News / Author / Joydeep Thakur

Joydeep Thakur

Joydeep Thakur is a Special Correspondent based in Kolkata. He focuses on science, environment, wildlife, agriculture and other related issues.

Articles by Joydeep Thakur

Curbing industrial pollution in Delhi-NCR should be top priority: SC body

Last October, the Supreme Court had banned two cheap but highly polluting industrial fuels — furnace oil and petroleum coke, commonly called pet coke, and directed Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh to notify the ban immediately

EPCA chairperson Bhure Lal has already written to all four NCR states to make sure that industries either move to gas or set up pollution control equipment for NOx and SOx.(HT Photo)

cities

Updated on Mar 01, 2018 12:26 PM IST

Hindustan Times | ByRitam Halder & Joydeep Thakur, New Delhi

Are biodiversity parks helping the city’s environment? Delhi University experts to find out

Over the next few years, a team of researchers from Delhi University will undertake studies to find out how these parks are functioning — the amount of carbon they are able to sequester and whether they are able to recharge groundwater and control local temperature

Delhi currently has four functional biodiversity parks with two more coming up(Sanjeev Verma/HT PHOTO)

cities

Updated on Feb 26, 2018 12:22 PM IST

Hindustan Times | ByJoydeep Thakur, New Delhi

Pollen pollution shoots up during March, post-monsoon

Scientists, in the absence of any permissible standard for pollen pollution, could not say by how much the safe limit was exceeded. But they say the numbers shoot up alarmingly during a particular time of the year.

cities

Updated on Feb 20, 2018 10:32 PM IST

Hindustan Times | ByJoydeep Thakur

Solar domes transform lives in a Delhi slum

The micro solar dome is a device that can capture sunlight and concentrate it in a gloomy room. It has transformed the lives of around 130 families of the Lal Bagh slum in north Delhi as the amount of light has increased while the electricity bill has dropped

A micro solar dome installed inside a house at Lal bagh village, Azadpur(Sanchit Khanna/HT PHOTO)

cities

Updated on Feb 20, 2018 05:06 PM IST

Hindustan Times | ByJoydeep Thakur

Delhi’s lungs degrading: Very dense forest cover declines over the past two years

The total forest cover and tree cover in Delhi, has gone up by 0.25% and 0.13%, respectively. But the very dense forest cover declined from 6.94 sq km on 2015 to 6.72 sq km in 2017

There has been a minuscule increase in the forest cover and tree cover in Delhi over the past two years, the city has lost portions of its thick forest during the same duration(Sanchit Khanna/HT PHOTO)

cities

Updated on Feb 13, 2018 12:55 PM IST

Hindustan Times | ByJoydeep Thakur

Smokeless crackers this Diwali? First prototype made in Mohali

HT had reported on January 16 that Union minister for science and technology Harsh Vardhan had asked scientists from government-backed research institutes to develop e-firecrackers to control post-Diwali pollution.

Professor Samrat Ghosh and his students show the prototype of ‘smokeless smart crackers’ in Mohali on Sunday.(Ravi Kumar/HT Photo)

india news

Updated on Feb 13, 2018 01:10 PM IST

Hindustan Times | ByJoydeep Thakur, New Delhi

Early warning system for indoor pollution in public places on anvil

The early warning system will try to forecast how the indoor air quality at public places could deteriorate within a few hours and even advise people to vacate the place to bring down levels of pollution.

The early warning system will try to forecast how the indoor air quality at public places such as metro could deteriorate within a few hours and even advise people to vacate the place to bring down levels of pollution.(Hindustan Times)

cities

Updated on Feb 07, 2018 11:24 PM IST

Hindustan Times | ByJoydeep Thakur

Delhi to Allahabad ferry services on Yamuna? Centre working on proposal

The Inland Waterways Authority of India plans to introduce cargo services and also ferry passengers between north Delhi’s Jagatpur village and the Sangam in Allahabad.

The Yamuna, which is polluted in most parts of Delhi, gets cleaner and deeper upstream between Wazirabad in Delhi and Palla on the Delhi-Haryana border but becomes shallow before Agra.(Hindustan Times)

cities

Updated on Feb 01, 2018 03:08 PM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByJoydeep Thakur

New studies to find out month-wise pollutants and their sources in Delhi-NCR

These studies would be the first of their kind as the results would reveal the dominant pollutants in Delhi’s air and their sources for every month and every season

The studies would also take into consideration air pollution in the entire National Capital Region, for the first time, instead of focusing on Delhi alone unlike previous studies.(Sonu Mehta/HT PHOTO)

cities

Updated on Jan 29, 2018 04:24 PM IST

Hindustan Times | ByJoydeep Thakur, New Delhi

Delhi’s pollution levels in 2016-17 were 3-4 times above permissible limits

The annual permissible limits of PM2.5 and PM10 are 40 ug/m3 and 60 ug/m3 respectively as per the National Ambient Air Quality Standards.

The ultra fine particles PM2.5, about 30 times finer than a human hair, are considered more harmful to humans as they can penetrate deep into the lungs and cause severe diseases(Sushil Kumar/HT PHOTO)

cities

Updated on Jan 21, 2018 01:07 AM IST

Hindustan Times | ByJoydeep Thakur, New Delhi

17 killed as fire breaks out at firecracker unit in Delhi’s Bawana, Kejriwal govt orders probe

The fire broke out at a firecracker factory in outer Delhi’s Bawana industrial area.

The three-storey factory in north Delhi's Bawana Industrial Area that caught fire on Saturday, January 20, 2018. As many as 17 people died in the fire.(Sanchit Khanna/ HT Photo)

cities

Updated on Jan 21, 2018 02:10 AM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByKarn Pratap Singh and Joydeep Thakur

Pollution-free Diwali by 2018? Scientists working on smokeless, reusable electronic-firecrackers

In 2017, the Supreme Court banned the sale of crackers in the National Capital Region around Diwali, but there was spike in pollution levels again last year, primarily due to crackers procured from outside the region.

The sale of firecrackers was banned in Delhi in 2017.(HT File Photo)

cities

Updated on Jan 16, 2018 10:42 PM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByJoydeep Thakur, New Delhi

Air quality may dip this week, foggy mornings to return

An anti-cyclonic circulation is likely to form from Wednesday night and south-easterly winds are likely to gush in which will lead to drop in wind speed, said a Met official

On Sunday, the minimum temperature was 5.7 degrees Celsius while the maximum temperature hovered around 25 degrees Celsius.(Sushil Kumar/HT Photo)

cities

Updated on Jan 15, 2018 10:20 AM IST

Hindustan Times | ByJoydeep Thakur

Overflowing toilets, cracked walls, tilted buildings: Aya Nagar is a disaster waiting to happen

Over a hundred families in Aya Nagar — an unauthorised colony in south Delhi — blame the state irrigation and flood control department for the mess. The pond in the area overflows with black filth and even the drinking water is not safe

Sewer water in the area flows back into a pond in Aya Nagar.(Burhaan Kinu/HT Photo)

cities

Updated on Jan 15, 2018 01:04 PM IST

Hindustan Times | ByJoydeep Thakur, New Delhi

Ghaziabad, Gurgaon and Delhi among India’s five most polluted cities

Thee three NCR cities were among India’s five most polluted cities last year, the Central Pollution Control Board said.

cities

Updated on Jan 11, 2018 08:12 AM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByJoydeep Thakur

Delhi’s pollution hotspots: Housing hub Patparganj forced to inhale toxins

Part 2 of 5: Proximity to industries, garbage burning make east Delhi locality Patparganj one of the most polluted in Delhi

Patparganj has emerged as one of the new pollution hotspots in Delhi.(Raj K Raj/HT PHOTO)

cities

Updated on Jan 10, 2018 04:38 PM IST

Hindustan Times | ByJoydeep Thakur

Toothless ‘environment marshals’ face the heat on the ground

Marshals deployed in the seven municipal wards to help curb sources of air pollution, are facing problems like lack of power to issue challans, absence of an ID card and limited knowledge of air pollution.

Rahul Kumar, one of the environment marshals who has not been given an ID for his new role.(Raj K Raj/HT PHOTO)

cities

Updated on Jan 09, 2018 12:11 PM IST

Hindustan Times | ByJoydeep Thakur, New Delhi

Micro-organisms dwindle in east Delhi’s Sanjay Lake, experts worry over water quality

Microscopic organisms that are known to keep a check on the population of various kinds of bacteria and also form an important link in the food chain, have been found to be dwindling at Sanjay Lake in east Delhi

Researchers said there is also possibility that the levels of heavy metals are rising in Sanjay Lake.(Sanjeev Verma/HT Photo)

cities

Updated on Jan 04, 2018 12:43 PM IST

Hindustan Times | ByJoydeep Thakur, New Delhi

Fog hits Delhi airport operations 2nd day in a row, over 300 flights affected

Five domestic and seven international flights and 56 trains delayed due to zero visibility

The departure terminals, meanwhile, faced the larger share of the delays and congestion as low visibility forced take-offs to be halted for five hours.(Burhaan Kinu/HT PHOTO)

cities

Updated on Jan 01, 2018 11:30 PM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByJoydeep Thakur

Delhi witnessed 40% rise in deaths due to respiratory diseases in 2016

Deaths linked to breathing disorders shot up by 40% in 2016 from 2015 -- 6,502 to 9,149 -- the highest jump from the previous year since 2010.

Hindustan Times had reported on Saturday that pollution levels have been high in 2017 as well, but not as bad as 2016.(Sushil Kumar/HT Photo)

cities

Updated on Dec 30, 2017 10:09 PM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByJoydeep Thakur

Delhi’s air pollution levels this year much better than that of 2016

The air quality was “severe” for eight days in 2017 as against 26 the previous year, according to data from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

Experts said that the credit for this upswing goes largely to favourable weather conditions, and suggested that some tough anti-pollution measures introduced in 2017 may have worked.(AP File Photo)

cities

Updated on Dec 29, 2017 10:07 PM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByJoydeep Thakur

Why anti-smog guns cannot clean Delhi’s polluted air

The pollution levels, instead of dipping, spiked drastically even as gallons of water were sprayed throughout the day starting from 10am. The trial continued till 6pm.

Spraying water through ‘anti-smog guns’ will not be able to curb Delhi’s air pollution, said experts after the trial run failed to bring any improvement in the air quality at Anand Vihar ISBT on Wednesday.

cities

Updated on Dec 20, 2017 11:43 PM IST

Hindustan Times | ByJoydeep Thakur, New Delhi

What is an anti-smog cannon? Delhi is counting on it to reduce air pollution

The anti-smog cannon will be used throughout the day with the monitoring station at Anand Vihar observing any changes in Delhi pollution levels. Here’s how it works

On Monday evening, the functioning of the machine was demonstrated to deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia and environment minister Imran Hussain.(Joydeep Thakur / HT Photo)

cities

Updated on Dec 20, 2017 05:22 PM IST

Hindustan Times | ByJoydeep Thakur and Ritam Halder

Delhi air pollution: Salt from Afghanistan pushing up PM2.5 levels, says study

During the months of winter, Delhi usually gets winds from the north and north-west coming all the way from west Asia. CPCB report says air-borne salt particles originating from large salt pans in Afghanistan are pushing up pollution levels in Delhi.

PM2.5 particles are one of the primary and most dangerous pollutants as they can penetrate deep inside the lungs.(PTI FILE)

cities

Updated on Dec 20, 2017 10:13 AM IST

Hindustan Times | ByJoydeep Thakur

Delhi pollution: Anti-smog gun tested in Anand Vihar as air quality slips into ‘very poor’ zone

Around 8am on Wednesday. the Air Quality Index — a measure of pollutants in air — touched 332. The government ran a trial of ‘anti-smog guns’ in East Delhi’s Anand Vihar.

An anti-smog gun being tested at Anand Vihar in east Delhi.(Joydeep Thakur/HT Photo)

cities

Updated on Dec 20, 2017 01:53 PM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByJoydeep Thakur

Respiratory ailments claimed 207 lives in smog-hit Delhi in 2016, third highest after UP, Bengal

Delhi witnessed its worst smog in 17 years in 2016. Fumes from stubble-burning regions, firecrackers burnt during Diwali.

cities

Updated on Dec 19, 2017 10:46 AM IST

Hindustan Times | ByJoydeep Thakur, New Delhi

Delhi air pollution spikes again, rain forecast holds out hope

The air quality index shot up from 305 to 377 on a scale of 0- 500 on Sunday as the landlocked city was caught in the crosswinds of a depression over the Bay of Bengal and a western disturbance blowing from the Mediterranean region.

A cyclist wearing a mask rides on his vehicle amid heavy smog in New Delhi on December 5, 2017(AFP)

cities

Updated on Dec 10, 2017 09:27 PM IST

New Delhi, Hindustan Times | ByJoydeep Thakur

Silent killers SO2, NO2 turned Delhi into a gas chamber in November

Since pollution control agencies were busy with the exceptionally high levels of particulate matter — PM2.5 and PM10, the most dominant pollutants in Delhi’s air, nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide escaped scrutiny.

A child wears a face mask for protection from air pollution in Delhi.(Reuters)

cities

Updated on Dec 04, 2017 09:21 AM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByJoydeep Thakur

Delhi air pollution interrupts play in India vs Sri Lanka Test, visitors wear masks on field

With worsening pollution levels in Delhi, the third Test between India and Sri Lanka was temporarily held up due to the poor air quality

Pollution in Delhi temporarily held up play during the 3rd Test between India and Sri Lanka on Sunday.(BCCI)

cricket

Updated on Dec 03, 2017 05:12 PM IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByN Ananthanarayanan and Joydeep Thakur

Pollution crisis: EPCA for district-level nodal officers to bring down response time

The panel would soon write to the chief secretaries of the NCR states to designate officers. When pollution peaks, EPCA will send directions to these officers to implement emergency measures

Winter pollution is a major problem in northern India.(Sanjeev Verma/HT PHOTO)

cities

Updated on Nov 28, 2017 12:50 PM IST

ByJoydeep Thakur, New Delhi

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Joydeep Thakur

Joydeep Thakur is a Special Correspondent based in Kolkata. He focuses on science, environment, wildlife, agriculture and other related issues.

Last October, the Supreme Court had banned two cheap but highly polluting industrial fuels — furnace oil and petroleum coke, commonly called pet coke, and directed Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh to notify the ban immediately

Over the next few years, a team of researchers from Delhi University will undertake studies to find out how these parks are functioning — the amount of carbon they are able to sequester and whether they are able to recharge groundwater and control local temperature

Scientists, in the absence of any permissible standard for pollen pollution, could not say by how much the safe limit was exceeded. But they say the numbers shoot up alarmingly during a particular time of the year.

The micro solar dome is a device that can capture sunlight and concentrate it in a gloomy room. It has transformed the lives of around 130 families of the Lal Bagh slum in north Delhi as the amount of light has increased while the electricity bill has dropped

The total forest cover and tree cover in Delhi, has gone up by 0.25% and 0.13%, respectively. But the very dense forest cover declined from 6.94 sq km on 2015 to 6.72 sq km in 2017

HT had reported on January 16 that Union minister for science and technology Harsh Vardhan had asked scientists from government-backed research institutes to develop e-firecrackers to control post-Diwali pollution.

The early warning system will try to forecast how the indoor air quality at public places could deteriorate within a few hours and even advise people to vacate the place to bring down levels of pollution.

The Inland Waterways Authority of India plans to introduce cargo services and also ferry passengers between north Delhi’s Jagatpur village and the Sangam in Allahabad.

These studies would be the first of their kind as the results would reveal the dominant pollutants in Delhi’s air and their sources for every month and every season

The annual permissible limits of PM2.5 and PM10 are 40 ug/m3 and 60 ug/m3 respectively as per the National Ambient Air Quality Standards.

The fire broke out at a firecracker factory in outer Delhi’s Bawana industrial area.

In 2017, the Supreme Court banned the sale of crackers in the National Capital Region around Diwali, but there was spike in pollution levels again last year, primarily due to crackers procured from outside the region.

An anti-cyclonic circulation is likely to form from Wednesday night and south-easterly winds are likely to gush in which will lead to drop in wind speed, said a Met official

Over a hundred families in Aya Nagar — an unauthorised colony in south Delhi — blame the state irrigation and flood control department for the mess. The pond in the area overflows with black filth and even the drinking water is not safe

Thee three NCR cities were among India’s five most polluted cities last year, the Central Pollution Control Board said.

Part 2 of 5: Proximity to industries, garbage burning make east Delhi locality Patparganj one of the most polluted in Delhi

Marshals deployed in the seven municipal wards to help curb sources of air pollution, are facing problems like lack of power to issue challans, absence of an ID card and limited knowledge of air pollution.

Microscopic organisms that are known to keep a check on the population of various kinds of bacteria and also form an important link in the food chain, have been found to be dwindling at Sanjay Lake in east Delhi

Five domestic and seven international flights and 56 trains delayed due to zero visibility

Deaths linked to breathing disorders shot up by 40% in 2016 from 2015 -- 6,502 to 9,149 -- the highest jump from the previous year since 2010.

The air quality was “severe” for eight days in 2017 as against 26 the previous year, according to data from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

The pollution levels, instead of dipping, spiked drastically even as gallons of water were sprayed throughout the day starting from 10am. The trial continued till 6pm.

The anti-smog cannon will be used throughout the day with the monitoring station at Anand Vihar observing any changes in Delhi pollution levels. Here’s how it works

During the months of winter, Delhi usually gets winds from the north and north-west coming all the way from west Asia. CPCB report says air-borne salt particles originating from large salt pans in Afghanistan are pushing up pollution levels in Delhi.

Around 8am on Wednesday. the Air Quality Index — a measure of pollutants in air — touched 332. The government ran a trial of ‘anti-smog guns’ in East Delhi’s Anand Vihar.

Delhi witnessed its worst smog in 17 years in 2016. Fumes from stubble-burning regions, firecrackers burnt during Diwali.

The air quality index shot up from 305 to 377 on a scale of 0- 500 on Sunday as the landlocked city was caught in the crosswinds of a depression over the Bay of Bengal and a western disturbance blowing from the Mediterranean region.

Since pollution control agencies were busy with the exceptionally high levels of particulate matter — PM2.5 and PM10, the most dominant pollutants in Delhi’s air, nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide escaped scrutiny.

With worsening pollution levels in Delhi, the third Test between India and Sri Lanka was temporarily held up due to the poor air quality

The panel would soon write to the chief secretaries of the NCR states to designate officers. When pollution peaks, EPCA will send directions to these officers to implement emergency measures

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