November 22, 2019

Andrew Campbell 

In India’s capital Delhi, like many parts of northern India, the quality of air has deteriorated into the "hazardous" category, with the risk of causing respiratory illnesses. It was reported the toxic air quality in Delhi had already forced authorities to shut down schools, halted construction activities, and restricted transportation vehicles on the road.

The smog-filled air crisis has prompted “oxygen bar” for Delhi residents to pay a price at 300 Rupees (US$4) for inhaling 15 minutes of fresh oxygen.

But, the government on November 21 endorsed Arvind Kejriwal’s claim that Delhi’s air quality had shown consistent improvement since 2016. The government said the number of good to moderate days had increased to 175 in 2019 from 158 in 2018 and the number of poor to severe days was reduced to 148 from 165 in the air quality of Delhi during the corresponding period.

Prakash Keshav Javadekar, a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party, is currently serving as the Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and Minister of Information and Broadcasting said data from the Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations (CAAQMS) had shown a general improvement in the air quality of Delhi since 2016. The 2018’s PM2.5 levels in Delhi had reduced by 7.3% from 2017 and 14.8% from 2016. Similarly, the reduction in 2018’s PM10 levels was 8.6% over 2017 and 16.5% over 2016.

However, Minister Javadekar promoted the development of urban forest so as to provide lungs to cities for inhaling clean air.

Photo:Webshot.