With the coming winters, cities in North India face a mammoth challenge every year to deal with air pollution. This challenge becomes bigger around Diwali. Although the crackers remained banned and the Supreme Court last week refused to hear a plea challenging the restrictions, stressing – “Let people breathe clean air”, the National Capital Region (NCR) saw several violations on Diwali night. This made the air unbreathable as expected. Last year, the top court held marathon hearings on air pollution as the NCR remained choked for months and the states involved – as well as the Center – were forced to find a solution.
On Tuesday morning, at more than 40 monitoring stations listed on the government’s website that shows the national air quality index, most in the nation’s capital registered an AQI (air quality index) that fell in the “very poor” category (AQI between 301-400). . which can cause “respiratory disease with long-term exposure”. This means that air quality is only one step away from becoming “severe” (401-500), which “affects healthy people and seriously affects those who are already sick.”
Ahead of Diwali, Delhi was crossed off the list of the most polluted cities in Asia. After saying that the city has worked very hard to get here, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal – in another tweet on Monday – pointed out: “Some people (ask) – we have won the war on pollution, am I satisfied? Not at all. It is encouraging that we are no longer the most polluting city in the world. It encourages us that we are on the right track. However, we must become the cleanest city in the world. That is our goal.”
Meanwhile, compared to other cities, Delhi fared as follows on Tuesday morning after a night of Diwali celebrations:
1) Mumbai: In India’s financial capital, air pollution levels reportedly shot up to dangerous levels as firecrackers went off over the city over the weekend. Noted in the report that particle concentrations have settled at their highest level since January. On Tuesday morning, while most of the stations — listed on the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) website were in the “moderate category” with an AQI below 200, the air quality was in the “poor category” with an AQI above 200 at Malad West. and Deonar station.
2) Bengaluru– In the state capital of Karnataka, while the AQI ranged between ‘moderate’ and ‘satisfactory’ at most stations, it was in the ‘poor’ category at the Silkboard monitoring station.
3) Chennai – In the capital city of Tamil Nadu, most stations recorded AQIs in the “poor” category. However, only Kodungaiyur station was where air quality was recorded in the ‘moderate’ category.
4) Kolkata-Delhi has reason to envy the capital of Bengal, where the AQI was in the “good” category at most monitoring stations.
Read Now :PM Narendra Modi is all set to celebrate the festival of lights with soldiers on the border
