There seems to be no end to the debate over Supreme Court’s ban on sale of crackers in the National Capital Region (NCR). The ban has been reinstated till November 1 to prevent toxic haze that covered Delhi after Diwali and aims to assess the impact of the move on the region’s alarming air pollution levels.
The Apex court order came in light of worsening pollution in the last fortnight, with PM2.5 levels rising by up to 11 times between September 22 and October 8. However, this dramatic rise could primarily be attributed to the crop burning in Haryana and Punjab, which shot up considerably in the last two weeks. Weather has played its part, too. On most days of October so far, winds have been blowing from north to southeast, bringing haze and toxins into Delhi.
Last year, air quality was in the “severe“ category in the festive season, according to the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research, with an AQI of 443 on October 30 (Diwali day). It shot up to 472 the next day , before dropping slightly -recording an AQI of 392 on November 1.
An IIT Kanpur study submitted to Delhi government in January 2016 found that during Diwali, PM levels nearly double from the average level and organic content of PM increases more than twice. The report that analysed data over 2013-15, said while PM2.5 levels can shoot up to 600-700 micrograms around Diwali, they averaged around 375 micrograms in winter, and a lower, but still very dangerous, level of 300 micrograms in summer.
The IIT study, also revealed that air quality in NCR is at most affected for a week by firecrackers due to massive spike in potassium and sulphur level. The remainder weeks witness high pollution levels mainly due to road-dust, vehicular pollution and burning of bio-mass as per a report by IIT Kanpur.
A big contributor to Delhi’s air pollution is road dust that accounts for about 35% of tiny particles known as PM 2.5 in the air, followed by vehicles, according to a recent study by the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur.
The other big contributors include domestic cooking, power plants and industries. Vehicle emissions account for an average of 25% PM 2.5 levels, going up to 36% in the winters.
Trucks and two-wheelers account for larger chunks of PM 2.5 pollution than passenger cars’ contribution of 14-15% to overall vehicle emissions.
On Diwali day in 2013, the IIT report points out, PM2.5 levels crossed 600 micrograms at the Rohini monitoring station but they fell to around 350 the very next day—after many days of ups and downs, they crossed 700 micrograms on November 23. The Okhla monitoring station recorded PM2.5 levels of 900 on Diwali on November 3, 2013, but a dramatic fall to 300 the day after and a rise to 700 on November 22. PM2.5 levels rose to 600 on April 23, 2014 at the Rohini station and to 650 on April 8 at Okhla.
So if we place a ban expecting to curb pollution by disallowing its sale on Diwali, what’s the plan for controlling it in summer. There is no denying that crackers are part of the problem but it is of little help when we see the larger picture. More than anything, Delhi’s air pollution is a result of multiple anthropogenic and natural causes. Instead of a knee-jerk response, we should rather look for the long-term solution like regulating the manufacturing of crackers and lay down standards for enforcement.
