NEW DELHI: In view of the severe spike in pollution levels post-Diwali, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) in a meeting of the air pollution task force on Friday advised government, private offices and other establishments to reduce vehicle usage by at least 30 per cent. This could be done by working from home, car-pooling and optimising field activities, it said.
“As per inputs received from the India Meteorological Department (IMD) there were sudden unforeseeable low winds that resulted in severe air quality on Friday. Senior IMD scientist V K Soni said that the plunge in air quality might be attributed to sudden calming of winds, which could not be captured by the model,” the minutes of the task force meeting stated.
The IMD has also indicated that air quality is likely to improve from Friday evening due to increased wind speed and will remain in the ‘very poor’ zone over the next two days, it said. As per an analysis by the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC), firecracker emissions on Diwali night majorly added to the existing load of pollutants.
Senior officials said that while stubble burning smoke is a macro aspect, which does not allow dispersion of pollutants, local firework emissions are trapped in the air with a much higher concentration. While all major pollution hotspots saw a multifold spike in PM 2.5 levels, Jahangirpuri station saw the steepest spike. “On Diwali, the 24-hour average concentration for PM 2.5 ranged from 315µg/m3 to 960µg/m3. Maximum average concentration was observed at Jahangirpuri breaching the 1000ug/m3 mark,” it said.
It highlighted that trans-boundary movement of pollutants from stubble burning saw a huge increase in the last three days. Stubble burning incidents ranged from 50 to 1,000 in October last week, while first four days of November saw burning incidents go from 2,000 to 3,418 with change in wind direction from easterly to northwesterly on November 4 evening.
