Air quality in Delhi is deteriorating again as levels of particulate matter (PM) has gone up three times higher than the prescribed standards on Thursday. SAFAR (System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research), a unit of Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) showed values of PM unusual high at different places in Capital.
In Dhirpur area of North district, the value of PM 2.5 was recorded at 342 µgm-3 and PM 10 was 306 µgm-3, however, values of other pollutants were measured relatively low in the city atmosphere.
Values of pollutants have taken impulsive jump in other areas in city too while concentrations were noticed very low in last week. In many places concentration values of PM 10 was recorded low although PM 2.5 was measured high in every area of city be it inner or border region of the Capital. Places, which are enriched with greenery Mathura Road and RK Puram were observed polluted as value of PM 2.5 was 338 and 313(µgm-3).
Speaking to The Pioneer, Professor Krishan Kumar, School of Environmental Sciences, JNU, said besides vehicular emissions on city roads, loose soil parallel to the roads are contributing in polluting air, “Trees should be planted parallel to city roads to control the escalated values of PM 2.5 in the air,” said Professor Kumar.
Scientists from MoES also said besides metrological parameters, city needs effective plantation. A senior Indian Metrological Department (IMD) official said although wind speed in North-West direction is zero, henceforth, there is no suspension of PM has measured. “It is the observable fact that wind speed and adequate amount of rain contributes lot to wash out the suspended particulate matter but to control the polluting factors, plantations is the need of hour in city like Delhi,” said IMD scientist.
Meanwhile, Air Quality Index (AQI) of US embassy, MoES, Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) have red-flagged the Capital air.
According to the Met officials humidity in city air was recorded at 78 per cent while maximum temperature was 26 degree Celsius. Fifteen north-bound trains were running late although flight operations at Delhi Airport remained normal. On Saturday, the maximum temperature rose to settle at 26.2 degrees Celsius while the minimum temperature was recorded at 8.6 degrees Celsius.