Today, newspaper and media reports suggest that Delhi has seen an improvement in its weather conditions. This improvement in the air quality index or AQI has shifted Delhi from ‘severe’ (419) to the ‘very poor’ category (371). This is how badly Delhi is missing its fresh air, which was taken away from the capital city around two decades ago. Vehicle pollution and stubble burning have come out as the top factors causing toxicity in Delhi’s air.
Often, farms in Punjab and Haryana have to face unprecedented fires that destroy the whole crop. This is even more dangerous than stubble burning because not only can farm fires be avoided but they also lead to the loss of food crop stock. As all the authorities and people unanimously stand against the bad air quality inside the metropolitans of the country, let’s look into how the government is planning to curb farm fires, and what is the status of vehicular pollution in Delhi.
Satellites Miss Farm Fires
Government agencies, including the Indian Agriculture Research Institute (IARI) and the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), are working to develop a method to fine-tune the mapping of stubble-burning areas. A report by the daily newspaper, Indian Express says that gaps in farm fire data from Punjab and Haryana were recently brought to the notice of the Supreme Court. This happened due to the ‘undercounting bias’ of Polar-orbiting satellites which catch fire events only when they are passing over the region. And that is why the data recorded on the number of farm fires actually understates a huge problem.
The Supreme Court directed the Centre as well as the Commission for Air-Quality Management in Delhi NCR and adjoining areas to produce relevant data from geostationary satellites. Geo-stationary satellites do not change their location and are present over a particular region, even as the earth rotates. While many countries have their own geostationary satellites overlooking areas under their border, data from NASA’s polar-orbiting satellite also is provided worldwide.
The NRSC, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, IARI and remote sensing centres in Punjab and Haryana are carrying out a Kharif season piloting. The agencies will use the European Sentinel-2 satellite for 20 m resolution over a certain area every fifth day. The satellite will provide optical images near-infrared images and short infrared one and short wave infrared two images to map out burn scars on farm fields.
Vehicular Pollution In Delhi
Vehicles still remain the largest source of pollution in Delhi. Data from the Delhi transport department shows how 1800 vehicles are added to the roads of Delhi every day. Out of these vehicles, two-wheeler emissions account for the largest share.
Officially, there are 1.5 crore vehicles on the roads of Delhi, which includes commercial and privately owned vehicles. Out of these, around 59 thousand petrol and diesel fuel vehicles are overage (over 15 to 10 years old). This makes the city own more than 91 lakh registered vehicles.
Other than this, Delhi has a significantly large fleet of CNG buses, which very recently have proven not to be a cleaner alternative. The real-world vehicle emission study by ICCT released this year, says that the CNG buses emit oxides of nitrogen which contribute to the formation of secondary PM and ozone. So it is required to transition from CNG buses to zero-emission vehicles or electric-run vehicles.
These above factors contribute the maximum in making Delhi’s air disastrous. The policy gains from reducing emissions in the city’s transport sector are being overridden by rapid motorisation. Poor urban design and gaps in the public transport system further add to the explosive rate of motorisation and personal vehicle ownership in Delhi. While the government is also trying to control farm fires using biological techniques and geo-stationing satellites, farmers in Punjab and Haryana seem to need concessions to afford stubble cutting instead of science.
