Govt says vehicle pollution down 30%, experts divided

Govt says vehicle pollution down 30%, experts divided

               

New Delhi: Delhi transport minister Gopal Rai claimed on Thursday that levels of PM2.5, primarily caused by vehicular pollution, had come down by 25-30%. “Yesterday, the levels recorded at 18 locations in Delhi were below 300gm3. This was between 400-465gm3 in the month of December,“ he added. The monitoring is being done by Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC).

Experts are divided over Rai's claim. Critics say the government is in a hurry to prove that pollution has gone down and its methodology is erroneous while others argue there can't be any other way of assessing the situation. FULL COVERAGE: P 2, 3, 4 The PM 2.5 level being cit ed by the government for December is an average of the records from six fixed stations of the DPCC. These are located at Anand Vihar, Punjabi Bagh, RK Puram, Mandir Marg, Civil Lines and IGI Airport. The current readings, on the other hand, are from mobile monitoring units. These have been assessing air quality for 20 minutes at spots like Connaught Place, Talkatora Stadium, Chanakyapuri, Tees Hazari Court, Sadar Bazaar, Delhi Cantonment railway station and Dhaula Kuan.

A scientist, who refused to be named, said the comparison of air pollution levels monitored through hand-held devices or mobile units with averages recorded by fixed stations isn't “fair“ or “accurate“. He argued: “Pollution is very location specific. You may not get accurate results if you compare levels at totally different locations because the emissions will obviously be different.“ Another scientist pointed out the very low levels quoted by Rai.

There is no conclusive evidence of any drop in ambient air pollution levels from both DPCC's real-time data on its website or from System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR)'s real-time data.

Centre for Science and Environment researchers, who said they were not aware of the process, did offer an analysis. “This winter, compared to the previous high smog episodes, the peak pollution during the oddand-even programme has been the lowest. This shows despite the hostile weather conditions no wind and the presence of a western disturbance the peak pollution level has been arrested by lowering traffic volume and congestion. This is an important lesson,“ said Anumita Roy Chowdhury , head of CSE's `Clean Air' campaign.

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