On the evening of Diwali, Delhi’s air quality plummeted sharply across the city, with 24 out of 36 monitoring stations now reporting in the ‘red zone.’ The severity of the city wide designation led city authorities to restrict the use of ‘green crackers’ to two limited windows of time, 6 am to 7 pm and again from 8 pm to 10 pm on the day before Diwali and on the day of Diwali.
Diwali Evening Brings Sudden Spike In Delhi Pollution
The spike in air pollution is most certainly related to the usual combination of fire cracker emissions, stagnant air, and seasonal conditions that trap pollutants in the close proximity to the ground. Although the article does not provide full breakdowns of the particulate counts, many monitoring stations shifting into the red zone indicates that particulate matter is now reporting levels that are unsafe. Both the government and monitoring agencies have been alert to the possibility of air quality degradation, due to the previous days reporting ‘poor’ air quality and inventories of precursor pollution sources. The jump in to the red indicates just how precarious the situation in Delhi is around Diwali, when numerous sources of pollution (vehicles, construction, fireworks, and stubble burning in the neighbouring states) come together to have a compounded unfavourable meteorology. Although ‘green’ crackers represent the ‘acceptable’ alternative to traditional crackers, the timing prescribed for the use of green crackers still constitutes an air quality burden. The prohibition of the use of crackers at very specific times tells us they are attempting to reduce emissions to time periods with less volatile sensitivity to air quality.
Delhi Air Quality Today
For the residents of Delhi, the idea is straightforward, prepare for poor air quality, limit outdoor exposure, especially for children, the elderly, and anyone with respiratory or cardiac ailments. Interior filtration, fine particulate rated masks especially during pollution episodic events, limit outdoor activity and enhance internal transport typically a personal car through public transportation or car pooling become relatively plausible. From a policy perspective, the event illustrates the urgent necessity for stricter compliance with rules regarding fire crackers, limiting emission from other sources of pollution (especially construction dust, diesel generators and other voracious polluters), and collaborating across states in addressing cross border pollution.
Diwali has once more caused a city wide air quality setback in Delhi, highlighting the fact that festive occasions can shift the balance in a negative direction, particularly in conjunction with structural pollution burdens and unfavourable meteorological conditions. The red zones are not only a flare indicating excess around a holiday but also a signal of underlying structural pollution vulnerabilities.
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