00:00But let's shift focus to how earlier my colleague Shriya Kundu spoke to environmentalist Jai Dhar Gupta about the alarming
00:08rise of air pollution levels.
00:10Let's listen in to what she had to say.
00:14You know, we've spoken about this time and again in the past.
00:17There are two governments this time that are quarreling over and passing the buck on each other as to the
00:24fact that whether stubble burning is the main cause behind this entire AQI problem.
00:29Because that's been cited as one of the major reasons behind the AQI.
00:33But the Punjab government has to say this time the stubble burning hasn't even officially begun properly to be contributing
00:40to the smog.
00:41We had a winter action planned by the centre and the government in place.
00:45And yet we see even before Diwali that the AQI has already hit 400.
00:52What exactly is going wrong then?
00:56Look, the farm fires are a problem.
00:59But I can tell you with confidence that up until, you know, four to five days ago, the winds were
01:04easterly.
01:05And these farm fires, you know, the farm fires smoke to Delhi was coming from UP and Madhya Pradesh and
01:13not from Punjab.
01:14The wind directions have just changed around the 1st of November.
01:18And now we are downwind from Punjab.
01:20But, you know, having said that, even at its worst, farm fires do not contribute more than 10 to 13
01:27percent of, you know, Delhi's pollution mix.
01:30And I hated that year after year we focus on the farm fires and the farmers and not on the
01:36local emissions of Delhi, which we should be focusing on.
01:39If there's a government and a leadership, you know, on health and environment in Delhi, they need to focus on
01:46local emissions.
01:47I don't understand why, you know, up until the 1st where, you know, levels were around 200, you had declared
01:54victory on air pollution.
01:55And now, and I'm seeing this for the last 15 years, the moment the levels crossed 300, suddenly you start
02:01finding somebody to blame outside Delhi.
02:04It's the behavior of Delhiites, it's the emissions, local emissions of Delhi that are at fault.
02:09And I think the bigger kind of crime, as far as the government is concerned, is, and not only this
02:16government, but even the previous government,
02:18the failure to call a public health emergency a public health emergency, it's just shocking that children are still in
02:24school.
02:25It's just shocking that we don't have a single public, you know, like a health advisory.
02:30You have to have health advisories on radio, TV, newspapers.
02:36Any form of communication needs to go out to people to limit activity and exposure.
02:41There needs to be a mask advisory.
02:43People need to put on well-fitted N95 masks, nothing.
02:47People are just hiding in their failure, and that is the biggest failure of this government.
02:52Not that they can't control the pollution, that they can't, you know, protect health and life.
02:58I think that's a huge, huge failure.
