Violations grow in Capital on Diwali evening | Latest news India

What started as a staccato of bangs and pops in the National Capital Region (NCR) in the late evening turned into a crescendo of whistling rockets, thundering sky explosions and relentless smoke-spewing sparks of anars and charhis that continued well past midnight. The Air Quality Index (AQI) at 4:00 PM before the festivities started on Thursday was at 328, classified as “very poor”, and remained stable until about 9:00 PM, after which it began to deteriorate steadily: 330 at 10:00 PM, 338 at midnight, 347 at 3am. Friday and 362 at 9 a.m. After 9am the AQI started to improve and was 354 at 12pm, 339 at 4pm and 314 at 10pm.

But these figures were all 24-hour averages. In real time, PM2.5 levels in the city have increased as much as 15 times in some parts of the city, reaching more than 1,800 µg/m³ in certain residential areas. The World Health Organization sets the safe limit for exposure to PM2.5 at 15 µg/m³. The Indian National Air Quality Standards set this at 60 µg/m³.

By Friday afternoon, the worst of the pollution appeared to have been swept away by high winds and warm temperatures, an unusual set of meteorological conditions for this time of year, but one that made the city of 20 million lucky.

“We had consistent winds throughout Diwali day and on Friday too. The wind speed was 12-16 km/h until 6 p.m. on Thursday. The speed dropped marginally but remained between 3 and 7 kmph throughout the night and rose again to around 10 kmph as the sun rose on Friday,” said an India Meteorological Department official, who asked not to be named to become. another climate expert described this improvement as nothing more than “getting lucky with the weather.”

It was not just the images and sounds of Thursday evening that illustrated the blatant disregard of the fireworks ban.

HT’s analysis of real-time pollution monitoring data shows in granular detail how concentrations of PM2.5, ultrafine particles comprising mainly smoke, shot up in the evening: at Nehru Nagar station, adjacent to Lajpat Nagar, the hourly average PM2 .5 concentration rose from 101 µg/m³ to as much as 898 µg/m³ at 11 p.m., or an almost ninefold increase. In Anand Vihar, adjacent to the residential areas of Vivek Vihar, the peak at 1 am was 992 µg/m³, more than seven times the 135 µg/m³ recorded at 6 pm.

When measured immediately, these figures reached even more alarming figures: 1,853 µg/m³ at Vivek Vihar and 1,527 µg/m³ at Nehru Nagar.

That these spikes were due to fireworks becomes clear when you take into account measurements in Narela and Najafgarh, both industrial zones that were empty as people went home to celebrate Diwali. In Najafgarh the peak was about 247 µg/m³ and in Narela it was about 260 µg/m³. Both stations recorded 80-90 µg/m³ in the evening, making the increase the most moderate seen across the city.

India classifies the safe limit for exposure to PM2.5 as no more than 60 µg/m³.

Other data also showed that there was widespread violation of the fireworks ban. The Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) said that of its 31 environmental noise monitoring stations, 22 recorded higher decibel levels during Diwali compared to last year. The highest decibel levels this Diwali were recorded at Karol Bagh in central Delhi – an average of 88.7 dB(A), about 5% higher than the average value of 84.5 dB(A) recorded during last Diwali registered.

The Delhi Fire Brigade also said it has received the highest number of calls (280) for fire-related incidents since records began in early 2012.

Defying the fireworks ban raised questions about the effectiveness of environmental regulations in a city that consistently ranks among the most polluted capitals in the world. When contacted, an official from the environment department said the enforcement of the ban was the responsibility of the Delhi Police. “We have appealed to people not to burst crackers and report cases on 112 and 1090. Police were then responsible for taking appropriate action,” the official added.

Delhi Police did not comment on the massive violation of the fireworks ban.

HT sent messages to several senior police officers, including the spokesperson of Delhi Police and deputy commissioners of police (DCPs) of all 15 police districts, seeking details and their response on the action taken against violation of the firecracker ban. They did not respond until press time.

What helped then was simply the weather. “We have been fortunate in the sense that we have seen this in previous years when the wind speed was low and the pollutants lingered in the air for several days. When the wind is strong, the pollution disperses within a few hours and then again you have local sources that increase the pollution,” said Mahesh Palawat, vice president at Skymet meteorology, who forecast a similar wind speed for Saturday, but a decrease for Sunday.

Environmental experts pointed out that relying on favorable weather conditions is a dangerous gamble.

“Since October was a warmer month and the Diwali day recorded quite good wind speed, the pollution levels on Diwali night building up to severe levels did not last very long,” said Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director, research and advocacy at the Center for Science. and Environment (CSE), pointing out that the peak pollution levels on Diwali evening were in fact within the severe range.

“The bursting of firecrackers shows that while command and control measures on firecrackers have set the conditions for compliance, their success requires a high level of public awareness about the health risks of excessively high short-term exposure to such pollution,” she added to.