NEW DELHI: With just three more days to go for the odd-even trial to end, ambiguity continues over the level of pollution in the national capital with the Delhi government claiming that the pollution level has come down, but analysts with environment organistion Teri saying that levels have started rising this week.
The Delhi government said that PM 2.5 and PM 10 air pollution levels were showing a marked decline in Delhi. The odd-even plan will end on January 15 after which the city government will analyse it.
“The consistent trend of around 50 per cent decline in air pollution measured through both PM 2.5 and PM 10 levels in Delhi, in comparison to the average data of last five years, continues,” according to government reports based on the latest ambient air data collected by mobile teams of the Delhi Pollution Control Committee on Monday at 17 locations, through mobile dust samplers using the Light Scattering Technique.
The analysis by Teri found air pollutant concentrations had started to increase again after a dip over the last weekend due to a combination of emission and meteorological factors. Figures released by the government show that PM 2.5 air pollution levels on Monday at 17 locations were less than 200 (ug/m3) at 12 locations, which is around 50 per cent less than average recordings before the odd-even regulations were put in place since January 1.
However, Teri found that both PM 2.5 and PM 10 were high in the national capital. The PM 10 range was high ranging from 10 percent to 36 percent while of PM 2.5 was 7 percent to 61 percent. “Five locations showed PM 2.5 measurements less than 100 and seven locations showed measurements between 100 and 200. Of these total 17 locations, lowest measurement was at 91 and the highest at 268, indicating a clear dip in even peak recordings of PM 2.5 pollution levels,” said the government.
The government quoting scientists said that sunny weather conditions on Monday were favourable when a positive wind speed had added to the positive air quality.
