[drmohitg]

And it is time for the yearly activation of this thread. Winters are here and as expected the air quality over the Delhi NCR territory continues to fall rapidly with each passing day. The reason is exactly the same as always and i.e. the rampant farmland stubble burning across the neighboring states of Punjab, Haryana and UP. I just came to Punjab 3 days back from Delhi and along the entire route, I could see farms right next to the highway burning merrily. There is absolutely nothing that the government has done, whether it is state or the centre. They will now as always have their meetings, eat the free tea and samosas, blame each other, and eventually form a committee to address the issue. As a token gesture, the Delhi government or the NGT would bring back the idiotic car rationing scheme called the "odd-even drama" and further harass the citizens. Only this time they have the Coronavirus waiting for people using car-pool and public infrastructure which is clear by the persistently high number of corona cases in Delhi.

It really pains me to see the lackluster attitude of various governments. They are choosing to let the citizens suffer and die eventually as a result of the serious short and long-term health problems such polluted air causes. I have lost all hope now as year after year, they fail to do anything at all to address this internal issue. And yet they don't shy away from making big claims of becoming a world power. I so want to vent out using some nice expletives but for the rules of the forum. It is extremely sad to see everyone just playing with our lives in this manner.

Today's AQI levels over Delhi are beyond 600! That is 12 times over acceptable levels. 12 times!!

They don't lose a second before claiming that the coronavirus was an unknown entity that no one knew about. And hence it somehow justifies whatever has followed from the various decisions that the governments have taken. And I am ready to give them some benefit of doubt there. But this was known. It was known all along that it will come in the month of October. It is known that it will again come next year and then the year after and continue to come till either there is something done to counter it or there is nothing left to save. If nothing else, then please add another tax and charge us. Take the money from us and put it to use to make sure that no one burns their farms anymore citing financial excuses. After all what am I going to do with the money when my lungs won't be able to function anymore. Do something at least, something more than just banning cars from running.

The current situation is simply unacceptable! It is heartwrenching to see the murky sky as soon as you step outside. This needs to be solved regardless of one's political affiliation as the black smoke won't and doesn't discriminate before killing you.

Sorry for the long rant.

[srini1785]

I guess you have to just grin and bear it. Sorry for saying this.

With the Farm bill issue stoking the fire, I don't see any let down in the near future.

Problem with overpampering a particular profession.

[drmohitg]

Originally Posted by srini1785

I guess you have to just grin and bear it. Sorry for saying this.

With the Farm bill issue stoking the fire, I don't see any let down in the near future.

Problem with overpampering a particular profession.

They will always have an excuse. This year it may be the farm bill. But the end result is that we continue to suffer. And I am sorry to say but "grin and bear" don't apply when it comes to your health. Or else, there was no need of imposing lockdowns and other restrictions by various governments across party lines for covid. So unless one says that all these air quality indices, numbers, recommendations are a farce, people are going to die. On one hand, government after government harps about global warming on international platforms. And here we blindly allow such large volumes of smoke to be produced.

The politicians and social media didn't take a second before criticizing Trump after the final USA presidential debate for his remark that air in India is filthy. But that's the truth. It is outright disgusting.

[Pancham]

Originally Posted by srini1785

I guess you have to just grin and bear it. .

Srini, from your location, it seems you are from Bangalore so you might actually not know the reality here in NCR. I was unaware as well till I moved to Delhi last year. You have to see to believe it. The readings in the air purifiers get maxed out and that is horrifying to say the least. Thousands of plebs from the older gen (parents of people like you and me) die because of this every year.

My colleague's 6 year old son has breathing issues and he gets admitted to the hospital quite routinely during this time of the year.

Originally Posted by drmohitg

The politicians and social media didn't take a second before criticizing Trump after the final USA presidential debate for his remark that air in India is filthy. But that's the truth. It is outright disgusting.

Well, for once Trump is right. Everything but the AQI that we see is a farce. The social media / the politicians trying to criticize another politician for calling India's AQ filthy is another way of caressing naïve citizens' conscious and telling them, "Everything is ok, they don't know anything".

No political comments from my side but the situation is just ridiculous. The problem is everyone will forget about this by Feb-March 2021.

EDIT: Last year my air purifier was stuck in 600 for a couple of hours. I thought it had gone kaput till I checked on the AQ app on my phone and it showed this

[srini1785]

Originally Posted by Pancham

Srini, from your location, it seems you are from Bangalore so you might actually not know the reality here in NCR. I was unaware as well till I moved to Delhi last year. You have to see to believe it.

I fully emphasize with Delhi/ NCR region people. The expression is just a way to express how much helpless ordinary citizens are.

[SPIKE ARRESTOR]

Originally Posted by drmohitg

They will always have an excuse. This year it may be the farm bill. But the end result is that we continue to suffer. And I am sorry to say but "grin and bear" don't apply when it comes to your health.

Very sorry to hear about this air pollution menace for Delhiites, that has reached dangerous levels in the past few years. In 2018 I visited Delhi around this time, and I remember the burning sensation in eyes and black clumpy boogers filled nose I got within few hours outside. This thing is a silent killer.

As residents of Delhi how do you cope up with this problem when you are at home and away? Do you have air purifiers installed at home? Some questions come up in my mind:

1. Delhi Govt. new campaign of 'Red Light On, Gaadi Off' - vehicle pollution causes 5-10 % of total air pollution, why are they not accepting this fact and focusing on reducing other pollutant sources as well?

2. I heard they installed some anti smog guns / smog control towers (?), do these measures help reduce the smog?

3. Delhi Govt. has recently imposed heavy fines, closed Thermal power plants, restricted use of Diesel powered generator sets. Pusa also came up with a solution to convert stubble into organic manure. Did these measures help in anyway bring down the pollution?

4. Do people from other neighboring states also suffer due to this problem or is this problem more prominent in Delhi?

5. Kejriwal Ji tells that pollution can be controlled in 4 years, not sure how..

I just cannot imagine, how Governments (State and Central) sitting in Delhi, and witnessing this all first hand can be ignorant to such a critical aspect needed for human life - clean air. If not for this problem, I would have also moved to Delhi for professional reasons. But the problem seems to have gone from bad to worse.

The handling of COVID-19 was a fiasco, and now with air pollution and winter approaching not sure what destruction the virus might cause. I hope they do something before it gets too late.

Spike

[drmohitg]

Originally Posted by SPIKE ARRESTOR

As residents of Delhi how do you cope up with this problem when you are at home and away? Do you have air purifiers installed at home?

Many people do have them. But at the end of the day, I don't think any machine can bring that level of 600+ to under 50 unless you seal all windows and doors and not venture out at all. The bottom line is everyone is biding their time to face this ticking time bomb.

1. Delhi Govt. new campaign of 'Red Light On, Gaadi Off' - vehicle pollution causes 5-10 % of total air pollution, why are they not accepting this fact and focusing on reducing other pollutant sources as well?

Oh, they blame cars for everything. Yet the public transport options have stayed the same both in terms of access, comfort as well as security. The last mile connectivity is another issue. And these issues are not new.

Most signals do not have a timer or have a malfunctioning one. Or the timer is located at a place where everyone cannot see it. The usual India problems. In the real world, you wouldn't save much on fuel. Plus the air cons ensure that beyond a few seconds, the car needs to be started or auto-starts in case of engine on-off equipped cars.

2. I heard they installed some anti smog guns / smog control towers (?), do these measures help reduce the smog?

Again doubt that unless they put up such towers in the same numbers as mobile phone towers, the air quality would not improve. You are talking about such a large area. What will a few towers do when thousands of acres of farmlands are spewing smoke in the capital's direction.

3. Delhi Govt. has recently imposed heavy fines, closed Thermal power plants, restricted use of Diesel powered generator sets. Pusa also came up with a solution to convert stubble into organic manure. Did these measures help in anyway bring down the pollution?

All for optics. Either they are too little, or practically impossible to implement. Plus at the end of the day, you gotta show some willingness to address the issue on the ground. If the farms continue to burn, no machine can deal with that much smoke.

4. Do people from other neighboring states also suffer due to this problem or is this problem more prominent in Delhi?

AQI is horrible across Ludhiana (an industrial town in Punjab) and many cities in UP. Delhi gets highlighted since it is the capital and also apparently the winter ensures that the wind patterns bring al this smog into Delhi and it gets trapped here. There were theories being flouted along about how the farming cycles have been disturbed in the neighboring states to appease certain Agri companies who marketed their seeds. These seeds need a different sowing and cultivation time cycle and now the harvesting and this stubble burning happens in October which then combined with the winterly winds, end up choking the NCR region. Apparently, before this burning happened in the month of August but due to favorable weather conditions, it used to disperse and not get stagnated. I am not sure what to believe or what not to but this does merit the question as to why has this only started becoming a problem in last 5-6 years. Stubble burning has been going on since ages but has only started causing this visible effect now.

5. Kejriwal Ji tells that pollution can be controlled in 4 years, not sure how..

All words and no action. And this issue involved multiple states. Unless they all come together, this cannot be solved.

[Cessna182]

This year, ICAR made a solution to turn wastes into good manure. Even that was ignored.

The same story every year. Folks in Punjab and Haryana burn stubble and the air becomes dangerous in the NCR. Scientists have proven this relationship between stubble burning and the pollution chaos. Yet, it persists.

Political powers are happy blaming it on the NCR govt, without realising that 10 months of the year things are okay, and only the stubble burning is the cause. Maybe they will ban petrol cars older than 10 years next. Sab Changa Si.

[fordday]

I used to read about this problem from last couple of years but did not know that the air quality has become so disastrous. Being an asthmatic I cannot imagine going over there in this period and sympathize with the people of Delhi. Hope the govts both Central and Delhi, having majority comfort, will find and implement a solution quickly.

I did a casual read about this and found some interesting points. Not taking any sides, but just want to present them for all of us to see the root cause.

Problem started some few years back as drmohitg noted.

To increase food production, govt introduced short stalk breed of rice. It is short but strong. This cannot be used as fodder now, which used to be earlier.

Normal harvesting machine does not cut the stalk deep down. So another type called Super SMS (Straw Management System) need to be used. It is an additional attachment. This costs more in rental terms and extra fuel to run, which increase costs to the farmer. So they avoid using it.

Sowing time for wheat is in Oct-Nov right after paddy is harvested. This window is very less so it needs quick solutions. Burning is least costly most effective quick solution.

Encouraging not to burn paddy stalks caused Pink borer insect to destroy the wheat crop in some cases in previous years.

Please feel free to comment.

[Venkatesh]

It's time to take out bicycles and stop using cars, says SC.

It is time to take out bicycles and stop using "beautiful cars", the Supreme Court said on Thursday while hearing the matter related to pollution caused in Delhi-national capital region (NCR) due to stubble burning in neighbouring states

We would like you to stop using your beautiful cars. Which you won't. We should all go about on bikes -- not motorbikes but bicycles," the CJI observed

Nobody should fall sick because of this pollution and if anybody falls sick we will make you responsible," the bench told Mehta in a lighter vein.

https://auto.hindustantimes.com/auto...976081377.html

[promit]

Read this interesting piece the other day.

Crop burning is far from the only or even the biggest source of pollution in National Capital Territory of Delhi. Crop burning is literally the straw the broke the camel’s back. Source apportionment studies by the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (2015), The Energy and Resources Institute (2018) and the Automotive Research Association of India (2018) all found that major sources of particulate matter pollution (PM2.5 and PM10) during the winter months were biomass and garbage burning in the city, vehicular emission, secondary compounds, industry, and road, construction and demolition dust. Given the episodic nature of crop burning, its share for season works out to 5 per cent—though continuous monitoring on some days it can contribute as much as 44 per cent to the city’s PM2.5 load.

By limiting the efforts to curb pollution to crop residue burning has meant that Delhi and the national capital region have been devoting their efforts to tackling a 5 per cent problem while neglecting the 95 per cent. “If you are looking at averages then crop residue burning contributes around 5 per cent to Delhi's air pollution.


Source - https://m.economictimes.com/news/pol...w/78891537.cms

[atnyia]

I am from a farming family of NCR who has some firsthand knowledge of crop cycles. Paddy straw burning seems to be root cause of the current air pollution issues in the whole of Northern India. Let me chronicle my perspective.

1. Delhi has been a polluted city since the 90s.
2. In the 90s, the root caused used to be :
   • Diesel(often Kerosene adulterated) Red-Line, Blue-Line buses and autos
   • Perennial Bangalore-like traffic jams everywhere.
3. This was resolved by end of last century with CNG buses and autos and infra projects taken up by Delhi Govt to unclog the roads. The fuel adulteration which was rampant, largely reduced. Everyone used to fill fuel from Delhi because it was 'pure'.
4. Simultaneously, another trend was coming up in NCR towns. People were moving away from pulses (Arhar was grown widely before) and other local grains (Maze, millets). The rice was attractive as being a cash crop but not natural due to sandy soil, lesser rains. On a side note, this is the root cause of protests against farm bills in Haryana/Punjab. The govt picks up majority of the grains from Haryana/Punjab.
5. It had two consequences. One was the water table going down all across (which is also an ecological disaster). Second, is the current paddy stubble burning crisis since the arrival of machines since the last decade or so.
6. As long as it was manually cut, there was a brief time when air quality was considerably improved during early 2000s. There was no paddy stubble burning, no diesel public transport, petrol cars were still in vogue. Even we got CNG installed in our Santro in 2007.
7. Then arrived both the oil price shock around end of last decade as well as machines. The number of diesel cars grew disproportionately and farm machines took over the cutting.
8. Since then, it has been only downhill. While in next few years, diesel cars will reduce to a large degree, crop burning doesn't have any viable solution till now. To me, central issue seems to be that people do it, don't suffer the consequences. Air quality considerably improves after crossing Sonipat boundaries in the north. Big cities suffer.
9. There is no political will to solve it because of vote bank issues. Delhi people don't vote in Haryana/Punjab elections.
10. Sad to say, whatever wool government keep pulling in front of the Supreme Court (committees n all), ultimately court only will solve it. If government were to solve it, they would have had by now.

[Venkatesh]

Air pollution caused an estimated 54,000 premature deaths in the New Delhi last year, a higher toll than in any other big global metropolis, according to a study released by Greenpeace Southeast Asia Analysis.

The study by Greenpeace Southeast Asia Analysis and Swiss firm IQAir measured air quality by recording the concentration of poisonous PM2.5 particles, which are less than 2.5 microns in diameter and can cause deadly diseases, including cancer and cardiac problems.

Pollution in Delhi had almost disappeared earlier last year, when the government imposed a nationwide lockdown to contain the coronavirus, but it returned after the government began lifting restrictions at the end of August.

The need of the hour is to rapidly scale up renewable energy, bring an end to fossil fuel emissions and boost sustainable and accessible transport systems," the report said, referring to big cities around the world including in India.

Source

[Sran]

Delhi government bans entry of medium and heavy vehicles in Delhi from October 1, 2022 to February 28, 2023, in view of the possibility of an increase in pollution in the coming winter season. https://mobile.twitter.com/ANI/statu...24541887025152

And some people say that only super educated persons should hold high public office.

What will happen to vegetables, fruits and FMCG items? Who is going to pay for this dumb decision when thousands of crores of rupees will be lost? Things would get costly. How will businessman transport their goods when no trucks will be able to enter to pick them up?

[mayankk]

Originally Posted by Sran

What will happen to vegetables, fruits and FMCG items? ?

These are not banned.