NEW DELHI: Analysis shows that Delhi remained the most polluted city in India despite different measures taken by the government and lesser paddy stubble burning events in Punjab and Haryana in November.
The monthly average PM2.5 concentration of 249 µg/m³, the highest November pollution level for the city since 2017 despite the government pressing Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP). This empowered the government to take strict measures like school closures, prohibition over outside physical activities, work from home and others.
However, the decision support system reported that there were no impacts of GRAP as pollution levels from vehicles were similar to non-GRAP periods raising concerns about the effectiveness of GRAP implementation.
According to the analysis by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) found that November saw increasing pollution in the country, with 159 cities (out of 268 cities) breaching PM2.5 National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) of 60 µg/m³. Moreover, only one city (Aizawl) complied with the World Health Organization’s standard of 15 µg/m³.
The November PM2.5 average was 2.2 times higher than October’s 111 µg/m³. Delhi recorded 20 days in the ‘Very Poor’ (121-250 µg/m³) category and 10 days in the ‘Severe’ (>250 µg/m³) category.
The Decision Support System reported that the transport sector's contribution to Delhi’s PM2.5 remained at least 20%, similar to non-GRAP periods, raising concerns about the effectiveness of GRAP’s on-ground implementation.
Further, it was observed that there was a record reduction in paddy stubble burning events (37,602) this year in November in Punjab and Haryana which contributed lower to PM2.5 levels. However, 28 cities in Delhi NCR exceeded the NAAQS limit this November. Only six out of these 28 cities were included in the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) – Ghaziabad, Hajipur, Bahadurgarh, Gurgaon, Noida, Hapur, Sonipat, Byrnihat, and Bhiwani were identified as the second to tenth most polluted cities in India in descending order.
According to the CREA report, Haryana contributed four cities to India’s top 10 most polluted list, followed by three from Uttar Pradesh and one each from Bihar, Assam, and Delhi. With the exception of Chennai and Bangalore, all other megacities such as Delhi, Mumbai, and Kolkata exceeded PM2.5 NAAQS in November.
“This highlights that the pollution extends beyond Delhi NCR and it would require a regional airshed level approach to curb pollution levels in the Indo gangetic region,: said Manoj Kumar of CREA.
