Tag: pollution index

Day After Diwali, Delhi’s Air Quality is 11 Times the Permissible Limit

Despite the Supreme Court’s order, certain places including Mayur Vihar Extension, Lajpat Nagar, Lutyens’ Delhi, IP Extension, Dwarka and Noida Sector-78 reported violation of the specified time period.

New Delhi: A thick haze engulfed Delhi Thursday as it recorded its worst air quality of the year on the morning after Diwali, with the pollution level entering the “severe-plus emergency” category, or 11 times the permissible limit, due to rampant bursting of toxic firecrackers in violation of a Supreme Court order, authorities said.

As Delhi’s government’s transport department banned the entry of heavy vehicles in the city from 11 pm on Thursday to 11 pm on November 11, the Supreme Court-appointed environment pollution control authority said it was monitoring the situation and will take emergency measures if the pollution level increases. The emergency measures include odd-even rationing of private vehicles.

Also read: Do You Pollute the Air? Expect a Friendly Letter From the Authorities.

A report by research group Urban Emissions said close to 50 lakh kg of firecrackers were burnt in Delhi this year, the same amount of firecrackers burnt last year which equated to 1,50,000 kg of mass of PM2.5 (particles in the air with a diameter of less than 2.5 mm).

The government-run System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR) warned that Delhi’s air quality is likely to remain “severe” over the next two days as smoke from firecrackers has slowed down the process of pollutant dispersion.

Many residents and green activists voiced helplessness and expressed anguish at the violation of the top court’s 8-10 PM time limit for bursting firecrackers. Doctors advised people to stay indoors, use N-99 masks, that can filter up to 99 per cent of the particulate matter from the air.

Many others said the ceaseless bursting of firecrackers on Diwali night in violation of the court directive has highlighted the difficulties faced by government agencies in enforcing orders when laws are routinely flouted and accentuated the “large gap” between the law and the capacity to enforce it.

Besides fire-related injuries, the national capital Thursday saw cases of allergy and respiratory complications. More than 250 cases of burn injuries were reported in the national capital this Diwali.

Also read: Delhi’s Air Is Awful – and It’s Not Even the Worst India Has to Offer

The Delhi police said it has registered over 550 cases and arrested more than 300 people for violating the court’s order. It said it has seized over 7,900 kg of illegal firecrackers, including 2,500 kgs on the day of Diwali, since Supreme Court ordered a ban on the sale of old crackers on October 23.

The festival also kept Delhi Fire Services officials on their toes as they responded to over 300 calls about fire incidents, triggered by firecrackers and LPG cylinder blast among others, including an incident in which two children were killed and two others were injured. The number of calls, they said, were far more than that recorded on Diwali day during the previous years.

Partly as a result of smoke from the firecrackers, the overall AQI in Delhi jumped to 642 which falls in the “severe-plus emergency” category, according to the data by SAFAR.

“The Delhi Air Quality Index is 500+ at present. Early morning at 1 am, smoke layer became thick and started to trap pollutants near the surface rapidly. However, air quality is recovering from the afternoon and is likely to touch ‘very poor’ range by night provided no additional local emissions are added anymore,” it said in its report earlier Thursday.

Also read: All You Need to Know About Anti-Pollution Masks

The concentration of PM2.5 and PM10 had increased from 50 per cent to 70 per cent last night, indicating an increased share of locally-generated firecracker emissions, SAFAR said.

The overall AQI of the city was 11 times the permissable limit.

On Thursday, the PM2.5 level was recorded at 492 gm-3, more than eight times the permissable limit. The PM10 level was six times the permissable limit at 618 gm-3, according to SAFAR.

Twenty three areas in Delhi recorded “severe” air quality while eight recorded “very poor” quality air, according to Central Pollution Control Board. A “severe plus emergency” level AQI essentially means that even healthy people may suffer from respiratory illnesses on prolonged exposure. This air will seriously affect those with ailments, according to a SAFAR advisory.

Also read: Gasping for Air in India’s Industrial North

The Supreme Court had allowed bursting of firecrackers from 8 PM to 10 PM on Diwali and allowed sale of only “green crackers” which have low emission of light, sound and harmful chemicals.

The court had said police should ensure that there was no sale of banned firecrackers and in case of any violation, the Station House Officer of the area police station would be held liable and this would amount to committing contempt of the court.

Despite the order, certain places reported violation of the specified time period. These included Mayur Vihar Extension, Lajpat Nagar, Lutyens’ Delhi, IP Extension, Dwarka and Noida Sector-78.

Also read: The Updated National Clean Air Programme Is Effectively Blind

Admitting that violations were observed, police said it was manually not possible to monitor every incident considering the population of the city and a complete ban on firecrackers can’t be imposed till the entire community is willing to join hands.

Twitter users took to the microblogging site posting pictures of people burning crackers wearing masks and slammed the “mass contempt” of Supreme Court’s order.

Do You Pollute the Air? Expect a Friendly Letter From the Authorities.

You know you will be penalised for driving a car without a license. But if you spewed toxic materials into the air without a licence under environmental law, you only need to fear receiving an amiable letter.

This is the second of a two-part analysis of the EPCA’s performance. Read the first part here.

The air pollution spike has prompted various authorities to issue statements on action that needs to be taken to deal with it. Recently, Harsh Vardhan, the Union environment minister declared that criminal cases will be initiated against those who violate environmental law. According to Vardhan, “It doesn’t matter how big an agency or how influential its official is, the CPCB will not be hesitant to initiate criminal prosecution against them. No laxity will be tolerated and we will not allow anyone to play with the health of people,” he said. The CPCB is the Central Pollution Control Board.

Vardhan said that a fixed procedure would be adopted when dealing with air pollution complaints. First, CPCB officials would warn the concerned agency or polluter within 48 hours of a complaint being lodged on the ministry’s ‘Sameer’. If the polluter or agency fails to take corrective measures within the subsequent 48 hours, the CPCB would initiate criminal prosecution.

There are two fundamental problems with this approach. First, the law does not contemplate any ‘warnings’ to a violator. The enforcement agency is not a schoolteacher or parent overseeing a misbehaving child. Second: once the violation has occurred, penal action has to be initiated irrespective of whether the violator has later complied with the law.

In fact, this is one of the core issues vis-à-vis enforcement: the complete lack of political will and administrative capacity to deal with violators. Unlike the income tax and sales tax departments, environment agencies like the pollution control boards remain reluctant to initiate legal action against offenders.

The standard approach of the pollution control board has been to write a ‘request letter’ to the violator to desist from committing an illegal act. This is followed by a second letter reminding the violator of the previous letter. The tone is decidedly friendly and apologetic. If the violator doesn’t heed the warning, the board simply ceases correspondence. It has turned out to be like a bad loan given to a big company: it is less effort for the bank to write it off, clear their balance sheets and achieve tax efficiency than to endeavour to have the money returned.

This approach is further evident with the Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA). The environment minister’s statement about the CPCB initiating action citizens complaint is surprising. His own ministry – on October 3, 2018, reissued a 1998 notification that specifically constituted EPCA, with the specific mandate of receiving and acting on complaints of environmental laws being violated. The EPCA has had this power for two decades and it has never exercised it. Rather than adopt a strict policing role, the EPCA has on the contrary preferred to play the part of a caregiving parent and gently reprimands violators. The result of this attitude is the air-quality disaster over the National Capital Region, leaving the people at a point of almost-no-return.

All statutory laws with respect to the environment were allowed to be violated when the Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, was being redeveloped. The construction of a new ‘Integrated Convention and Exhibition Centre’ was allowed to begin without having received approval under the Air (Prevention and Control) of Pollution Act, 1981, not prior approval under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.

An appeal challenging the approval was heard by the National Green Tribunal (NGT). In due course, the NGT clearly expressed its opinion that the EIA Report appeared to be erroneous. However, it finally refused to intervene and upheld the approval granted. Interestingly, the NGT recorded in its judgment that the project did not have the mandatory consent under the Air Act, 1981, but strangely refused to initiate any action.

This is nothing unusual. But what is significant is the sheer brazenness with which the project has been allowed to continue. It is as if the environment ministry, the EPCA, the CPCB and the Delhi Pollution Control Committee are watching on helplessly. Not one agency has bothered to initiate criminal proceedings against the project’s promoters, the Indian Trade Promotion Organisation. There is no reason to believe that the situation will change if complaints are filed on Sameer, the web-based app. After all, an app will not take action – that responsibility falls to human beings. And as the EPCA has shown, this may not come to be, even if a body is vested with all the statutory powers it needs as well as the protection of the Supreme Court.

The next few weeks will see various enforcement agencies, and the courts, attempt to control air pollution. All these are unlikely to have any long-term impact. At the end of the day, all authorities are trying to pass the buck. The court issues a direction to the EPCA to enforce the Graded Response Action Plan to combat air pollution. The EPCA requests chief secretaries of the respective states to initiate action. The chief secretaries write to the district magistrates, who write to the sub-divisional magistrates, and so on. For polluters, it is business as usual; at worst, they may have to shut shop for a few days but that’s okay.

One reason the air pollution crisis is what it is is that we live in a city where passengers will be rightly penalised for driving cars without wearing the seatbelt or without a licence, etc. However, should a citizen spew toxic air and have no licence under environmental law, all that one needs fear is an amiable letter to cease such activity. This friendly approach of the authorities has rendered the National Capital Region an unfriendly, and barely inhabitable, area.

Ritwick Dutta is an environmental lawyer.