Delhi residents, who right now are battling air pollution, can heave a sigh of relief in the coming month as environment scientists and ecologists have revealed that concentration of pollutants in March and September is comparatively low and air quality could improve.
According to the scientists of Council for Scientist and Industrial Research (CSIR), the finest quality of air can be experienced in these two months. Dr SN Singh, Principal Scientist, National Physical laboratory (NPl), CSIR told The Pioneer, “Fluctuation in mass concentrations of pollutant values varies according to weather pattern in Delhi but there is evidence in our study that pollutant goes down in these months.”
The CSIR scientist said, “In winter, air volume goes down while emission goes up and because thermal inversion layers of warm air trap cold air, which is close to ground, the process prevents pollutants from getting scattered in the atmosphere,” he said.
The scientist said in March, the dominant pollutant component is local pollution. “After March, windblown depth is high because of dust storms originating from Rajasthan, which is another contributory factor in air pollution. In September (post monsoon), the wind speed is high and there is no biomass burning activities occurred in National Capital Region. So the casual participants in city air are less,” the scientist added.
“The ventilate coefficient is low in winter which leads to poor dispersal of pollutants causing stagnation and poor air quality leading to possible pollution related hazards in winter months while in March it is normal,” he added.
Environmentalist Gopal Krishan said in March and September chances are high that air pollution might decrease.