00:00It is Diwali, but the national capital is facing a familiar battle this year as well, an air emergency.
00:06Delhi woke up to very poor air quality.
00:08In fact, it was in the severe category this morning, and the AQI in several areas were well above the
00:16400 mark.
00:17Delhi's air quality is expected to be in the severe category, above the 400 mark,
00:22amid Diwali celebrations, unfavourable weather conditions, and also persistent stubble burning.
00:27And the warning signs are already visible.
00:30Yesterday, at 9pm, Delhi's AQI touched 4.57.
00:34With pollution levels deteriorating, WRAP Stage 3 restrictions are already in force across Delhi NCR.
00:40Construction and demolition activities face curbs, alongside restrictions aimed at reducing vehicular emissions.
00:46The Supreme Court has also fixed specific time slots for bursting only green crackers between 6am and 7am in the
00:53morning,
00:54and also 8pm to 10pm in the evening.
00:56Polluted air irritates your lungs, leading to coughing, asthma, and also breathing trouble.
01:02And kids and the elderly people are the most vulnerable due to this.
01:07Meanwhile, the political blame game over Delhi's pollution has also intensified.
01:11The BJP continues to target Ahmadinejad Party and the Punjab government over farm fires,
01:17accusing them of blaming Diwali instead of addressing the stubble burning issue.
01:20More than 300, in fact 3,000 farm fire incidents have been reported in Punjab this year so far.
01:30Today, as the festival of Diwali will be celebrated, it is expected that a lot of people would be bursting
01:36crackers.
01:37Looking at that, there are certain restrictions that have been put in from the side of the Supreme Court.
01:41And the Supreme Court has allowed a time of two hours, that is from 8pm to 10pm in the night,
01:47in which people will be allowed to burst green crackers only in the national capital.
01:52Now, it remains to be seen how much of that could actually be implemented on Ground Zero
01:57and what kind of conditions would the people of Delhi wake up to tomorrow.
02:01Because today, the AQI is in the severe category.
02:04It's going to get bad over the next few days.
02:08And there is, remember, there is very little that could be blamed on any person or on any festival
02:13because the AQI has continued to remain in this very poor and severe category over the last one week itself.
02:21People of Delhi are being forced to breathe in this very, very toxic air.
02:26What needs to be understood is that there needs to be a long-term action plan that should be made
02:32and then implemented on Ground Zero so that there could be a larger action or a larger consideration
02:40as to what are the things or what are the steps that could be taken by the Delhi government,
02:46by the Delhi administration to ensure that people of Delhi do not have to breathe this very, very toxic air
02:53year in and year out.
02:55And Delhi does not turn into a gas chamber every year.
02:58With video journalist Emmanuel Joseph, this is Anshin Singh for India Today.
03:02And my colleague Ashutosh Mishra is now joining us from the ground
03:05with the latest on the air emergency in the National Capital Region.
03:09Ashutosh, very good morning to you.
03:11How does the situation look like currently and why, despite the Grab 3 restrictions being in place,
03:17the situation is only worsening?
03:19The AQI levels are only going up?
03:25Anjali, you know, the Grab majors are eventually the emergency majors.
03:29These are not preventive majors.
03:31So when the Grab rules are imposed, it is because of the parameters have been set.
03:34Like, as we see, however, in many of these air monitoring centers showing it is in a very poor category
03:39from 3 to 350.
03:41Whereas if you have the smartphone, iPhone, it all shows the AQIs above 400.
03:45So clearly there are different data, but all, you know, beyond some data, what it looks like visibly all around
03:51me,
03:51if you see the 360 degree visual, the visibility has gone as low as 400 to 500 meters.
03:57And because of the formation of fog, as we are closing to the winters,
04:00now every evening post 10 to 11, there is a humidity, there is a moisture in the air.
04:05And because of that fog, every pollutant, the PM10, PM2.5, is, you know, continuously settling up in the atmosphere.
04:12And also because of there have been no western disturbances, even because of the LDO factor,
04:18all the western disturbance have approached so far, have been very stronger.
04:21So unless there is a wind speed, there is a strong winds, you know, the western disturbance,
04:25which is very unlikely, at least for a couple of, you know, at least a week as far as IMD
04:31is concerned.
04:32So because in absence of wind speed, we see it's continuously settling up across.
04:36Again, we also see the contribution of this double residue burning in the neighboring states.
04:42That is also adding to the woos. Hence, the Grab 3 majors have been invoked.
04:46But it is very unlikely to bring any respite because we do not see any natural intervention there.
04:52We do not see any intervention by western disturbance.
04:56So this is likely to continue. And again, we know the court has permitted the crackers burning.
05:00So whatever the AQI is, tomorrow morning is going to be very difficult, very challenging,
05:05because any, you know, the crackers that will be burst, all the smoke, where it will go,
05:10it will remain settled in the atmosphere. So already we are breathing in a very severe category of the year.
05:15And tomorrow onwards, it is going to be very difficult because once it is settled,
05:19it is only going to add and add further since there is a total absence of a western disturbance or
05:24high wind speed.
05:25All right, Ashutosh, thank you for those details.
05:27So along with stowel burning, it's also the unfavorable weather conditions that are adding up to the woos.
05:35And that is why the national capital region is still choking.
05:39And the entire national capital has now turned into a gas chamber.
05:47And let's also take a look at the AQI figures, how Delhi is choking on Diwali.
05:53How did the figures look like in the past few days?
05:56So starting from November 1st, when the AQI was 396, and it was near to the severe category,
06:05which starts above 400. So this is the very poor category.
06:10300 to 400 is the very poor category, but it was about to breach the 400 mark on November 1st
06:17itself.
06:17On November 2nd, it breached the 400 mark.
06:20It came into the severe category with the AQI levels at 436.
06:24On November 3rd, it was at 441, continuing to be in the severe category.
06:29And on November 4th, the situation further worsened.
06:32And the AQI was then recorded at 510 and then 516.
06:38And then there was a drop.
06:40It was recorded at 391, which is again in the very poor category.
06:44On November 7th, it was 364.
06:46On November 8th, it was 384, which is today.
06:53But in several areas of the national capital, in several key areas,
06:57the AQI has already breached the 400 mark.
07:00It is well above the 400 mark.
07:02And most of the regions in the national capital are witnessing AQI in the severe category.
07:09The BFGC is all over the 40s.
07:09The BFGC.
