Too late? Delhi scales up pollution fight, but red zone nears

The national capital on Thursday rolled out its most elaborate, multilayered system yet to fight air pollution, but the air quality is again poised to plummet into the red zone around Diwali because, experts say, Delhi’s response is still of an emergency nature rather than a long-term plan.

From November 1 to 10, the Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA) has banned construction and digging in the National Capital Region (NCR), shut down the Mundka industrial area, and stopped all brick kilns, stone crushers and hot mix plants.

All diesel generator sets, as well as the Badarpur power plant, have already been shut under the Graded Response Action Plan (Grap) since October 15.

In addition, 52 joint teams comprising officials from central and state pollution control bodies and civic authorities were flagged off on Thursday to cover Delhi, Gurugram, Noida, Ghaziabad and Faridabad, and report violations.

The Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) also deployed 83 green marshals, which will be increased to 270 in the next few days, to report violations such as open garbage burning, dumping of construction waste, and fires in landfill sites.

The Supreme Court-appointed EPCA, which has come up with a list of pollution ‘hot spots’, also directed eight members to visit at least one such location and file reports on the local sources of air pollution, which contribute around 36% to the city’s pollution during winter, according to a recent report by The Energy Resources Institute (Teri) and the Automobile Research Association of India (ARAI).

“Out of 52 joint teams that were flagged on Thursday – 44 will be deployed in Delhi, while two each would be deployed in the four satellite towns of Ghaziabad, Gurugram, Noida and Faridabad – will be deployed during the first 10 days of November when air quality is likely to worsen,” said a senior official of the Union environment ministry.

“The air marshals, whose number will be scaled up, are home guards who have volunteered to serve as marshals and flag violations,” Delhi’s environment minister Imran Hussain told HT.

“For the first time, EPCA members have been asked to visit at least one hot spot such as Punjabi Bagh, DTU, Mundka and landfill sites of Ghazipur and Bhalswa and submit reports on what is triggering pollution, and suggest solutions,” said Bhure Lal, chairman of EPCA, who himself has taken charge of Anand Vihar, one of the most polluted areas of Delhi.

To involve residents in this multilayered structure, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has made social media handles through which people can flag violations. There is also the ‘Sameer’ app run by CPCB to lodge complaints.

But the city’s Air Quality Index (AQI), which had improved to 358 on Wednesday from a peak of 401 on Tuesday, deteriorated once again to 393 on Thursday. A reading between 301-400 on the index is ‘very poor’ and beyond 401 is ‘severe’.

As the particulate matter levels shot up, inching close to the ‘severe’ mark, forecasting agencies including Safar, run by the ministry of earth sciences, said an approaching western disturbance could make conditions this weekend particularly bad.

Experts say the root of the problem is that while Grap is an emergency response system, long-term goals – which include improving the public transport network, regulating garbage disposal, stopping farm fires in neighbouring states, and reducing road dust – are being ignored.

“We need to take more drastic steps to combat this crisis, EPCA chairman Bhure Lal admitted. “The Comprehensive Action Plan (CAP) for air pollution has been notified. It is imperative that we step up implementation of the long term actions listed in the plan – including augmentation of intracity and intercity public transport,” he added.

The Comprehensive Action Plan of Delhi suggests that the Capital needs to bring down the fine particulate PM10 levels by at least 74% and ultra fine PM2.5 levels by at least 69% to meet the annual permissible limits.

“Grap is not substitute for long-term actions that need to be taken to combat toxic and deadly air pollution,” said Anumita Roy Chowdhury, executive director (research and advocacy) of the Centre for Science and Environment.

Long-term measures under CAP include a parking policy for the city, bus rapid transit system in targeted high-frequency routes, increasing the bus fleet, permanently shutting down of older and polluting power plants, moving to cleaner technology, and making it obligatory for developers to dispose of debris at designated sites, among others.

But this year, too, little was done to implement these over the non-pollution months.

“The main problem of Delhi-NCR is particulate matter, which also includes natural dust. Apart from tackling the emission sources, we also have to have to tackle our land use to curb natural dust. Desertification and changing agricultural land for building infrastructure is a major issue in the fast expanding Delhi NCR region,” said D Saha, the former head of CPCB’s air quality laboratory.