NEW DELHI, Nov 5: The share of stubble burning in Delhi’s pollution rose to 42 per cent on Thursday, the maximum so far this season, according to a central government air quality monitoring agency.
Experts said raging farm fires and a fall in the wind speed and temperatures pushed air quality in Delhi-NCR to the worst levels in around a year on Thursday.
The Ministry of Earth Sciences’ air quality monitor, SAFAR, said the farm fire count in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and neighbouring areas increased significantly and stood at 4,135 on Wednesday, the highest this season so far.
SAFAR said the boundary layer wind direction is northwesterly – favourable for the transport of pollutants from farm fires.
“The share of stubble burning in Delhi’s PM2.5 pollution was estimated at 42 per cent for Thursday,” it said.
Stubble burning accounted for five percent of Delhi’s pollution on Wednesday, 10 per cent on Tuesday, 16 on Monday and 40 on Sunday.
Last year, the stubble contribution to Delhi’s pollution had peaked to 44 per cent on November 1, according to SAFAR data.
NASA’s satellite imagery showed a large, dense cluster of fire dots covering Punjab and parts of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.
SAFAR predicted conducive conditions for dispersion of pollutants over the next two days.
“Better dispersion condition and not so low daytime boundary layer height is predicted for the next two days which is likely to improve AQI unless more than estimated fire-related emission takes place,” it said. (PTI)
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