The Central government on Monday announced a pollution forecast system that can alert, three days in advance, about the likelihood of extreme pollution events and dust storms.
Though unveiled by Union Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan, the system is yet to go live but is expected to be made available “in the next two days” to the public via the Central Pollution Control Board and the Environment Pollution Control Authority, said Secretary of the Ministry of Earth Sciences Madhavan Rajeevan.
The National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting, the India Meteorological Department and the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune — all MoES organisations — are involved with developing the application.
This has been developed with assistance from the Finnish Meteorological Institute, Finland and the US-based National Centre for Atmospheric Research.
The system works like a weather model that will assimilate data from satellites on dust aerosols, particulate matter from stubble burning and other air pollutants like SO2 and NO2.
It will account for background aerosols and pollutants and forecast how the dust is likely to travel over long distances.
Better air quality
On Monday, the Graded Response Action Plan for Delhi kicked in even as air quality dipped to ‘poor’ and is expected to remain so for the next few days, Dr. Vardhan said in a press conference that this year air quality has been better compared to previous years.
“The number of good, satisfactory and moderate days is 157 in 2018 [till October 13] compared to 150 in 2017 and 107 in 2016 during the corresponding period… incidences of stubble burning in Punjab are 75% lower than 2017 and 40% lower in Haryana,” he said.
There was a reduction of 46% in PM10 levels in September 2018 compared to last year and a 15% reduction in October.
PM2.5 levels reduced 28% in September compared to last year and 13 days of October saw a 22% dip.
Stubble burning
Farmers burn stubble to clear the ground of harvested paddy and prepare it for the rabi crop.
Due to a delayed monsoon exit in September, the harvesting has been delayed.
Instances of such burning are likely to spike later this month, several officials told The Hindu .
So far, the government has allocated ₹591 crore of Central funds for helping farmers buy farm implements that would disincentivise them to burn stubble. Punjab has distributed 7,062 (91% of what it was allotted) and Haryana 2,814 (51% of its quota) to farmers.
“Several additional steps have been taken this year — the opening of the Eastern Peripheral Expressway and the forthcoming Western Peripheral Expressway, addition of 906 trains coaches by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation and the Badarpur Thermal power plant has been shut,” said C.K. Mishra, Secretary, Union Environment Ministry.
