The Supreme Court’s attempt to “try out at least one Diwali without firecrackers” by imposing blanket ban on the sale of firecrackers in Delhi and National Capital Region in the light of deteriorating air quality seems to have failed as bursting of firecrackers growing intense as festivities picked up tempo late on Thursday.
Though Diwali evening started off relatively quieter than previous years, thick haze and noise engulfed the city as frenzied celebrations picked up with relentless bursting of firecrackers till the wee hours of Friday.
Sources claimed that as it grew dark, some shopkeepers were able to sell firecrackers, albiet clandestinely. People seemed to have run out of patience when the quieter dark sky slowly started glowing with firecrackers and went out in search for the same successfully. Some revellers, however, had purchased firecrackers from outside Delhi-NCR.
Though air pollution levels in Delhi were in the “severe” band at all four of the Capital’s monitoring centres on Friday, the situation was better as compared to the day after Diwali last year. It could be due to wind speed, which was up to 11 km per hour on Friday, as compared to 1 km per hour on the day after Diwali in 2016. And good news for a choking Capital is that private weather monitoring agency Skymet has predicted that dry winds attaining speeds of between 15 and 20 km per hour blowing from a north-westerly direction over the NCR region would ease air pollution further.
If one goes by SAFAR’s forecast, post-Diwali air will not be as poor as last year, which was the worse in at least three decades. It said a host of favourable meteorological conditions are helping prevent smoke-filled air from the agricultural belt of Haryana and Punjab from entering the national Capital.
According to Environment Scientist, weather and climate play important roles in determining patterns of air quality. “Wind speed and temperature both are responsible for the level of concentration of SPM particles in air, this year, both the factors are favourable,” said an environmentalist.
Had that not been the case, Delhi’s air, already saturated with pollutants, would have turned deadlier.
Meanwhile, the 24-hour rolling average of PM2.5 and PM10, ultrafine particulates which are up to 30 times tinier than the width of a human hair, were 424 and 571 micrograms per cubic metre (µg/m3) respectively, multiple times higher than the safe limits of 60 and 100 (µgm-3)
According to Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data, the air quality index in Delhi and adjoining Gurugram and Noida satellite towns was recorded “very poor” at 15 monitoring stations, where it ranged from 339 to 390. The index value between 300 and 400 is considered “very poor” that can cause respiratory illness on prolonged exposure.
It measured above severe level (401-500) in at least three places of Delhi.
The severe level means that air pollution can even affect healthy people and seriously impact those with existing diseases.
The pollution indicator of state-run System of Air Quality Forecasting and Research (SAFAR) turned a deep shade of brown, indicating ‘severe’ air quality in the city during early hours of the day, which may affect healthy people and seriously impact those with existing respiratory or cardiovascular diseases.
The US embassy’s pollution monitor recorded ‘hazardous’ air quality with the index scoring an alarming 878, which the mission considers “beyond its air quality index” (AQI), which ends at 500.
But unlike previous years, the run-up to Diwali festivities was much cleaner this time. Even the Diwali evening was relatively quiet and promising, suggesting that the ban on sale of firecrackers in the Delhi-NCR region imposed by the apex court has worked.
This was captured by the CPCB which had Delhi’s AQI (air quality index) at 319, which is considered ‘very poor’, for October 20. However, since the figure was released at 5 pm, it could not quite record what followed thereafter.
The online indicators of pollution monitoring stations in the city glowed red, indicating a ‘very poor’ air quality as the volume of ultra fine particulates PM2.5 and PM10, which enter the respiratory system and manage to reach the bloodstream, sharply rose from around 7 pm on Thursday.
The line graphs of the pollution data of the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) stations were telling.
In station after station, the volume of PM2.5 and PM10 built up rapidly around 7 pm and peaked post midnight, soaring upto 10 times above the safe 24-hour limits.
For example, the RK Puram monitoring station recorded PM2.5 and PM10 at 878 and 1,179 micrograms per cubic metre at around 11 pm. The monitors stopped working after midnight, suggesting that the pollutants had gone through the roof.
While it is difficult to quantify the immediate effect of the ban on firecrackers, residents across the national capital felt the beginning was promising with neighbourhoods reporting much lesser noise and smoke till about 6 pm, compared to the previous years.
The situation was similar, if not worse, in the neighbouring regions of Delhi such as Gurugram, Noida and Ghaziabad, where crackers were burst as usual, raising question marks on the efficacy of the administration in enforcing the apex court’s ban.
The Supreme Court-appointed Environment Pollution Prevention and Control Authority (EPCA), which is empowered to enforce the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) to combat air pollution in Delhi-NCR, kicked off a series of preventive measures on October 17. Measures under the GRAP’s ‘very poor’ and ‘severe’ categories, which include a ban on diesel generator sets, have come into effect and will remain in force till March 15.