NEW DELHI: The toxic smog choking the capital for the past four days worsened early Thursday morning, with visibility reducing to the second-lowest recorded in at least 10 years for November.One monitoring agency showed that the city's air quality index had again gone off the scale at 500+, a level it had reached a day after Diwali.
While calls by experts for emergency measures went unheeded by the government, several schools suspended outdoor activities and urged asthmatic kids to stay at home.
Safdarjung recorded a visibility of 50m at 5.30am on Thursday . "We checked November data of the last 10 years and found that only once had visibility fallen below 50m (on November 20, 2011)," said RavinderVishen, head of Regional Weather Forecasting Centre. The Centre for Science and Environment, which gathered data from the IGI airport met office, said the smog on Wednesday (visibility around 250m) was the worst for the month in 17 years, although this could not be independently verified. Thursday's air quality ind ex, released by SAFAR, was 500+, which meant it was beyond the 1-500 scale used for measuring air pollution.Such severe levels were recorded on October 31, the day after Diwali. SAFAR said the spike in pollution in the last two days was likely to have been caused by smoke from crop burning in Punjab and Haryana. "In the last two days till Thursday morning, the upper air wind direction has been northwesterly, which has brought pollutants from Punjab and Haryana to NCR even as winds close to the surface continue to be calm," said GufranBeig, project director, SAFAR.
Given the alarming air quality , CSE sought emergency steps such as issuing health advisories, reducing vehicle numbers, shutting down the Badarpur power plant and taking stringent action against waste burning and crop-stubble fires in neighboring states.
CSE quoted meteorologists to explain that a weather phenomenon called lower level anticyclone had developed around Delhi on November 2. There was no wind in the vertical column and this situation is expected to persist for a few more days, a statement by CSE said.
Central Pollution Control Board's air quality index for 24 hours was 432, the same as Wednesday . Values above 400 mean air pollution is severe.PM2.5 peaked to 10 to 11 times the 24-hour safe standard at locations such as RK Puram, Punjabi Bagh and Anand Vihar. "This is one of the worst smog episodes. It's mainly because a change in wind pattern coincided with Diwali. The aerosols from crackers and other burnt material couldn't escape," said Vishen.
R K Jenamani, head of IGI Met office, couldn't be reached for comment on CSE's visibility findings.
CSE also found that the post-Diwali pollution peak on Wednesday was worse than the pollution peak on Diwali. An analysis of data from Delhi Pollution Control Committee showed PM2.5 levels increased by 62.7% on November 2 as compared to Diwali. On November 1(12am to 6am on Nov 2), the PM2.5 concentrations were about 548 micrograms per cubic metres -nine times the safe standard. On November 2 (6am to noon), PM 2.5 concentrations increased to 696 micrograms per cubic metres-11.6 times the safe standard.
These alarming numbers can only be brought down with emergency measures, CSE experts said."Immediately step up action and put out hard health evidences and heath alerts in the public domain to sensitise the public about the harmful effects of smog and push action. Delhi needs an effective winter pollution mitigation plan that can make a difference. Without strong action, smog is only expected to get worse this winter at serious public health costs," CSE said.
Meanwhile, Modern School, Barakhamba Road, announced a holiday on Friday in view of the severe air quality. "Please note that there will be no regular classes tomorrow due to excessive smog," the school said in a message to parents.
Several other schools issued advisories to parents on their own. A note from The Shri Ram school, Vasant Vihar, said, "This is to inform you that on account of high pollution levels, school timings for students of Classes 10 and 12 have been delayed for Friday , November 4 and Monday , November 7."
Springdales School, Pusa Road, stopped sports coaching classes in the morning from Thursday . The authorities also urged asthmatic to stay at home. Tagore International School, Vasant Vihar, stopped all physical education classes and has drawn up a schedule so that indoor activities can be arranged in its auditoriums. It also instructed teachers and students to keep doors and windows shut in class and urged parents to make kids wear masks.
Experts said said the government should direct all schools and kindergartens to keep shut until smog clears out.
