By Sakshi Dayal
NEW DELHI (Reuters) -New Delhi topped global pollution charts on Friday, partly due to revellers defying a ban on firecrackers to celebrate Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights.
India’s national capital battles pollution each winter as cold air traps dust, emissions, and smoke from farm fires in the neighbouring states of Punjab and Haryana, with firecrackers exacerbating the problem after Diwali.
Delhi recorded a “very poor” air quality index (AQI) level of 339 in the 24 hours up to Friday evening, the Central Pollution Control Board said – marginally lower than the 358 the day after Diwali in 2023 – and Swiss firm IQAir rated it the world’s most polluted city in its live rankings.
CPCB considers an AQI of 0-50 to be “good”, and of 401-500 to be “severe”, affecting healthy people and a danger to those with existing diseases.
Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai said, however, that pollution in the capital had not spiked the way it had been expected to after Diwali.
“I want to congratulate the people of Delhi that they behaved like responsible citizens and, by controlling crackers, helped to control pollution,” Rai told news agency ANI.
Local government officials have banned firecrackers during Diwali and the winter over the last few years, in line with Supreme Court directives, but have had difficulty enforcing the measure despite the threat of jail.
Some Hindu groups say the ban interferes with observance of the festival, a position the Delhi government has previously countered by saying the ban aims to save lives.
Delhi’s air quality is likely to remain in the “upper end” of the “very poor” category for the remainder of the week, the Earth Sciences Ministry said.
Friday’s smog also coincided with stubble burning in north India, where farmers burn waste left after harvesting paddy to quickly clear fields for wheat planting – a practice that aggravates pollution at the beginning of winter each year.
Although the contribution of farm fires to pollution in Delhi was less than 2% on Monday, it rose to almost 28% by Thursday, government data revealed, and experts said it may further increase in the coming days.
“The peak season (of stubble burning) is yet to come, the first two weeks of November are the peak, we need to control it then,” said Gufran Beig, Chair Professor at the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS) and founder of SAFAR, the federal government’s air quality monitoring agency.
(Additional reporting by Shivam Patel; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Philippa Fletcher)
