Delhi air pollution, a question of life and death of crores of people: SC

New Delhi: The Supreme Court Wednesday said it is a question of life and death of crores of people in Delhi-NCR region which is facing severe air pollution and the authorities have to be held responsible for its failure to curb it.

"Can you permit people to die like this due to pollution? Can you permit the country to go back by 100 years," observed a bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra.

"We have to make government responsible for this," the bench said and asked, "Why can't govt machinery stop stubble burning?

Coming down heavily on state governments, the top court said that if they don't bother about people, they have no right to be in power.

"You (states) have forgotten the concept of welfare government. They are not bothered about poor people, this is very unfortunate," said the bench, also comprising Justice Deepak Gupta.

It also questioned as to why the state governments cannot collect and purchase stubble from farmers.

"We expect more from democratic government of the country to deal with issue of stubble burning and curb pollution," the bench said, adding that "it is a question of life and death of crores of people. We have to make govt responsible for this".

Clearer skies help increase air quality

Delhi breathed easier on Wednesday as pollution levels dropped further due to clearer skies and moderate wind speed though weather experts feared a cloud cover at night and light drizzle could lead to deterioration of air quality.

The government's air quality monitoring and forecasting service, SAFAR, said though Punjab recorded the season's highest farm fire count of 6,668 on Tuesday, its impact on Delhi's air quality will be negligible due to a change in the wind direction.

At 1:30pm, the city's overall air quality index read 216, which falls in the poor category. At many places, the pollution levels dropped to "moderate" category.

The levels of PM2.5 -- tiny particulate matter less than 2.5 microns in diameter that can enter into the lungs and event the bloodstream -- dropped to 107 micrograms per cubic metre (ug/m3) in the Delhi-NCR region.

The PM10 concentration was 226 ug/m3 at 1.30 pm.

The safe levels of PM2.5 and PM10 are 60 and 100 ug/m3, respectively.

A senior scientist at India Metereological Department (IMD) said pollution levels will drop further during daytime due to clearer skies and moderate winds.

"However, a cloud cover, very light rains, clam winds are expected at night which may accelerate accumulation of pollutants and air quality may deteriorate slightly," the IMD official said.

The situation will improve again on Thursday due to strong winds and rains. Delhi is expected to breathe comparatively cleaner air till November 10, he said.

SAFAR said, "Delhi's overall AQI has improved significantly, more rapidly than predicted, and further improvement during sunlight hours is expected."

It said a change in the wind direction led to a very low biomass plume intrusion despite the farm fire count remaining very high on Tuesday.

SAFAR said the share of smoke from stubble burning in Delhi's PM2.5 pollution will be just 3 per cent on Wednesday and 2 per cent on Thursday.

"Western disturbances have brought cleaner air to the region. Isolated thundershowers are expected for the next two days and wind direction is likely to be southeasterly on November 7. So, no biomass intrusion," it said.

The Supreme Court-mandated Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority had on Monday extended the restrictions on hot mix plants, stone crushers and dirty fuel-based industries in Delhi-NCR till the morning of November 8 expecting a repeat of Sunday's episode.

The Supreme Court had also banned construction activities in Delhi-NCR till further orders.

On Sunday, pollution level in Delhi peaked to a three-year high as high humidity due to light rains on Saturday led to formation of more potent secondary particles.

Secondary particles are product of complicated atmospheric reactions between primary particles - such as particulate matter, sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide directly emitted by stubble burning and vehicles - in the presence of other factors such as sunlight and moisture.

Examples of secondary particles include sulphates, nitrates, ozone and organic aerosols.

An AQI between 0-50 is considered 'good', 51-100 'satisfactory', 101-200 'moderate', 201-300 'poor', 301-400 very poor' and 401-500 severe'. An AQI above 500 falls in the severe plus category.