Smoke rising from burnt garbage at a dumping site at Chinniyampalayam in Coimbatore on Thursday.
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The Edayar industrial stretch on the banks of the river Periyar near Kochi on September 2, 2026.
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CM Rekha Gupta said the PARIVARTAN scheme will accelerate the modernisation of the commercial vehicle fleet in Delhi. 
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Construction bans in Delhi-NCR due to air pollution have lead to project delays and rising costs. File.
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Stubble burning solution: Chennai students win IIT Kharagpur award

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The Hindu

Every November, Delhi chokes under a blanket of smog. There are many reasons for why this happens. One is the much discussed and debated stubble burning in the nearby states of Punjab and Haryana.

Farmers have taken to using alternative varieties of paddy that don’t create the thick stubble that would need to be burned. Strict fines are being imposed on those who burn. Cases are filed against offenders. But the problem does exist and cries for a solution. Experts and top end researchers are working on a low-cost solution to this problem.

Stubble burning caught the attention of three bright students at the Agurchand Manmull Jain School in Chennai when they were told about the Young Innovators Program at IIT Kharagpur late in 2023.

The YIP is an annual competition that attracts bright minds in schools across the world. The 2023-24 edition of YIP attracted some 1,200 entries.

The three students at Agurchand Manmull Jain School, Revanth, Pio Jacksmith Fernandez and Santhosh came up with a simple solution they call Pyro Polish for stubble burning and submitted it. Out of 1,200 entries, 250 teams were selected. On Day 1 of the competition, 32 were shortlisted to showcase their models. Out of the 32, 20 were selected to make their powerpoint presentations.

And Pyro Polish was declared the winner of senior division. Here’s their story.

Reporting: Samreen Wani

Video: Shiva Raj, Thamodharan B, HG Shakambari

Editing: Shiva Raj, Johan Sathyadas

New Delhi:

Pollution levels in Delhi-NCR, which had crossed the 500-mark on Monday and stayed there, has started dropping, indicating that the stringent GRAP 4 measures have started taking effect. In an exclusive interview with NDTV, Arvind Nautiyal, Member-Secretary of the Commission for Air Quality Management, said the Air Quality Index or AQI — which measures pollutants – that had been 500, has come down to 467.

“Today, the visibility has improved. There has been some change in the weather, but the pollution has reduced due to GRAP-IV,” he told NDTV.

On Monday, the pollution level had suddenly spiked and the situation was not much better this morning, with the AQI staying at 500 in some parts. According to the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR) data, Delhi’s overall AQI was 494 at 6 am — in the ‘severe plus’ category..

“The pollution level had increased a lot in the entire city… and the AQI level had reached close to 500… We have 40 pollution monitoring centers in Delhi-NCR,” he said.

The meteorological department has predicted that the weather will improve in the coming days and more impact of GRAP-IV can be seen.

The weather has been unpredictable this year as the winter smog hit the city in November — far ahead of its usual December-January schedule.

“The AQI increased by 90 points in a day, which was unexpected. That is why we had to implement GRAP-IV quickly,” Mr Nautiyal added.

After implementing GRAP IV measures, which include stopping of construction work and entry of heavy vehicles registered outside Delhi, and ordering schools to go online, Delhi is now considering cloud seeding to induce artificial rain. There is also talk of re-introducing the odd-even road rationing scheme and work from home for offices.
 

New Delhi:

Delhi continues to be wrapped in a blanket of smog, with the air quality in the “severe” category for the third consecutive day. With AQI 498, Delhi is the world’s second most polluted city, after Pakistan’s Lahore with AQI 770 recorded at 7 am. IQAir, a Swiss company, ranks major cities based on Particulate Matter 2.5 (PM2.5) data.

The top five polluted areas in Delhi this morning are Jahangirpuri (with AQI 458), Bawana (455), Wazirpur (455), Rohini (452), and Punjabi Bagh (443), according to Central Pollution Control Board’s Sameer App.

Delhi’s Palam and Safdurjung reported 500m and 400m visibilities respectively.

Low visibility due to smog has affected flight and rail operations across India. Several IndiGo flights to and from Amritsar are affected. Many SpiceJet flights to and from Delhi and Darbanga are running late.

Various trains are running late by over two hours. More than 25 trains arriving at New Delhi railway station are also delayed.  

With no respite in sight, all primary schools in Delhi have been moved online, Chief Minister Atishi announced in a post on X. She said the online classes for primary school children will continue “until further directions”.

Due to rising pollution levels, all primary schools in Delhi will be shifting to online classes, until further directions.

— Atishi (@AtishiAAP) November 14, 2024

On Thursday, the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) enforced stage 3 of the Graded Action Response Plan (GRAP). Under GRAP 3, the following restrictions and measures have been imposed:

• A ban on non-essential construction and demolition work.
• A ban on the operation of BS-III petrol and BS-IV diesel four-wheelers in Delhi and parts of the NCR like Gurugram, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, and Noida.
• Restricted use of diesel generator sets for emergency purposes only. Industrial operations not running on fuels in the standard list of approved ones are banned.
• Intensified mechanized road sweeping and water sprinkling to suppress dust.
• Increasing public transport services and promoting off-peak travel through differential rates.
• Major welding and gas-cutting operations. Minor welding activities for MEP (Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing) works are to be, however, permitted.
• Painting, polishing and varnishing works etc. Cement, Plaster / other coatings, except for minor indoor repairs/ maintenance. Cutting/grinding and fixing of tiles, stones and other flooring materials, except for minor indoor repairs/ maintenance. Waterproofing work (Excluding Chemical waterproofing).
• Movement of vehicles carrying construction materials on unpaved roads. Long-term exposure to “severe” AQI can affect even healthy people and seriously impact those with existing diseases. Doctors have cautioned people to stay indoors as much as possible as air pollution affects physical and mental well-being and can cause health problems ranging from respiratory issues to cardiovascular.

READ | GRAP 3 In Delhi Explained: What Is Banned, What Is Allowed

“We have been witnessing several gastrointestinal and metabolic conditions due to air pollution,” Dr. Sukrit Singh Sethi, Consultant – Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Liver Transplantation, Narayana Hospital, Gurugram told news agency IANS.

“The harmful particles and gases in polluted air, when inhaled, can lead to systemic inflammation and oxidative stress, which disturb gut health and impact the microbiome — the collection of trillions of bacteria in our intestines that play a critical role in digestion, immunity, and overall health,” Dr Sethi said.

The health experts recommend limiting outdoor activities during peak pollution times, typically in the early morning and evening; and using masks, especially in highly polluted environments.

READ | Construction Halted, Buses Restricted: Stricter Anti-Pollution Measures In Delhi

New Delhi:

Since Wednesday morning, north India has been covered in a thick blanket of smog, leading to low visibility, a drop in temperature and the air quality deteriorating to the ‘Severe’ category.

Air quality remained a concern all over the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP), with satellite images showing the alarming scale of the smog cover over northwest India including Delhi and its adjoining areas. Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, parts of north Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, are covered with smog.

Hiren Jethwa, an aerosol remote sensing scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, shared the satellite images, detailing the extent of the smog covering the IGP, the reasons behind the dense smog in November, and how the farmers in Punjab are evading NASA satellites by burning crops late afternoon.

Early morning satellite images reveal IGP engulfed in smog. Delhi AQI in severe category. Urban heat island effect over Delhi. Farm fires in Pujab appear to have passed peak burning phase, but still plenty to fuel bad AQI downwind @VishnuNDTV@mohitk1@CBhattacharji@jksmith34pic.twitter.com/OTGXyJwVny

— Hiren Jethva (@hjethva05) November 14, 2024

Thermal Inversion – A Key Factor

Thermal inversion is a big factor behind the sudden spike in dense smog and pollution levels. Hiren Jethwa, a research scientist at NASA, explained the phenomena and said, “The warmer air sits above the cooler air on the ground and that does not allow the vertical mixing of pollutants and whatever we emit at the surface stays for around 200 metres within the boundary layer. The stronger the thermal inversion, the more pollutants will be trapped near the surface because there is no venting place for the pollutants to go up in the vertical direction.”

“In the satellite images, we can notice that smoke from crop burning is mixed with clouds or is above them and that kind of situation furthers thermal inversion because of the absorption of light-absorbing aerosols and that it further warms the upper layer and increases thermal inversion,” Mr Jethwa said.

He added that the fog occurrence over the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) has increased and the occurrence has increased in November, which usually took place in December. He explained that there’s more particulate matter (PM), which acts as a cloud condensation nuclei which favours the formation of fog and when temperatures go down an enormous amount of aerosols contribute to fog formation.

Farmers Avoiding NASA Satellites?

The CAQM appreciated Punjab for making strenuous efforts to bring down the stubble-burning count by nearly 71 per cent as compared to last year. Mr Jethwa said, “It is not true that farm fires in Punjab and Haryana have gone down.”  On Monday, farm fires in Punjab alone crossed the 7,000 mark after over 400 fresh cases were registered.

Mr Jethwa claimed that farmers in Punjab are timing crop burning with the overpass of NASA satellites. He said, “We use the afternoon satellite overpass time data from NASA Satellites like Suomi NPP and Aqua. They overpass the region around 1:30-2:00 pm but somehow they (farmers) have learnt that they can bypass the satellite overpass time and can burn the crop residue in the late afternoon. This is confirmed by the South Korean geostationary satellite that the majority of the crop burning happens after 2 pm once the NASA satellites overpass the region when there is no surveillance, but the fires cannot be hidden from geostationary satellites which take a picture of the region every five minutes.”

Mr Jethwa in an X post, shared satellite images from October 29, taken by the GEO-KOMSAT A2 satellite, shows a timelapse of the crop-burning activities in northwest India. The images show dense cloud cover over the region post-4 pm, when compared to 1:30 pm, suggesting that farmers are burning crops late afternoon to avoid NASA satellite surveillance.

Today’s GEO-KOMSAT A2 satellite images visually convince of late afternoon burning acticitivities in NW India, avoiding NASA satellite surveillance around 1:30 PM IST @VishnuNDTV@CBhattacharji@parthaabosu@jksmith34@UrbanEmissions@avoiland@moesgoipic.twitter.com/BJsidjNqzy

— Hiren Jethva (@hjethva05) October 29, 2024

“The pollution loading in the last two weeks has reached the highest level that we haven’t seen in the last 10 years…The crop burning has gone down over a certain period. Still, if we look at the geostationary images, there are many farm fires after 2 pm,” he told NDTV today, adding that “the data from geostationary satellite is sensitive to the thermal signal produced by the fire. It lasts for at least four hours.”

On whether there has been an increase in burnt area, Mr Jethwa said, “This year, the data is yet to come out, but the fires seen so far until November 14 are 19% of the level seen in 2022 and 35% seen in 2023. Of course, there is a drastic drop around 1:30 p.m., but if we see the burnt area data, there has been no drastic decrease.”

Today the data showed that five farm fires were reported in Punjab, 11 in Haryana, and the highest number, 202, in Uttar Pradesh, according to satellite data shared by the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI). As per government data, Punjab recorded 49,922 farm fire events in 2022, 71,304 in 2021, 76,590 in 2020, 55,210 in 2019 and 50,590 in 2018 with many districts including Sangrur, Mansa, Bathinda and Amritsar witnessing a large number of stubble burning incidents.

Mr Jethwa concluded by saying “Yes, farmers can hide the crop burning from the 1:30 pm overpass time but the PM 2.5 data and the pollution load over the Indo-Gangetic plain region, the geostationary satellite data and the burnt…everything is pointing toward fire is still present. Maybe it’s still increasing…Smog towers are a small fix. It won’t work unless we address the issue of crop burning in the region.

Toxic Air In Delhi

Several factors contribute to pollution in the Delhi-NCR region including the emission of gases from vehicles, stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana and construction and dumping activities.

The situation worsens every year after Diwali due to the bursting of firecrackers, which have been under a blanket ban in Delhi for the last few years.

Last morning, dense smog caused zero visibility at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi, disrupting flight operations. Meanwhile, the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM), the panel tasked with enforcing anti-pollution measures in Delhi-NCR, called it an “episodic event” and expected the situation to improve “owing to stronger winds”.

Today, Delhi’s Air Quality Index (AQI) was measured at 428 at 9 am, placing it in the ‘severe’ category. This marks Delhi’s worst air quality reading of the season and the highest in the country, with a 24-hour AQI of 418 on Wednesday, an increase from 334 the day prior.

Dr Vivek Nangia, a Pulmonology head at Max Hospital, told NDTV that “Air pollution has been labelled as the single-most hazardous environmental risk factor to our health.” 

“Large particulate matter of 5 or 10 microns irritates the eyes and sore throat, but the smaller particles go inside the lungs and get absorbed into the bloodstream along with toxic gases, which results in an inflammatory cascade in the body. This is not only restricted to the lungs but the entire body. It could result in brain strokes, heart attacks, panic attacks and various types of cancer, a decreased life expectancy. For the lungs, it could cause illnesses like Asthma and even lung cancer which was earlier labelled as ‘smoker’s cancer’.” Dr Nangia said.

The satellite image shows the whole of Delhi and its adjoining areas covered under a dense layer of smog. The gravity of the situation is better understood when the satellite picture is compared with an image from exactly one year ago. On November 14, 2023, a less dense cloud cover was visible over the Indo-Gangetic plain from Punjab to Uttar Pradesh. On November 14, 2024, the density of the smog cover appears to have doubled than what it was at the same time last year.

The CAQM has today enforced stricter norms to control air pollution, banning all non-essential construction demolition work, and plying of BS III petrol and BS-IV diesel cars, among other actions. The measures will be implemented from 8 am tomorrow.

The Supreme Court today agreed to expedite a hearing on measures to combat the city’s hazardous pollution levels on November 18.

Situation In Pakistan

The situation is bad in neighbouring Pakistan too. Most outdoor activities have been banned in the Punjab province of the country, including an early shutdown of shops, markets and malls in some areas to curb pollution-caused illnesses.

Districts of Lahore, Multan, Faisalabad and Gujranwala have reported an increase in patients with respiratory diseases, and eye and throat irritation. “The spread of conjunctivitis/ pink eye disease due to bacterial or viral infection, smoke, dust or chemical exposure is posing a serious and imminent threat to public health,” the Punjab government said.

Similar to its cross-border neighbour Amritsar, Lahore is also enveloped in a thick layer of smog, which stretches from west Pakistan, all the way to Saharanpur in western Uttar Pradesh, satellite images show.

Lahore’s air quality has remained hazardous for several days with an index score of over 600, according to IQAir. At 8 pm (IST) today, Lahore is the world’s most polluted city with an AQI of 1136, as per IQAir. It is expected to drop to 850 by 11 pm (IST). Delhi ranks second on the index with ‘very poor’ air quality.

For comparison; As per the IQAir monitor, Washington DC is the cleanest city in the world with an AQI of 31.

UNICEF has also called for greater efforts to reduce pollution and protect children’s health in Pakistan’s Punjab, saying over 11 million children under five years of age are in danger as they breathe the toxic air.

“In addition, schools in smog-affected areas have been closed…the learning of almost 16 million children in Punjab has been disrupted,” Reuters reported, quoting, Abdullah Fadil, UNICEF Representative in the country.

New Delhi:

Primary schools in Delhi will switch to online learning mode from Friday due to severe air pollution in the national capital, Chief Minister Atishi announced in a post on X. She said the online classes for primary school children will continue “until further directions”.

Her announcement came hours after the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) raised the pollution mitigation level to GRAP-3, effective from 8 am on Friday. This means all non-essential construction and demolition work are banned, among other actions.

While GRAP-3 is in effect, petrol vehicles from the older emission norms BS-III and diesel vehicles of BS-IV category are not allowed on the roads in Delhi and parts of the National Capital Region (NCR) such as Gurugram, Ghaziabad, Faridabad, and Gautam Budh Nagar.

“Due to rising pollution levels, all primary schools in Delhi will be shifting to online classes, until further directions,” Atishi said.

Due to rising pollution levels, all primary schools in Delhi will be shifting to online classes, until further directions.

— Atishi (@AtishiAAP) November 14, 2024

Delhi’s AQI at 9 am today was in ‘severe’ category, with a reading of 428. On Wednesday, the city reported the worst AQI in the country, with air quality turning ‘severe’ for the first time this season.

Doctors have cautioned people to stay indoors as much as possible. The effects of severe air pollution is not only limited to physical health, but also extended to cognitive wellbeing, affecting mood and emotional resilience.

Dr Arunesh Kumar, a senior consultant on respiratory medicine at Paras Health, Gurugram, said people need to limit outdoor activities, especially during early morning and late evening when air quality is typically poor, to protect the body from the impact of pollution post-festive season.

“If going outside is necessary, wearing an N95 mask can help filter harmful particles. Indoors, using a HEPA air purifier is recommended as it can significantly reduce particulate matter,” Dr Kumar told news agency PTI.

A thick blanket of smog covered the Taj Mahal on Thursday morning as the pollution levels worsened in Uttar Pradesh’s Agra. Visuals showed the UNESCO World Heritage site disappearing behind the smog, making it barely visible to tourists.

In one of the pictures, tourists can be seen walking towards the Taj Mahal, but with no visibility in front of them.

According to the Central Pollution of Control Board (CPCB) data, the air quality index in Agra stood at 193 in the ‘moderate’ category.

The minimum temperature in Agra stood at 17 degrees Celsius, while the maximum temperature is likely to settle around 30 degrees Celsius, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said. The weather department, in its bulletin, said that fog or mist would occur on Thursday. The dense fog is expected to continue till Monday, it said.

The increased smog and pollution are due to the rising stubble burning in nearby areas.

Last week, the Centre doubled the stubble burning fine in Delhi and adjoining areas due to the plummeting air quality. According to the new rules, farmers having land of less than two acres shall pay an environmental compensation of Rs 5,000, while the fine will be Rs 10,000 for farmers having land of two acres or more but less than five acres. Farmers having land of more than five acres shall pay an environmental compensation of Rs 30,000.