Gearing up for likely pollution in the national capital in the coming months, Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai on Monday launched the Green War Room at Delhi Secretariat for better implementation of Winter Action Plan against smog.  Drone mapping this year will be used to analyse date at the War Room.

He said due to the steps taken by the Delhi government, a huge reduction in pollution has been recorded. While the number of polluted days was 243 in 2016, it has come down to 159 in 2023. Delhi's air pollution has reduced by 34.6%. As part of the public awareness campaign, a "Harit Kalash Yatra" will be taken out in Connaught Place on October one, added the Environment Minister.

Addressing media persons, the minister said winter is round the corner in Delhi. With the onset of winter, the environment in Delhi becomes increasingly unfavourable. The wind speed is going to decrease gradually, the rain will stop, and the temperature is going to fall.

Under such unfavourable conditions, the level of pollution in Delhi starts going up. Owing to these three factors, the gases that otherwise get dissolved, reach the ground. And because of that the level of air pollution starts increasing.

Gopal Rai said under such unfavourable conditions, all we can do is to keep under check the sources of pollution that cause PM 10 and PM 2.5 in the atmosphere. To control it, the Delhi government in collaboration with the people of Delhi has put in place a 21-point Winter Action Plan.

The Environment Minister said the additional feature of the Green War Room this year is to analyse data with drone mapping. Secondly, the data of the Real Time Source Apportionment Study, which is done at our centre at Deendayal Upadhyay Marg, will also be analysed from the Green War Room. Thirdly, analysis of the satellite data on the smoke produced from stubble burning at various places will also be done on daily basis at the war room.

Gopal Rai said like the previous years, the entire Delhi will be connected with the Green War Room through the Green Delhi app.

Rai said the war room will monitor hotspots because they are  the biggest hurdle in the pollution level of Delhi in winters as they increase the total AQI of Delhi. When the AQI of Delhi is 200, the AQI at 13 hotspots is 125 to 150 more than normal. This makes the AQI level of the whole of Delhi jump.

The Environment Minister said the data of 24-hour monitoring stations that have been set up at different places in Delhi from where we monitor PM10 and PM 2.5 will be analysed at the Green War Room.