Why Delhi's Major Air Quality Stations Stopped Showing Data On Diwali Evening

Diwali is synonymous with pollution for Delhi-NCR. Despite regulations and instructions by the Supreme Court, the implementation of the strict guideline went in the air like the smoke which was polluting Delhi. In such a scenario the responsibility of the bodies which are looking after the pollution control increases manifold. But, as there was no one to stop the firecrackers in Delhi, similarly, it seems the agencies were either ill-prepared or just not quite transparent about providing the Diwali pollution data. 

Many areas of the national capital were many times above the accepted pollution levels. Areas like RK Puram and Nehru Nagar near Lajpat Nagar were most polluted till 9 PM. The real-time data was working well and showing how the pollution graph was going sharply northwards in all these areas. But suddenly the Delhi Pollution Control Committee's website stopped providing the real-time data for many of the stations, which included RK Puram, Nehru Nagar, Mundka, Sonia Vihar and Dwarka, for the next few hours.

The Other Stations Captured The Trend

But when pollution measuring stations from the residential areas stopped providing the real-time data, some of the less polluted areas exposed the agencies on how they failed to provide respite from the cracker pollution despite guidelines issued by the topmost court of the country. Another station from JNU, which is in the less populated area of South Delhi, has shown a sudden spike in the concentration of PM2.5. Till 8 PM the concentration of this Particulate Matter at JNU was only 161 micrograms per meter cube. At the same time in the neighbourhood of RK Puram, this concentration was more than three times at 504 micro gram per meter cube. RK Puram station stopped showing the data after 9 PM when it went up to 924 micrograms per meter cube means almost doubled in just an hour. The JNU data which was available online reached 786 by 11 PM on Diwali night, a jump of almost 5 times if compared to the 8 PM concentration of PM 2.5. Hence, it exposed the poor implementation of the guidelines and also how agencies stopped providing online data at the crucial time when the pollution levels were peaking.

Not The Story Of This Year Only

Sudden discontinuation of online data is not surprising for those who follow the website on Diwali evening regularly. Not providing data to the common man is a normal exercise on the most important evening of the year from the pollution point of view. The website, which is managed by the DPCC, which comes under the Environment Department of the Delhi government, often stopped providing data on previous Diwali evenings as well. Hence the trend on Diwali evenings when the agencies stopped giving online data suddenly continued this year as well. Nonregistration of data is normally being attributed to the technical glitches by them. But surprisingly, these technical glitches come to the rescue of present and earlier governments in the office irrespective of which political party is in power.