NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India\u2019s capital is set for a \u201cdeadly cocktail\u201d of pollution in coming weeks, a senior government official said, as air quality in the New Delhi area plummeted on Wednesday, alarming doctors and environmentalists.<\/p>\n
The federal government official blamed the deterioration in air quality to a \u201cvery poor\u201d level across much of the city on a fall in temperature and lighter wind, as both seasonal changes allow pollution to accumulate.<\/p>\n
The official – speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation – said air quality would continue to worsen around Diwali, which falls on Nov. 7.<\/p>\n
Pollution levels will be exacerbated as farmers in areas close to Delhi burn crop residue in preparation for new planting and people let off fireworks to mark the Hindu festival.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we come back into the \u2018poor\u2019 category of pollution, it will be a very big achievement.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, air quality in Delhi hit the \u201cvery poor\u201d level at more than half of its monitoring stations, according to the government\u2019s Central Pollution Control Board – the worst set of readings since a dust storm hit the city in June.<\/p>\n
Late last year, Delhi and a large part of northern India were covered in a toxic smog from burning crop waste and the countless firecrackers let off for Diwali, forcing authorities to shut power stations, ban construction and clamp down on garbage burning.<\/p>\n
Despite pressure from health experts, the government this year held off on a wholesale ban on fireworks and has faced criticism for failing to prevent farmers in states neighboring Delhi from burning stubble.<\/p>\n
To curb pollution levels around Diwali, the country\u2019s top court on Tuesday only allowed the use of \u201cgreen\u201d firecrackers, but it was unclear how the rule will be enforced or whether there was such a thing as an environmentally safe firework.<\/p>\n
Despite a government plan to discourage the burning of crop residue by offering to pay up to 80 percent of the cost of certain farm equipment, many farmers are still burning their waste.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday at two monitoring stations in Delhi, the air quality index, an international standard measure of several kinds of poisonous particulate matter, exceeded 600, according to the Delhi Pollution Control Committee.<\/p>\n
That is a dozen times more than a healthy level of 50. Several other stations reported readings above 500.<\/p>\n
Dr J.C. Suri, a consultant in respiratory medicine at Mejeedia Hospital, said he was expecting a spike in admissions of patients with pollution-related health issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, the patient load is similar to usual, but as the air quality deteriorates it is going to increase in the coming weeks,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The World Health Organization said this year India was home to the world\u2019s 14 most polluted cities, with Delhi ranked sixth.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe government has no political will and year after year we get into a narrative around pollution only in the month of October when the situation is really, really bad,\u201d said Vimlendu Jha, an environmentalist who founded the activist group Swechha.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlmost 320 days out of the 365, Delhi\u2019s air quality is in poor condition but there is no conversation around it.\u201d<\/p>\n
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India\u2019s capital is set for a \u201cdeadly cocktail\u201d of pollution in coming weeks, a senior government official said, as air quality in the New Delhi area plummeted on Wednesday, alarming doctors and environmentalists. The federal government official blamed the deterioration in air quality to a \u201cvery poor\u201d level across much of the city on a fall… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2203"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2203\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2204,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2203\/revisions\/2204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}