The situation this time has been exacerbated by soaring temperatures, as Delhi recorded a severe heat wave on Monday, with mercury rising to a high of The IMD has recorded a wind speed of about kmph in Delhi on Tuesday, officials said, which is helping in transport of dust but preventing temperature from rising further.
The concentration of PM2. Click here to join our channel indianexpress and stay updated with the latest headlines. Home Explained Explained: Dust winds in Delhi, their cause, and how long they will continue Explained: Dust winds in Delhi, their cause, and how long they will continue Weather and environmental experts said a cyclonic circulation over Rajasthan and high temperatures over the past few days in northwest India is contributing to this phenomenon.
Once identified and measured, a proper management plan is devised to combat the damage caused by pollution. In the case of Delhi, it is imperative to understand the impacts from distributed sectors like crematoriums, tandoor ovens, diesel generator sets etc. Keeping a check on the emissions caused by these sectors will eventually lead to better regulation of other major sectors like industries, vehicles and construction businesses.
Is pollution from dust a minor factor in air pollution or are there other possible causes, such as construction, for increased dust loading and the consequent pollution? Rakesh Kumar : India being a tropical country, has always been dusty and hence people have adapted differently. While change in land use pattern and increased deforestation has resulted in increased dust load, but retention of pollution is due to the regional climate of the country.
A considerable amount of smog generated during the winters was thought to be construction dust. On November 8, , the National Green Tribunal ordered an immediate halt on construction activities to curb air pollution. Could this ban reduce air pollution? Rakesh Kumar : While it is difficult to calculate the exact effectiveness of the ban on construction activities in mitigating air pollution, the ban was simultaneously implemented on biomass burning and construction activities in order to curb the pollution as it was understood that the calm conditions will trap the pollutants in the region itself and may not allow its dispersion over a wider region.
IMD had predicted that the situation of wind and overall meteorology would improve over the next few days and hence the ban was implemented for a particular duration during which weather conditions would have worsened the effects of air pollution. The study calculated that with climate change, the impact on air pollution will lead to 60, annual deaths by What is the likelihood of this, and if correct, what do you think the Indian scenario will be like?
Rakesh Kumar : Validating the status of a single country with respect to a global level analysis like this may lead to major errors. Instead of a separate urban employment programme, the government believes this infrastructure push will create employment for locals.
Now, under Modi, the government has set in place a new integrated infrastructure programme, which involves building roads, railways, waterways and airports.
In the process, the government has revived the highway sector, which was reeling under stress and lack of private investment.
But there is no mention of the enormous cost the residents of north India have to pay for this. Dust has morphed into a way of communicating the existence of development in parts of India. Even in the remotest corners, mounds of dust sit, denoting the existence of development somewhere in the vicinity. I joke with friends that dust should be a form of currency, that perhaps this would lead to its control. On March 30 this year, Delhi experienced strong surface winds that enveloped the city.
They brought dust from the neighbouring state of Rajasthan, painting the otherwise blue March skies a deep shade of yellow. By 11am, the capital was shrouded in brown dust, resembling the orange-brown haze Delhi experiences every year around Diwali. When I came back to the room, my desk, bed, chair and water bottle were all coated in a thick sheet of dust. I quickly finished lunch and started cleaning up. Wiping the layer of it off all corners of my laptop, dusting the bed, fluffing the pillows, and wiping the desk, I was covered in dust, and able to taste it.
It felt like an envoy, conveying a sense of impending doom. With the arrogance of a seasoned Delhiite, I peeked out from my balcony, seeing a vast rusty cloud looming over the city, convinced that my lungs, already leathered and damaged by the bad air I inhaled during my childhood, could take some more of it.
Within seconds, my eyes itched, the chest was aflame, and my throat parched. I let out a ratchety, tubercular cough. Stepping out of my flat in south Delhi one cold December morning in , I sensed a strange, acrid smell at first and then felt an ephemeral powdery presence, which I immediately recognised as dust.
In my hometown, the dust from poorly laid roads took over entire neighbourhoods and engulfed whole highways. No one cared about the air quality in Kanpur then. We all carried on with our lives. A near-constant drizzle of dust fell on us as we hung out on the balcony. That December morning in Delhi felt the same. The people in my neighbourhood were unconcerned, carrying on with their days as if it was a trifle that did not need much attention. I, on the other hand, was obsessed with the dread that the smudgy grey sky above conveyed.
Back home, I removed my shoes to discover the several grammes of dust I had brought along. It was everywhere. There was a thin coating of soot on my clothes, inside my hair, on my skin. No matter how much I brushed it away, it did not seem to leave. In the few minutes that I took to close the door behind me, it had entered and spread on the floor, as if underscoring its presence. But within the next few days I stopped noticing it, and life, as it always does, went on. Surrounded on all sides by its satellite towns like Noida, Gurugram, Ghaziabad and Faridabad, Delhi has been at the centre of various kinds of ongoing construction work for at least the last few years.
These areas are a common site for workers and building projects, and are under a constant blanket of thick smog. Heavy dust cakes windows and clogs throats at all times. Raw materials like brick and concrete required to carry on with construction are a big contributor to this dust too.
This results in air that is so foul that doctors have advised children and the elderly to wear masks continuously. Every winter, as the chill descends, car exhaust combine with the dust, leading to a strange heavy smog that covers the city for weeks.
Now, I realise what I was sensing on my first winter day out in Delhi was a reality to which longtime Delhiites are now accustomed. In the last four years, this smog has radically reworked my experience of the city. Living beneath this veil of dust, my days and nights constantly surveilled by its presence, has led me to live a limited life. There is a constant looming threat. To live here is to experience an undoing in time, a constant heaviness in the chest, one knot atop another.
You create a schedule, it falls apart, you try and create another one, and it scatters further still. There is a danger in exercising, going for a run, even walking.
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