Wednesday was worse than a nightmare for the residents of the national Capital, as they were forced to breathe toxic-laden air with pollutants touching calamitous levels, prompting the Delhi Government to shut schools till Sunday.
The hazardous haze hanging over Delhi impacted the visibility level. Many places witnessed near zero visibility, even as air quality slid further and crossed dangerous mark by several notches.
The Air Quality Index (AQI) of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) recorded 487 on a scale of 500, indicating “severe” levels of pollution. The level of pollutants in the air is so high that can affect even healthy people and “seriously impact” those with existing diseases, said experts.
Residents complained of heavy breathing and watery eyes as the smog did not even spare living rooms or underground metro stations.
If the condition persists for next 48 hours, the city Government is ready to roll out odd-even scheme, said Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot.
As the pollution levels hit “severe plus”, reminding of the “1952 Great Smog of london”, lieutenant-Governor Anil Baijal held an emergency meeting and announced immediate halt on civil construction works and ban on the entry of trucks, except those carrying essential commodities to the city.
As hospitals recorded a surge in the number of patients complaining of respiratory problems, the Delhi Government issued an emergency health advisory. The Government said people should stay indoors as much as possible as the “smog is poisonous” and may create many health hazards like asthma attacks and other breathing complications.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted it is “an emergency” and that his office is “continuously trying” to fix a meeting with his counterparts in Punjab and Haryana on stubble burning, a process that leads to air pollution in Delhi.
The Government also announced that all schools in the national Capital would remain closed till Sunday in view of the “unbearable” air pollution.
However, the Supreme Court-empowered Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA)’s member Sunita Narain cautioned against putting too much hope in temporary solutions such as closure of schools. She deplored the “lack of political will” in executing decisions such as slashing metro fares and hiking parking fees as announced by the EPCA on Tuesday.
The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation limited (DMRC) remained non-committal on slashing fares temporarily citing technicalities. Hoever, it said it would run an additional 186 train trips from Thursday.
The civic bodies are also yet to announce any hike in parking fees. “Cities and administrations need to implement solutions and take bold decisions to reduce emissions. The range of actions recommended and directed by the EPCA is targeted at doing just that, and it is now up to the political leadership of Delhi and NCR to take their implementation forward,” Narain, who is also the chief of the Centre For Science and Environment (CSE), said.
Meanwhile, in incidents of pile-ups at multiple locations on the busy Yamuna Expressway over 20 vehicles collided and around 22 people suffered minor injuries during the morning hours when visibility was a measly 10 metres.
According to the forecast of the Union Ministry of Earth Sciences’ System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research SAFAR), the 24-hour-average concentrations of PM2.5 and PM10 will be around 420 and 678 micrograms per cubic metre.
The secretary of the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Madhavan Rajeevan, said the smog in Delhi is not localised, but spread across the entire region. He said the conditions would persist for another two-three days.
The SAFAR suggested that the “sudden” intrusion of pollutant-laden smoke from neighbouring Punjab and Haryana from the night of November 6 led to the spike as the high quantity of moisture in the city’s air trapped the particulates.
“There is absolutely no wind movement. Moreover, temperature is also not coming down substantially which could have resulted in the conversion of the fog into water and subsequent dispersion of the suspended particulates,” CPCB scientist Dipankar Saha explained.
Apart from Delhi, neighbouring Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon and Noida were also in the ‘severe’ category.