Has Delhi Become Unlivable?

    • TNN
    • Publish Date: Nov 4 2019 1:45PM
    • |
    • Updated Date: Nov 4 2019 1:59PM
Has Delhi Become Unlivable?

People in Delhi-NCR woke up to a Sunday morning that made them shudder — a grey, opaque and overwhelming smog hung in the air and the city’s vast landscape had disappeared under its sweep. This is what doomsday could look like. If it seemed too dangerous to step outside because the acrid air almost immediately scorched nostrils and stung eyes, staying indoors gave the feeling that something toxic was burning.

It was one of the worst ever spells of air pollution in Delhi, perhaps worse than the “airpocalypse” smog of November 2016 and 2017. At the time of peak pollution just after noon, Delhi was the world’s most polluted city in the Air Visual website, with an AQI that was more than seven times higher than Dhaka, the city at No.2 spot. The site tracks air quality in 90 major world cities.

Times View

Governments at the Centre and in Delhi, Haryana, Punjab and UP need to start behaving as if they recognise that the NCR is facing a monumental public health emergency. This is no time for blame games or cornering credit for what few positive measures have been taken. Even concerted action by all governments may not be enough to deal with the crisis in the short to medium term, but anything less would be criminal neglect of their duty and a complete abdication of leadership. Let’s also not argue about which source of pollution deserves priority action. Every source, minor or major, needs urgent tackling. Central and state governments should jointly commit to a 5-year plan with annual targets of AQI reduction to less than 100 by 2025, and below 50 soon after. Breathing this toxic air is imperiling all of us, particularly children, even if we can ensure we won’t have to do so in future. The damage already done will continue to extract its toll in the years to come, so every extra day of inhaling this poison is one day too many. As citizens and victims, we need to pitch in – through efforts such as car pooling and maximising use of public transport. We need to treat these tasks as if our lives depend on them – because they do.

By 1.45pm, Lahore had replaced Dhaka at No.2, but Delhi remained several times more polluted through the day.

Delhi’s average AQI was recorded at a whopping 494, just six points short of the maximum reading of 500 on CPCB’s air quality index. This was the second highest reading the city has recorded since the index was developed in 2015. The air quality was perhaps worse than the highest-ever AQI of 497 recorded on November 6, 2016, because the 2016 reading was based on just five stations as opposed to 32 on Sunday.

Parts of NCR were worse, with Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Greater Noida, Gurugram and Noida all recording AQIs above 482. Faridabad had the foulest air at 496, followed by Noida (495) and Ghaziabad (491).

 


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Comments

suchit negi GBN PUBLIC SCHOO SEC-21 FBD

Yes

Kanakdeep Kaur Sohal The Orbis School

This is mother nature''s way of saying ''what you do is what you get''. We humans have become a threat to ourselves. Just for our needs our mother nature is pleading. A very good example of it is Delhi, the capital of our nation. The poisonous gases that are released from our vehicles end up going into our own body. By the current situation of Delhi, people shouldn''t even live there but they can''t just leave their homes and go. Its high time we start valuing mother nature.

Ritika Maan DAV Model School (Yusuf Sarai)

Delhi is reaching at its severity in recent years. I think that people are not realising the level of pollution in the air. I think that people are not yet aware of this situation. I think that we all should start contributing by taking small - small steps towards the conservation of nature. So we should always remember that,"Prevention is better than Cure."

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