Favourable winds helped reduce the contribution of crop residue burning to Delhi air pollution on Monday. But stubble burning continues unabated in the neighbouring States.

The overall air quality in the capital still continues to be in the ‘very poor’ category with presence of particulate matter (PM) being 384 parts per billion, according to SAFAR-India (System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research), managed by the Pune-based Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology.

SAFAR also calculated that the share of PM2.5 (particulate matter smaller than 2.5 microns) from stubble burning in Delhi air fell to 16 per cent from previous day’s 40 per cent, which was also the season’s highest so far. Satellites are spotting over 3,000 stubble fires on an average these days.

Moreover, there is a reduction in total PM2.5, considered to be more dangerous particulate matter due to its propensity to aggravate respiratory problems, from 220 ppb on Sunday to 133 ppb on Monday. This was mainly because surface winds in the capital flushed away pollutants, said sources.

According to them, there are three major wind conditions that affect Delhi air quality. Wind direction, speed at planet boundary layer and surface winds. While wind direction decides in which direction the PM2.5 particles from stubble burning would move, the speed of wind at boundary layer when slow, allows the soot particles to descend towards the ground and surface winds flush away pollutants from a region effectively. Even though the first two factors were unfavourable for the capital, the third reduced the impact, the sources said.

As per the projections made by SAFAR, air quality index in the capital will progressively worsen and could be close to the ‘severe’ after three days.

Meanwhile, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that no manufacturing industry would be allowed to come up in new industrial areas. The new industrial areas in Delhi can henceforth house only hi-tech and services businesses.

Stating that the main economy of Delhi is services based and not manufacturing, Kejriwal told a press conference that even units in older industrial areas would be given the option of closing down their existing manufacturing units and starting new services and hi-tech business units. Chartered accountants, lawyers, architects, media, software, ITES, insurance claims, BPO, TV programme production and equity research could all now open offices in industrial areas at cheap rates, Kejriwal said.

Kejriwal said that Centre had issued a notification for this purpose and it would help Delhi industrial areas to become clean and green industrial areas. “We had sent this proposal 2-3 years back and now thanks to Union Minister Hardeep Puri, this has become law and made a historic step to remove pollution in Delhi,” he added.

(With inputs from KR Srivats)

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