As the city gears up for the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon on November 19, an air quality collective with members of Help Delhi Breathe and #MyRightToBreathe collected real time air quality data from five locations along the 20-km stretch on which the event will be organised.
This came even as Delhi has been observing critical levels of pollution in the last few days.
Grim picture
The PM 2.5 readings were taken at 5 spots on the route — Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium (1,145 micrograms/m3 at 7:25 a.m) which is the start and the finishing point of the marathon, Lodhi Road (1,141 micrograms/m3 at 8:10 a.m.), Mathura Road Flyover ( 975 micrograms/m3 at 8:45 a.m.), the Delhi Golf Club (1,126 micrograms/m3 at 9:10 a.m.) and India Gate (1,501 micrograms/m3 at 9:35 a.m.).
Sunil Dahiya from Greenpeace India said: “These numbers portray a grim picture of the health crisis we are facing today and Delhi is not the only place impacted by it. Almost all of northern India is facing this health emergency.”
“Multiple sectors have contributed to these levels. They range from continuous sources throughout the year such as thermal power plants, transportation sector etc. along with episodic conditions like firecrackers around Diwali and agricultural biomass being burnt over the past few days coupled with slow moving wind,” he noted.
The Indian Medical Association recently put out an advisory asking for a state of emergency to be declared in the Delhi-NCR region.
