With winter round the corner, the Delhi government on Tuesday asked neighbouring states to prevent agricultural burning.
With winter round the corner, the Delhi government on Tuesday asked neighbouring states to prevent agricultural burning.
Major agriculture fires were reported by the Nasa last year, environment minister Imran Hussain said in his letters to his counterparts in Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan.
As per the Delhi government, the pollution levels, specially concentration of particulate matter (PM) 10 and PM 2.5, show an upward trend during this time of the year.
“The detailed analysis of ambient air data shows that particulate matter like PM 2.5 and PM 10; gaseous pollutants like NO2 (nitrogen dioxide), CO (carbon monoxide) and secondary pollutants like NH3 (ammonia) show an increasing trend in the month of October and November which coincide with agriculture burning in neighbouring states.
“The events of major agriculture fires were observed and reported by Nasa Ac-qua Satellite natural colour image with the moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) in the previous years and the same is available in public domain,” Mr Hussain said in his letters to state environment ministers Capt. Abhimanyu Singh Sindhu (Haryana), S. Parkash Sin-gh Badal (Punjab) and Raj Kumar Rinwa (Rajasthan)
Delhi faces a critical phase of air pollution due to metrological conditions like wind pattern and low temperature, the government said.
Mr Hussain also wrote to Union minister of state for environment and forests Anil Madhav Dave asking him to direct authorities in the neighbouring states to prevent burning of agriculture residue so that the pollution levels in Delhi may be restricted in the coming months.
Over the monsoon, Delhi’s air was relatively cleaner as the rain and wind diminished the impact of pollution. Last month, a report by the World Health Organisation on ambient air pollution levels showed that Delhi is among the most polluted cities in the world, second only to Riyadh among the big cities.
