Delhi: Little change in pollution despite SC push, 310 arrests for bursting crackers

NEW DELHI: Tradition trumped law and concern over air pollution as a large number of Delhiites openly defied the Supreme Court’s guidelines and celebrated Diwali on Wednesday by bursting traditional firecrackers despite a major crackdown.
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While reports suggested fewer crackers were burst this year than in 2017, air quality the day after Diwali was almost as bad.The average AQI recorded on Thursday was 390, at “very poor” level bordering on “severe” and just 13 notches below last year’s post-Diwali level (403). CPCB said early morning pollution post-Diwali this year was higher than last year’s level.

In a first for the capital, police registered 634 cases and arrested 310 people for bursting crackers. The crackdown, however, failed to deter people. Some 2,776kg of banned crackers were seized on Diwali while being clandestinely sold or supplied in some areas.

However, this was just a tenth of the crackers burst across the city on the festive night, according to estimates. Most violators were caught bursting crackers in gated colonies or outside their houses on the basis of complaints by residents. Most of the complaints were received from west and southwest Delhi, while the maximum number of cases were registered in outer Delhi.
Delhi’s air quality on Diwali day oscillated between “poor” and “very poor” as authorities warned of severe rise in pollution even if the fireworks were contained at 50% of last year’s level. On Thursday morning, most air quality monitoring stations across the city had “very poor” to “severe” air quality.
Last year, Delhi had an air quality index of 319 on Diwali day, which falls in the very poor category on Diwali. However, this was much better than 2016 when AQI on Diwali was 431 in severe levels and 343 in 2015. In the wee hours of the day after Diwali 2017, the AQI for Delhi was 340. In 2016, the AQI of the day after was 445 while in 2015 it was 360. This year, it stood at 390.
Showing vastly different AQI levels than the central pollution board, government’s pollution research body, SAFAR, said the AQI in Delhi on Thursday was “severe plus” with a reading of over 500. This was worse than last year’s post-Diwali day but better than the levels in 2016.
“Air quality index entered severe category at 2am early morning on November 8 and will remain severe until late evening of November 11. However, air quality is recovering from afternoon and likely to touch very poor range by night, provided no additional local emissions are added. The contribution of PM 2.5 in PM 10 has increased from 50% (normal) to 70% last night, indicating increased share of locally generated pyrotechnic emissions,” said SAFAR in a report on Thursday.
According to Central Pollution Control Board officials, significant drop in temperature of about 8 degree C, reduced wind speed especially during night were two important factors that might have contributed to delayed dispersion because of which higher PM concentration values are reported during night hours.
“The average mixing height on Diwali day in 2017 and 2018 was in similar range (400–600 m). The average wind speed was also similar (1.6 m/sec) in both the years but the wind speed decreased to 0.8m/sec on Diwali night… Wind direction was from northwest which might have added pollutant load from stubble burning,” a CPCB official said.
The contribution of stubble burning in overall PM2.5 concentration during Diwali this year has been estimated as 10% by IITM.
“More active fire incidences have been reported this year on Diwali (4,203) compared to Diwali of 2017 (1,702). Particulate levels started increasing since 9pm on November 7, and remained quite high during night. The areas represented by monitoring stations at Ashok Vihar, Jahangirpur, Nehru Nagar, Okhla phase II, Rohini, Vivek Vihar and Wazirpur recorded very high particulate values during 11pm to 6am. This may be due to unfavourable conditions coupled with pollutants generated from fireworks,” the CPCB said, adding that particulate concentrations were slightly higher this year as compared to 2017.
Jahangirpuri, arguably one of the most polluted spots in Delhi, had the highest PM10 reading at 4,499 microgram per cubic metre, according to the Delhi Pollution Control Committee real-time monitoring at 11pm and was the highest across DPCC stations on Diwali night. Wazirpur, at 1am, saw PM2.5, the finer particulate matter, touching an astronomically high 4,659 microgram per cubic metre, the highest across all DPCC stations this Diwali. The permissible limit of PM10 and PM2.5 are 100 and 60 microgram per cubic metre.