Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Nov 7: Even as the Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the State governments of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Delhi to stop stubble burning, a ray of hope for the National Capital Region has come from the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) forecasting a change in the wind direction that could bring relief to the level of air pollution.
A bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Shudhanshu Dhulia issued a direction to the five concerned states to ensure that stubble burning was “forthwith” stopped as an immediate measure to protect the lives and health of people. “Pollution is not a political game where one State shifts the blame to another depending on the ruling political dispensation… This [pollution] is a murder of the health of the people. You see children in Delhi suffering from health issues,” Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said.
But according to the IMD, when the winds move in the south-easterly direction, the impact of stubble fires in Punjab and Haryana on northwest Delhi would not add to existing pollution. Delhi has been experiencing alarming levels of air pollution over the past six days and policy measures to mitigate the crisis have not yielded much in containing the situation, especially due to stubble burning in the nearby states of Punjab and Haryana.
With restrictions under stage 4 of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) in place, and the odd-even curb on vehicular movement in the offing, a western disturbance (WD) seems to have also come to the city’s rescue, weather officials said.
The weather pattern, which is impacting the Western Himalayan region, has led to a south-easterly shift in the wind direction. This has also led to an increase in wind speed of around 5kmph from calm conditions (0 speed) around 6 am on Tuesday morning. The minor increase in wind speed has led to a marginal reduction in air pollution levels over the National Capital Region.
“As forecast by us, the western disturbance has brought relief. This will stay on for a few days,” M Mohapatra, director general of the IMD, said. The weather department said a fresh western disturbance was likely to cause light/moderate rainfall/snowfall over the Western Himalayan Region till November 10 and over adjoining plains on November 9.
Delhi NCR may receive very light rain or drizzles during this period. The wind direction moved south-easterly on Monday and on Tuesday it varied between north-westerly and south-easterly. When the winds move in the south-easterly direction, the impact of stubble fires in Punjab and Haryana on northwest Delhi will not add to the existing pollution levels in the national capital.
The western disturbance over the Himalayan region and an induced cyclonic circulation has been identified over northwest Rajasthan. Under its influence, light to moderate isolated rainfall/snowfall is likely over Jammu-Kashmir-Ladakh-Gilgit-Baltistan-Muzaffarabad on November 7 and 8, and scattered to fairly widespread rainfall/snowfall is likely on November 9 and 10. Meanwhile, isolated to scattered rainfall is likely over Himachal Pradesh between November 8 and 10, and over Uttarakhand on November 9 and 10. Isolated light rainfall is very likely over Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and West Rajasthan on November 9, the weather forecast said.
“The conditions will improve further (in Delhi) from November 11 when the western disturbance moves away, and north-westerly winds pick up speed blowing at 15-20kmph. That will help pollutants disperse,” experts said.
Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court while directing the governments to stop stubble burning, agreed with the submission from the Punjab government that as a long term measure steps need to be taken to incentivise farmers to switch over from paddy cultivation to alternate traditional crops like millets by offering them the minimum support price (MSP).
Punjab, on its own admission said it was one of the biggest contributors of large-scale burning of paddy stubble. The State is also witnessing a drastic lowering of the water table due to paddy cultivation, which spans across 31 lakh acres.
The court made the local Station House Officers and the Chief Secretaries of the States concerned responsible for ensuring that no further instances of crop burning occurred.
The court directed the four States to meet with the Cabinet Secretary on November 8 to chalk out steps to redeem a safe environment. The proposed measures have to be placed in court on November 10.
The Supreme Court made clear its firm intention to fight pollution. “As they say, if we start the bulldozer, we will not stop it until we take this issue to its logical conclusion,” Justice Kaul said.
The Bench asked the Delhi government to respond to a submission by amicus curiae, senior advocate Aparajita Singh, that the ‘odd-even’ scheme was an “unscientific method” to control vehicular pollution. The scheme did not stop diesel vehicles from plying the national capital’s roads.
The court asked the Delhi government’s response to its suggestion to stop stage taxis registered outside Delhi, especially during this time, as an additional immediate measure to control the increasing pollution.
The court agreed to take up on Friday (November 10) senior advocate Vikas Singh’s application that the implementation of the construction ban imposed in Delhi was a “mere eyewash.”
Experts, however, said Stubble burning alone could not have led to this alarming spike in Delhi’s air pollution levels if local factors, including vehicle emissions, had not already poisoned the national capital’s skyline.
Anumita Roychowdhury, the executive director of Centre for Science and Environment, said their latest report has found that PM2.5 levels in Delhi-NCR rose by a “staggering and unprecedented” 68 per cent within just 24 hours on November 2.
The spike in PM2.5 levels was recorded at a time when the contribution of stubble burning in Delhi’s PM2.5 levels is gradually declining. Data recorded by System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR) and Decision Support System For Air Quality Management In Delhi has shown that the share of stubble burning in Delhi’s PM2.5 concentration over the past few days has been in the 25-35 per cent range — lower than previous years. This component is likely to rise as stubble burning reaches its peak.