00:00And I want to add here, our colleagues on the ground and through their checks were constantly researching about what
00:06the night was looking like.
00:07So it wasn't simply festivities for the India Today team.
00:10My colleague Anshul Singh, in fact, also decided to go through some of the research portals.
00:14And what we found out was that the Med Department showed the Air Quality Index at 143, while the CPCV,
00:22the Pollution Control Board, showed it at 343.
00:26Can there be a discrepancy of that big margin?
00:30Let's take a look at this report by Anshul.
00:33The AQI is something that has been talked about today since yesterday was Diwali and it was expected that the
00:38AQI could increase by multiple folds.
00:41And since morning, there has been a lot of confusion as to what is the exact data of the Air
00:46Quality Index out here in the national capital.
00:48On one hand, where some opposition leaders have gone ahead and claimed on social media that the AQI had crossed
00:533,000.
00:54On the other hand, the government data shows something absolutely else.
00:57This morning at approximately 5 a.m., the AQI of the national capital was around 3.66.
01:03But over here, I am standing outside the Mausambhavan or the Indian Meteorological Department.
01:08And this board that is stationed over here is actually managed by the Delhi Pollution Control Board.
01:13But over here, you can see that the AQI says 143, which is moderate.
01:17And this is government data that has come to the fore.
01:19And it is absolutely shocking to note at this point in time that the AQI is being shown as 143
01:25in moderate category.
01:27On the other hand, if I could show you the official government data, this is of DPCC, Delhi Pollution Control
01:33Board, All India AQI Dashboard.
01:35We have selected the station that is IMD Lodi Road where the meteorological department is situated.
01:42And here, the AQI shows 342, which is multiple times than what the AQI is being shown over here.
01:49The larger question that still remains as to what is the actual AQI on whose data should the people believe
01:57because the AQI has definitely deteriorated.
02:00There are no two ways about it.
02:01The AQI over here states 143, which means that it is in the moderate category and thinning fog in patches,
02:09which means there are patches of fog that has engulfed the national capital.
02:15So, this is the data that is being shown over here.
02:17But the data that is being shared from the side of the Central Pollution Control Board, it clearly states that
02:23the AQI out here at Lodi Road is above 300, is around 342, which means that it is in the
02:30very poor category.
02:31So, whose data is real?
02:34Why the data that is outside one of the most important and prominent places when it comes to fighting pollution
02:40is actually somewhere or the other seems to be fussed.
02:43Because 143 AQI, a day after Diwali, almost seems to be a dream that could come true eventually or might
02:51not come true ever.
02:52With video journalist Logitra Pandey, this is Anshul Singh for India today.
02:56Let's try and understand this further.
02:58You watched this ground report by my colleague Shreya Chatterjee.
03:00She's now joining me live.
03:02And I want to mention here, Shreya is a young new mother and yet she was out there reporting and
03:07not simply spending the festivities at home through the night.
03:10At 11 p.m. also, Shreya, you reported that there were fireworks, which means adding to the noise and smoke.
03:15But what is your general understanding?
03:17Because people say that Diwali firecrackers become the scapegoats, there's always already pollution.
03:23Why should my festivities suffer?
03:26What was your understanding on the ground of what you found out?
03:30Well, absolutely.
03:31You know, we can't blame Diwali alone for the kind of rising pollution levels in the national capital.
03:36Even before Diwali set in, we had already seen a high AQI level.
03:41But the question is that when your house is on fire, you don't add to it.
03:45You don't add gasoline to it.
03:46And that's precisely why when openly firecracker norms were violated, even as late as 2, 3 a.m.
03:54when I was out on the roads from 11 p.m., I saw people were flouting norms.
03:59When I put the mic on them, they say that they know it, but Diwali comes once a year.
04:04So clearly our green cracker fire norm is something that does not help suppress the pollution level.
04:09So important question, Pooja, is the AQI monitoring system.
04:13How does it work?
04:14We have recorded data where PM 2.5 level 900 plus is showing AQI 407, whereas a PM 2.5
04:22level 1700 is showing 403.
04:24So how can a PM 2.5 level higher show lower AQI?
04:28So all these questions are before the government right now.
04:32They should probably start answering that are we managing our pollution data well?
04:36Because that is the starting point for setting policies in place to ensure that we can battle pollution.
04:42As of now, you and me, we've both covered pollution year after year.
04:46What it looks like is that we only get headline management with zero real solution being offered on the ground.
04:53Shreya, that's an interesting point.
04:55It's not like pollution comes as a surprise anymore.
04:57And for Delhi residents like us, we've seen that fog time or fog era now, as I call it, turn
05:04to the smoke nightmare season as well.
05:07And nothing really seems to be resolving it.
05:10Eventually, the long-term impact on us of that will only be known perhaps in the years to come.
05:16Thank you very much, Shreya Chatterjee, for all the latest on that.
05:19Thank you very much.
