For the first time in over four months, Delhi’s air turned ‘poor’ on Tuesday with the Air Quality Index (AQI) reading 201 at 10.30 am. The last time the AQI was in the poor category was June 11. According to India Meteorological Department (IMD) officials, a dip in wind speed has led to the accumulation of pollutants. According to a forecast from the early warning system, slight relief is expected during the day with the air getting slightly cleaner due to higher temperatures, but it will be followed by at least six days of poor AQI. Delhi has seen a long spell of clean air this year, with July getting 29 days of satisfactory AQI. Heavy rain over the past three months has been a major contributory factor. While the bad air is inevitable as temperatures dip, winds still and rain dries up, the Delhi government is expecting the relief to last a little longer. A senior Delhi government official pointed to the delay in the rice harvest in Punjab and Haryana this year because of late rains and flooding. “The harvest is delayed because of the weather and flooding. In many areas, the harvest has not even started. This means that by Diwali, the harvest will still be underway. This means that the farm fires might peak in November, instead of October end. So even as the meteorological conditions deteriorate, the AQI may not dip as rapidly as it usually does in the last two weeks of October,” the official said. “Diwali in Delhi is expected to be better than the past few years because stubble burning may not start in a big way till the end of the month,” he added. Farms are set on fire by farmers to get rid of the long stubble left behind after paddy is harvested using machines. Rice stubble, unlike wheat stubble, is not fed to cattle because it is high in silica. While several solutions, including using machines such as happy seeders, selling the stubble to waste-to-energy plants and penal provisions have been adopted over the years, setting fire to the stubble is the cheapest and quickest. Time is a key factor because the fields have to be prepared for wheat sowing. The number of farm fires recorded in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan are the lowest so far this year. Uttar Pradesh has recorded more than half of the cases, official data shows. Till Saturday, the state has seen 163 cases as opposed to 116 in Punjab. The data is yet to be updated.
