Delhi on Sunday recorded its first 'severe' Air Quality Index this winter, further emphasising the need for emergency measures to bring down air pollution.
The Capital was the only city in India to show 'maroon' colour coding which is the most alarming category in the National Air Quality Index (NAQI). Nearby Faridabad and Lucknow showed 'very poor' while cities like Kanpur, Agra, Pune and Varanasi showed 'poor'; Mumbai registered 'moderate' and Hyderabad 'satisfactory'.
The prominent pollutant was Particulate Matter 2.5 (PM2.5). In localities like south Delhi's RK Puram, PM 2.5 stood at 329 ìg/m3, over five times the prescribed standard of 60 ìg/m3. At the same monitoring site, PM 10 stood at 702 ìg/m3, which is seven times the prescribed limit of 100 ìg/ m3. As per the NAQI website, 'severe' air quality may lead to respiratory effects even on healthy people and serious health impacts on people with lung/heart diseases". "The health impacts may be experienced even during light physical activity," the website adds.
Vivek Chattopadhyay, manager of the NGO Clean Air Programme at the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), remarked, "This is a warning sign for us. Winters are here and pollution levels will continue to shoot if we do not take preventive measures. The Supreme Court direction to levy an environment compensation charge of Rs 700 to Rs 1300 on commercial vehicles entering Delhi is a step in the same direction. It is in keeping with the 'Polluter Pays Principle' now followed all over the world, an unavoidable measure and must be implemented at the soonest possible."
He added that if the contractor collecting the toll on our municipal corporations' behalf cannot do it, the corporations themselves must step in.
