Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Nov.12: For another day, toxic air engulfed Delhi, making it the world’s second most polluted city, according to an environmental group’s assessment, which stated that vehicles were responsible for 50% of the pollution.
According to the state-run System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR), the air quality index (AQI) in Delhi was in the ‘very poor’ category at 8 a.m. Anything under 50 is regarded safe, while anything over 300 is deemed dangerous or ‘severe.’
Air pollution worsened as individuals disobeyed a prohibition and lit firecrackers on Diwali, November 4, but the problem was exacerbated by farmers burning stubble near Delhi.
Vehicles accounted for half of Delhi’s pollution in the early part of this year’s winter, from October 24 to November 8, according to the green group Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). According to CSE’s analysis based on real-time data, vehicular effluents were followed by residential pollution (12.5-13.5%), industrial (9.9-13.7%), construction (6.7-7.9%), garbage burning, and road dust.
Many additional locations in north India have AQIs ranging from ‘very poor’ to ‘severe.’
IQAir, a website that tracks air pollution throughout the world, ranked Karachi at the top of its worst-places list, with Delhi coming in second. The other Indian cities on the list were Kolkata and Mumbai.
The high levels of harmful air pollution highlight the dangers that India faces as it debates climate priorities at the COP26 session in Glasgow. Last Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that India, the world’s third-worst emitter, will strive to achieve net-zero emissions by 2070.
According to Bloomberg, air pollution costs Indian firms $95 billion every year, or nearly 3% of GDP, according to the Clean Air Fund and the Confederation of Indian Industry, both based in the United Kingdom.
