00:01Now, you're looking at, of course, the graph on your screens as well.
00:04I want to now bring in my colleague Shreya Achataji.
00:07And Shreya, after this conversation, I'm also going to play out the special reports that you've sent us through the
00:12night.
00:12I want to first ask you about the data and the discrepancy that is being recorded.
00:16So there was a peak, clearly, especially at night, because I think by morning, because of a lot of wind
00:21and cold breeze, a lot of that started to drift.
00:24But how can there be a discrepancy at all?
00:27What are we witnessing here? What are you looking at? What exactly happened?
00:31And what was your understanding of the data that is coming?
00:35Well, Pooja, first and foremost, the reason we did see the AQI clearing up a little bit is because of
00:40the easterly wind at play.
00:42However, the data, the discrepancy on the path, that definitely came up in our report as well,
00:48because we visited at least four monitoring stations.
00:52Two of them were not even transmitting the live data that included the NSIT Dwarka and the Mausambhavan on Lodi
00:58Road.
00:59The other two stations that I encountered was the ITO one and the other one was the Dwarka sector eight.
01:05Now, live data was not reflecting on the online dashboard.
01:10While we saw that PM 2.5 was soaring at 1700 plus at the Dwarka station,
01:15the AQI read 403. At ITO, the PM 2.5 was 994, but the AQI was 407.
01:23My question here is that how can a higher PM 2.5 clock a lower AQI compared to lesser PM
01:312.5 clock a higher AQI?
01:33This is two analysis of, say, ITO versus the Dwarka station.
01:38So, clearly, there is some answering on the part of how are we actually calculating our pollution?
01:43How are we relaying the data?
01:45And the reason I say that, Pooja, yes, a lot of people say that we always put the camera when
01:49the Diwali night comes in.
01:51Fair so, but the question also is that even when Diwali is not there,
01:55is the pollution data actually giving us real-time understanding?
01:59Because now, for a lot of us, with children, with elderly individuals...
02:01There has to be a transparency that must come in on this regardless.
02:04And that's a fair point. That's our research that has been done by our colleagues through the night.
02:08But also, Shreya, as we toss across to your reports, give us a background.
02:13Why were you there on the streets, not at 7pm, 8pm, 9pm, but 11pm and beyond?
02:20And what did you find?
02:23Well, Pooja, primarily the reason was that I wanted to wait till the cracker timeline permission was over,
02:29which was 10pm.
02:30And when I saw that people were still bursting crackers,
02:32I decided that I need to hit the ground and see what's happening, really.
02:36Also, this is also your peak time.
02:38Your peak pollution levels are clocking.
02:40How is our system working?
02:41We have 337 anti-smog guns in the national capital.
02:44Not a single one did I spot on the roads when the pollution level peaked with PM 2.5 around
02:512000.
02:52That is also the reason why I decided to see whether our system is working on the ground or not.
02:57How are we managing our data?
02:59Because there have been reports of blank spots, of data not being transmitted.
03:03And unfortunately, Pooja, that's exactly what I found on the ground.
03:06There were discrepancies in the way we were giving data.
03:09There were discrepancies on the fact that there were not even the system.
03:12For example, basic anti-smog guns, water sprinklers were not there on the ground.
03:18Why do we have this system in place when on the most polluted night?
03:22I will call it the most polluted night.
03:24Because with crackers adding to an already contributing factor of vehicular emission and stubble burning,
03:29it clubbed on to something close to 2000.
