee says that people should avoid being outdoors as much as possible, shifting heavy physical activity like exercising to indoors. Those who can afford it, he says, should definitely opt for air purifiers and masks too.
The GRAP measures by CAQM, too, echo these recommendations, asking people to work from home if possible. Since 10 October, IMD’s biweekly weather forecasts have said that the temperature over North India was at least 2-5 degrees Celsius above what was normal for the season, leading to Delhi seeing a rather warm Diwali too. Warmer temperatures also contribute to less fog and mist, which indirectly reduces pollution as warm air dissipates aerosols and pollutants and doesn’t let it hang in the air for too long.
Even until 12 November, the maximum temperature was between 30-33 degrees Celsius and the minimum remained at 14-19 degrees Celsius, which was more than 3-5 degrees Celsius above normal. On Tuesday morning, Delhi woke up to impenetrable fog, experiencing slightly colder weather too. The fog contributed to bringing down the temperatures, which had been higher than normal for the month of November.
After the fog on 13 November, the maximum temperature in Delhi dropped to 26-28 degrees Celsius, while the minimum temperature dropped to 11-17 degrees Celsius, which is only 1-3 degrees above normal for this season. Apart from the fog conditions across most of North India, stretching from Amritsar to Ayodhya, IMD reported that the wind speed was less than 10kmph which also led to the persistence of smog across the city. “The increased pollution levels are a combination of local emissions as well as increased contribution from stubble burning,” said Sunil Dahiya, founder and lead analyst, think tank Envirocatalysts.
“The stubble burning incidents picked up yesterday coupled with predominant wind direction being north-west, i.e., coming from the Haryana-Punjab side.
” On 13 November, stubble burning was the biggest contributor to Delhi’s air pollution at 30 percent, according to IITM Pune’s Decision Support System (DSS) that monitors Delhi’s air pollution. Highly-polluted stations like Anand Vihar saw more than 400 AQI from the beginning of November, seeing its worst AQI for the month on 13 November at 461. But even places like ITO (408), North Campus (404), and IGI Airport (449) on 14 November recorded ‘severe’ levels of air pollution, with Dwarka seeing one of the worst AQIs in the city at 471 on Thursday.
During winters, the chances of fog and hence smog increase because of a phenomenon called ‘temperature inversion.’ As the ground cools at night, the thin layer of air just above the ground too cools with it, while the air just above it is warmer. So any mist, aerosols and pollutants from various sources trapped in the layer of cool air are unable to escape, since cooler air is denser and cannot rise above warmer air.
Added to this is the fact that the density of pollutants and mist near the surface leads to the blockage of sunlight, which adds to reducing the temperature and at the same time lowering visibility. Maps released by the IMD show north-west India covered in fog, represented in light blue in the map. Data shows that airports like Amritsar, Bareilly, Hindon, and Kushinagar reported 0 visibility on 14 November morning, radically affecting air traffic and flights.
Yet, in terms of pollution the 426 AQI in Delhi remained the worst across the country, with Chandigarh a close second at 412 AQI. “It is obvious that the reduced visibility over Delhi isn’t just fog, it is smog. The pollution levels have touched severe and necessitate the implementation of the GRAP-III measure,” said Dahiya.
(Edited by Tony Rai) Also Read: NYT report echoes Okhla residents’ fears of health risk posed by waste plant. CPCB says ‘panic unnecessary’ var ytflag = 0;var myListener = function() {document.removeEventListener('mousemove', myListener, false);lazyloadmyframes();};document.
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