New Delhi: Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) on Thursday submitted a status report on the city's air quality from 2011 to 2015 to the high court. It suggests that the air pollution levels in Delhi see three peak phases annually-May-June, October-November and December-January.
DPCC also submitted monthly average concentrations for five years, along with a number of Nasa images, showing how the the stubble burning in neighbouring states led to particulate pollution in Delhi. The report concluded that levels of particulate matter invariably exceed the standard except on a few rainy days while nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels peak with the onset of winter.
The state pollution body claimed two out of the three peak pollution phases were linked to sources outside the city. M P George, head of DPCC's air lab, told HC that the summer peak was due to dust from the Indo-Gangetic plains, the peak in October-November was mainly due to the stubble burning in Haryana and Punjab while the peak in December was due to atmospheric inversion conditions that trap pollutants close to the surface.
The report doesn't highlight the contribution of local sources like vehicular emission or waste burning at all. The benzene levels were also found to be very high in the past five years.
