- 3 months ago
In this edition of 5 Live, the focus is on Delhi's never-ending battle with pollution ahead of the onset of winter season.
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00:00Hi there, I'm Sorul Merothra Kapoor and this is 5 Live.
00:05On the program today, we continue to keep our focus on the biggest issue North India faces.
00:10It's air pollution. It's the air emergency that we are under.
00:14Now Delhi's battle with pollution now seems like a never-ending struggle.
00:19If you live in the capital, the air you breathe is one of the biggest threats.
00:23Just breathing here is a threat to your life.
00:25Today, Delhi's air quality hit alarming levels once again.
00:29Now according to the Central Pollution Control Board, the AQI stands at 312.5.
00:36That's the very poor category.
00:38But look at what the Swiss-based IQ Air recorded this morning.
00:43A staggering 727.
00:46That's deep into hazardous.
00:49That's not a small difference.
00:50That's two realities, one city, two readings.
00:54Meanwhile, government attempted to fix the crisis, including cloud seeding, which has gone nowhere.
01:01There also was no artificial rain that came out of it.
01:04No visible improvement in air quality as well.
01:07And it's not just Delhi that's gasping for air, right?
01:10Neighboring Noida and Gurugram are also now blanketed in smog, trapped under the same toxic airs.
01:17For years, the blame has swung between stubble burning, vehicular emissions, one state blaming the other.
01:24But could the problem be more fundamental?
01:28Where am I going with this?
01:30Is Delhi's geography itself, its low-lying, bowl-like topography that traps pollutants,
01:38is that the real culprit here?
01:41So today, let's break that on the program.
01:44What's the real reason for Delhi's dirty air?
01:47And what will it actually take to clear the sky?
01:51Joining me now is Abhijit Yadav, the co-founder at UPSCprep.com.
01:58Alright, with me is Abhijit Yadav, like I said, co-founder for UPSCprep.com.
02:04Abhijit, you are saying that everything we knew about the air pollution reasons in the national capital,
02:13starting with farm fires, going to industrial pollution, then coming to vehicular pollutions,
02:19then saying, oh, weather, it's cold, that's why wind movement is not so much, moisture is not so much.
02:26You're saying all of that can be put aside because the actual reason is geographical.
02:31So, I'll say, not all of that can be put aside.
02:35It exacerbates problems which exist because of geography.
02:39Now, geography, we'll have to look at the basic, you know, this is the elevation map of India.
02:44Elevation map, you can see Delhi is somewhere over here.
02:47To the north, we have a massive boundary, which is Himalayas.
02:51Nothing goes beyond there.
02:53To the south, we have the Vindiyas over here, and you have the Aravali range over here.
02:58So, what is happening is that there is an air pocket which is sandwiched.
03:02If there is air over here, it's not moving north, it's not going south.
03:05Yeah.
03:06It has to go through.
03:07Yeah.
03:08So, one problem is this.
03:09Now, second problem comes is there is something called inversion.
03:13Now, what happens in inversion?
03:15In the winters, in Delhi, what happens?
03:17Day, your surface gets heated up.
03:19We have black tops, our concrete jungle has become.
03:22And that's why there is warm air, warm air has a tendency to rise up.
03:28Yeah.
03:28Warm air rises up, but at night, what happens is that your land gets cooled faster.
03:33Land gets cooled, surrounding air also gets cooled.
03:38Because this is a property of the atmosphere that it gets heated or cooled by land more than directly from sunlight.
03:44So, what is happening is that warm air is rising up, there is a pocket of cold air.
03:51And in this pocket of cold air…
03:53Let's take this one.
03:57Yeah.
03:59And in this pocket of cold air, we have a lid.
04:04This lid is called a temperature inversion lid.
04:07What does that mean?
04:08Temperature inversion is the simple idea that as you go up in height, temperature falls.
04:13In this particular case, because there is a cold layer of air underneath, there is warm air, and then there is colder air still on top.
04:22Ah, so you're saying that…and this area is the smog?
04:27Just underneath this is the smog layer, which is trapped because of this warm air.
04:32It's not going up?
04:33It's not going up, it can't go up.
04:34So, this is the sandwich.
04:35This is why all those videos which come in, that airlines which are landing in Delhi, right above the clouds, you see beautiful white, blue sky.
04:44Exactly.
04:45The minute you go under, you feel like you've been enveloped in smog.
04:49Absolutely.
04:50So, that's where this is happening.
04:51Yeah.
04:52So, this layer is called the planetary boundary layer and it changes in height.
04:56In the daytime, as the surface is getting heated, naturally this layer will be higher, somewhere around 500 to 800 meters.
05:03At night, when the surface is not getting heated, it gets compressed, right, maybe 400 meters, 500 meters.
05:09So, then, because the same amount of pollutants are in half the space, you see a more exacerbated…
05:15Ah, it's clogged.
05:16It's clogged.
05:17It's more clogged.
05:18Yeah.
05:19Now, with this, there is another problem that somebody will ask, why is this warm air not rising up?
05:24Yeah.
05:25Because warm air rises up.
05:26So, for this, you have to understand, you know, the global wind circulations.
05:29In the global wind circulation, there is a simple idea that hot air rises up, cold air falls down.
05:37Around the time of October, November, December, in Delhi, what is happening is that there is a massive downwelling of cold air.
05:46Right.
05:47Downwelling of cold air means that the layer was created here, cold is pushing it up, but there is another layer which is pushing downward over here.
05:57That's the one you're talking about.
05:58Yeah.
05:59Of the global winds descending on top of Delhi.
06:02Yeah.
06:03So, this air is not going anywhere.
06:04Yeah.
06:05Because it's pressured from both sides.
06:06It's pushing up from both sides.
06:07It's pushing up from here.
06:08It's pushing down from there.
06:09It's pushing down from there.
06:10Which creates an extended period in Delhi, which has just, you know, bad air quality.
06:15Now, final, you know, puzzle piece over here.
06:18This is our Gangetic Basin.
06:24Nothing is moving north because of Himalayas.
06:27Nothing is moving south because of Vindyaz and Aravlis.
06:30Yeah.
06:31So, over here it is blocked if I look at it as a 3D map.
06:34Yeah.
06:35Yeah.
06:36Yeah.
06:37Because of the boundary layer, because of the capped inversion layer.
06:40Only where it can go is this.
06:43So, why isn't it going here?
06:45Because there are no winds.
06:46Monsoon winds have gone out and after monsoon, this area does not have any circulation.
06:52So, this block of air which is here is just here.
06:56It's just here.
06:57It's not moving anywhere.
06:58Now, this is where the problem gets exacerbated by that there is a vehicle pollution.
07:04Sure, it is a problem but now it will stay here.
07:07Yeah.
07:08But you see in this entire map, only this little round that you see, that's Delhi, right?
07:13Yeah.
07:14So, but your drawing clearly says that this is an Indo-Gangetic problem.
07:18Yeah.
07:19So, if this is happening everywhere, why are numbers only high in Delhi?
07:22Hmm.
07:23Numbers are only high in Delhi, because what happens here in this region?
07:27What you have is Pakistan and Thar Desert and here.
07:30The dust particles are westward slight wind pressure.
07:33So, these things accumulate here.
07:35Naturally, the second thing is Delhi population density is very high.
07:39Because of that, the vehicular pollution that accumulates in this region is more than other places.
07:44You go anywhere down the Gangetic Plains, AQI will be much higher than good conditions or even acceptable conditions.
07:51Even by Indian standards.
07:53Delhi, obviously, is the place where it is most concentrated due to emissions being high also.
07:58Emissions high is one reason, geography is another reason.
08:02Mix them together and you get a mess.
08:04Okay.
08:05So, you're saying the same reasons, the contributors to pollution, let's put it like that.
08:10Yeah.
08:11The contributors to pollution in Delhi remain the same as they would in any other metro.
08:17True.
08:18The geographical location makes it trap the air.
08:21Yeah.
08:22Which is why we are stuck in that for a longer period.
08:24Absolutely.
08:25But what I'm not getting an answer to is, if this is happening only in Delhi, what about the rest?
08:30Like the cities here, are they not feeling the clog?
08:33Why is Delhi feeling it the most?
08:34Not as much as Delhi.
08:35Because again, Delhi population is one of the highest in the country.
08:38Delhi has a population of roughly 20 million people.
08:41UP as a whole, sorry, UP as a whole has 200 million people but spread out over a much larger area.
08:47So, in any single place, you will not see a lot of that concentrated smog happening.
08:52Delhi is happening there.
08:54And since air is not moving, Delhi's smog is on Delhi mostly.
08:59In the months of December and January, what happens is, there is something called Western disturbances.
09:04So, Western disturbances bring in rain from the Mediterranean region.
09:08And when the rain period comes, that is around the time you will see some relief.
09:12Because there is a movement of wind.
09:15Got it.
09:16A movement of wind means clearing of some of the smog.
09:18But again, because it is small periods, there is a little rain.
09:21So, you get small respite.
09:23So, this is the reason why things are becoming worse.
09:26You have spoken about the problem very clearly.
09:28Do you also have any solutions for us?
09:30So, solutions, I think, I do not have great expertise in this.
09:34What I can share is based on what I have read.
09:37And in reading, basic things you have to keep trying new things.
09:42Cloud seeding was something that is being tried actively.
09:44I think that is a good direction to take over here.
09:46Other than that, cutting vehicular emissions.
09:48Which, you know, grab under a lot of things.
09:51That is something that industries can push out a little bit.
09:54Because again, what we have seen, if it is emitted there, it stays there.
09:58So, if I can move things out slightly, I can cut down vehicular emissions.
10:02I can cloud seed maybe.
10:03I can try 10 different things.
10:05Because even the best scientists don't have the answers for what will happen.
10:08All right, cool.
10:09So, that was Abhijit explaining all the reasons why Delhi is a more complicated problem.
10:15But like we said, today's program is not just about highlighting the problems.
10:20It's about fighting and getting to understand some solutions as well.
10:24So, let's get to that now.
10:26All right, so talking about solutions.
10:30For years, we've heard this line.
10:32If China could clear its air, why can't India?
10:36It sounds simple, but Delhi's reality is far messier.
10:40The Beijing playbook in 2023, remember, Beijing faced the same nightwear.
10:45Thick smog, schools were closed, visibility was down to a few meters.
10:50That's when China declared a war on pollution.
10:55And what followed was one of the most ambitious clean air campaigns in the world.
11:00The Beijing action plan.
11:02And later, its blue sky policy.
11:05They didn't just ban or didn't just talk about sprinklers.
11:09They actually went to the source.
11:12Over 3,000 coal-fired boilers were shut down.
11:16Coal use in and around Beijing dropped by nearly 30%.
11:20Factories were told, upgrade or shut shop.
11:24Many moved out.
11:26Power plants were overhauled to use cleaner fuel, mostly natural gas.
11:31And public transport.
11:33That exploded.
11:34Beijing's metro network stretched to over 1,000 kilometers.
11:38Old vehicles were taken off the road.
11:42Not just odd, even remember.
11:44By 2020, 40% of the new cars sold in Beijing were electric.
11:50China didn't just clean up its energy.
11:53It built muscle in monitoring it.
11:551,500 air quality stations across provinces fed real time data to the public and the authority.
12:04The air couldn't be hidden anymore.
12:06It was tracked, measured, enforced.
12:09They also planted 100 million trees around the city.
12:14Built ventilation corridors.
12:16Something we so badly need in Delhi as we've just understood.
12:19Through urban design.
12:21Wide green belts that allowed air to circulate.
12:24And they also backed it up with money.
12:26Tens of millions of dollars in regional investment.
12:30And the result?
12:31Between 2013 and 2017, Beijing's PM 2.5 levels fell by about 35%.
12:41Over a decade, that dropped at 60%.
12:45Life expectancy rose by 4.6 years.
12:49And that's not luck.
12:50That's policy.
12:51That's good implementation.
12:53So the question really before us is.
12:56Can Delhi do the same?
12:59It's not one which has any simple solutions.
13:02But we'll try and understand that with our expert today.
13:05Joining me now is MD Rafiuddin.
13:07He's the program lead at CEEW.
13:10Hi, Mr Rafi.
13:11Thank you so much for being with us.
13:13You just heard the entire China model.
13:16I'm curious to understand from you.
13:18Can there be any takeaways for India?
13:21For the entire North Indian belt from this model?
13:27Thank you, Sunil, for having me here.
13:29I heard you say that China started its journey in 2013.
13:33With a comprehensive plan for air pollution reduction.
13:36Which is true.
13:37But its journey dates all the way back to the early 2000s.
13:41When Beijing realized that
13:43transportation, solving for transportation
13:47is one of the solutions to its air pollution problem.
13:50So Beijing used to face congestion issues, for instance.
13:54And it invested significantly in expanding its public transport network.
13:57And today what you see in Beijing is
14:00it has a bus fleet of around 25,000 buses
14:03catering to a population similar to that of Delhi.
14:05Whereas Delhi, the fleet is close to 6,000 buses.
14:08So one of the solutions lies in ramping up the bus fleet significantly.
14:12Expanding our public transport modes, bus, metro and so on.
14:18So that congestion can be reduced.
14:20Vehicular pollution can be reduced.
14:21One of the reasons for this is that
14:23if you look at Delhi's own sources to
14:25you know, within Delhi's own boundaries.
14:28If you look at the pollution sources,
14:30transportation contributes to 50% of Delhi's own sources.
14:33So solving for that is probably the single most important thing to do.
14:38And coming to the other examples, for instance,
14:41Beijing also phased out coal-fired boilers, like you said.
14:45Similarly, in Delhi and in Delhi's surroundings,
14:49the medium and small-scale enterprises, the boilers there
14:53will need to be favored.
14:55Like coal to gas transition needs to happen.
14:57Electric boilers need to be brought in.
15:00And also air pollution control devices need to be installed
15:03in all these boilers so that emissions can be regulated from that.
15:06And one of the most neglected sectors,
15:08as far as air pollution is concerned, is winter heating.
15:11For instance, in Delhi during peak winters,
15:14the contribution of winter biomass heating, biomass burning
15:18for heating can go all the way up to 30%.
15:21The way China tackled it is to bring in electric and gas-based heaters
15:26and renovating households so that they move away from coal-based
15:29heating, Delhi will have to do something similar.
15:33And not to forget that Beijing's plan was an airshed-level plan
15:36which encompassed not just the city but also the surrounding regions.
15:40So Delhi would also need to have an airshed-level action plan in place.
15:44Got it. But Rafi, a lot of solutions that we've spoken about,
15:47what we read from the China playbook as well,
15:50is what we've heard over the years.
15:52Bring down vehicular pollution, ensure that there are lesser cars on the road,
15:57it'll help with traffic as well.
15:59There has been odd even that's been tried out.
16:01There is now cloud seeding being tried out.
16:03There were smock towers by the previous government.
16:06We seem to be getting some of them or sort of approaching them in a way,
16:12but somehow not seeing any results really.
16:15What do you think, where the lag is then?
16:19Well, any solution to air pollution would require you to act on the emission sources.
16:27So unless you cut the emission sources, you're not going to see drastic changes in the air pollution levels.
16:34So Delhi's emission sources are also diverse, as you've already pointed out,
16:39like since you have transport, you have industries, you have road dust.
16:42So these sources require a year-round action plan.
16:47It's not just that you have fixes during winter or fixes during some other season.
16:52So you need to have year-round comprehensive action plan.
16:55And one of the factors affecting Delhi's air pollution is the fact that Delhi's air pollution not just comes from within its sources,
17:04but also from the surroundings.
17:06So a significant share comes from outside its borders,
17:09which is why cutting emissions only within the boundaries is not enough.
17:14You'll have to cut in the neighborhood also.
17:16Got it. Rafi, I have to leave you there for the moment, but thank you so much for enlightening us.
17:23Perhaps what we are trying to say here is that we need a long-term approach to fight the air emergency that is on in North India right now.
17:33We don't need a plan which is for four months of the year.
17:37We don't need a plan which is only for Delhi as well.
17:40We need a plan for all of North India to look at all the pollution sources
17:45and then attack it.
17:46Something that can be followed despite the fact that there might be change in governments,
17:51despite the fact that we are divided into different states which have different powers
17:55and all of those policy issues and implementation issues as well.
17:59Okay, so on the program today we understood the problem.
18:02We tried to look at some solutions as well.
18:05But what is the immediate thing that matters to you and me?
18:08Weekend plans. Weekend is here and we want to understand
18:12is it going to get any easier or better for you to step out this weekend?
18:17What exactly is the pollution weather monitor telling us?
18:21Take a look.
18:23Let's take a look at the three factors currently impacting or affecting the AQI in Delhi.
18:30The first and foremost is the number of active farm fires that we are tracking through satellite in Punjab, Haryana and also in Pakistan's Punjab province.
18:41Now, while the number of active farm fires have gone down, if we compare the data from last four or five years,
18:50we have also noted a sudden spike in total number of satellite tracked active farm fires in past seven days.
18:57Now, another important factor that is going to affect the AQI in Delhi is the drifting winds.
19:03Whether the speed is calm, light, moderate, fresh or strong, it will decide the quality of air people in Delhi are going to breathe.
19:10Now, here is one case study.
19:13This graph shows the correlation between the wind speed and the AQI.
19:18You see, at this point and here, the wind speed is high and what it does is it brings down the AQI and the air quality improves.
19:28So, higher the wind speed, the better air you are likely to breathe.
19:32This week, as per all the data that we have, as per all the models that we have seen, the wind speed while is expected to remain consistent,
19:41the problem could be the wind direction which is expected to flow towards eastward.
19:46That might end up creating a problem for the AQI.
19:50Now, the next factor and perhaps the most interesting is the under reporting, the missing data.
19:58Now, this graph is very interesting.
20:01There are three parts.
20:03This is the peak pollution hours.
20:05This is probably the noon and this is again the evening peak pollution hours.
20:09The interesting thing about the missing pollution data is that it is mostly inactive during the peak pollution hours.
20:18What it does is while you keep breathing a very poor quality of air, the index will still show the average of it.
20:27So, the average will be the not so peak pollution hours and some part of peak pollution hours.
20:34So, while it will bring the average up, the data will show that the air quality is relatively better,
20:40but the quality at ground, the quality of air that is going into your lungs is not necessarily going to be that good.
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