Delhi-NCR wakes up to a blanket of smoke; crop burning makes air quality alarming

Google's weather update actually termed it 'Smoke', not smog. Expect two more days of this.

This is how the India Gate looked this morning. (Picture: Twitter/@ANI)

NEW DELHI: Delhi woke up partially blind and with gasping breaths on Tuesday morning. A thick blanket of smoke covered the city, affecting visibility, promising traffic jams and causing concern in millions of households of impending breathing trouble for family members.

The Punjab government claimed just last week that stubble burning, or crop burning as it has come to be known in public imagination, has reduced by up to 30 percent this year. Of course, on Tuesday morning, that was hardly evident in the National Capital Region.

Northwesterly winds from the Punjab-Haryana region are expected to continue smoking out the Delhi atmosphere for at least two more days. 

Particulate matter in the air soared to scary levels. Central Delhi had a PM2.5 level of 792 µg/m3 near India Gate at 7:30 am. Now, this is a part of the city that usually sees better air quality thanks to the higher level of green cover of Lutyens zone.

PM2.5 level was 856 µg/m3 in Anand Vihar, 894 µg/m3 at Punjabi Bagh and a figuratively apt 666 µg/m3 in Tughlakabad.

The maximum PM2.5 level considered 'safe' by Indian standards is 60 µg/m3. It is 25 µg/m3 by most international standards.

The level of PM2.5 in the air may not be the best indicator of overall air quality. But it is critical because it at that size that particulate matter can directly enter the human blood stream through as simple an activity as breathing.

Every year, around this time, northern regions of the country are covered in smoke that comes out of the practice of burning the remaining stubble of crops instead of clearing them. This is done by farmers in Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh. Calls to end the practice have borne little fruit considering the politics of attempting to control farmers of the region. 

Even Pakistan had blamed its own smog troubles on the stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana. However, scientists have rubbished Pakistan's claims.