Delhi's air quality deteriorated further during the day, breaching the 400 mark, and dipping into the 'Severe+' category, forcing the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM), the Centre's anti-pollution panel, to impose GRAP 4 restrictions in the national capital and its adjoining areas from tonight.
This comes hours after CAQM imposed GRAP 3 during the day when the air quality was hovering over 300. During the day, the panel said measures in stage III of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) have been implemented following "highly unfavourable meteorological conditions, including calm winds and very low mixing height". Delhi's 24-hour average air quality index, which was 379 at 4 pm, which breached the 400 mark around 10 pm.
Later in the evening, the panel said, "Considering the steep rise in the AQI of Delhi owing to highly unfavourable meteorological conditions and absolute calm wind conditions, the CAQM Sub-Committee on GRAP called for an emergency meeting."
"The Sub-Committee decided to impose Stage-IV ('Severe+' Air Quality) of the GRAP schedule (issued on 13.12.2024) in the entire NCR, with immediate effect," they added.
Meanwhile, schools in Noida will start from 9 am tomorrow due to severe cold and air pollution, operating in a hybrid mode.
Last month the air quality in Delhi and the surrounding areas was consistently in the 'severe' and 'very poor' category, prompting annual health warnings from medical professionals and triggering a rush of cases before the Supreme Court asking for directions to the government.
Over the past several weeks a top court bench of Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Augustine George Masih have held several hearings on the annual air quality crisis, looking at issues from farm fires (i.e., farmers burning agricultural waste) to ineffective bans on polluting vehicles.
In some cases, the court criticised the authorities for not following the law; for example, when GRAP-IV was in effect, the court slammed officials continuing to allow non-essential construction activities that are not permitted at that time. The court also had questions for the Delhi government for not stopping vehicles carrying non-essential goods from entering the city.
The court also questioned the Delhi government and the CAQM, a central government panel, for not ordering stricter anti-pollution measures once the AQI had crossed the 300-mark.
Monsoon brings welcome relief but also triggers respiratory health issues like cold, flu, asthma and pneumonia, due to high humidity, mould, dust, air pollution and viral outbreaks.
The Supreme Court has upheld the powers of the pollution control boards to impose restitutionary and compensatory damages for environmental harm, saying that prevention and remediation must be at the heart of environmental governance.
Ahead of the UN treaty on plastics, a new report in The Lancet journal on Monday has warned that plastic pollution is an underrecognized threat to the health of both humans and the planet, which must be addressed immediately.
Citing the latest Air Quality Index of 74, CM Rekha Gupta highlighted the government's ongoing efforts to reduce the city's pollution, and claimed that for the first time in a decade, the index has come down to such a satisfactory level.
On World Cancer Day, a look at how the change is being driven by environmental, occupational and/or genetic risk factors.
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