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Choke on the new normal: India’s air pollution not just a winter problem

The strangely high concentration of particulate matter from the last few days in north India clearly displays the air pollution which is like a seasonal problem in the city, but nowadays, this is turn to be a very normal problem in the city.

Because the climate is getting warmer and frequency of rains reduces, so such spurts in coarse particles making breathing difficult which is nowadays a normal issue anyway unless governments wake up to the alarm.

The latest assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) stated that the planet can bear only up to a 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius increase in temperature now from the pre-industrial time and its level.

Till 2015, the world had already warmed by 0.9 degrees Celsius and at the present pace of emissions, climate scientists told that the IPCC mark will get breached latest by 2050, which did not being witnessed in the earlier.

In series of papers, The Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), said that both the periodicity and duration of dry spells in the nation were rising as total rainfall events in a year had fallen actually via the average rainfall in a year has not changed much, which is leaves a direct consequence of the climate change.

The annual average rainfall has remained the same because the frequency of heavy downpours (for example, the June 2013 flash floods in Uttarakhand) has increased in the past two decades.

During dry spells, the world also turns to be heated up and moisture in the atmosphere dips, creating depressions which can pull winds from the oceans.

There will be less rain, and green barriers in around the various cities which have been destroyed by the urbanization, the winds lift dust and local emissions, which is the reason of the spurt in the air pollution.

Such events have been higher in 2018 — which is also a year of freaky weather that sees 3 killer thunderstorms in May before this dust-laden westerly — due to the average rainfall since November 2017 has been about 60% below normal.

The impact can have been substantially reduced the governments — the states and Centre — made air pollution alleviation a round-the-clock exercise, which is not though, restricted it to winter months, when pollution levels are just massive high.

Consequences of this are that most of the north India part is covered under a thick blanket of dust haze with air pollution which is turned to be worse than the winter seasons.

On Thursday, the peak particulate matter pollution in the Delhi University and Mathura Road crossed 1,400 micrograms in a cubic metre of air, close to 20 times the Indian safety standard.

Some other cites, like, Jodhpur in Rajasthan and Panchkula in Haryana, the PM levels were close to 1,000 which has been remained constant for the past 48 hours.

The weather conditions are said to make a colossal mistake which is also a man-made catastrophe that leaves an effect on the human health of one and all, as half of the air pollution spurt is caused by local dust in the absence of proper roadside landscaping and emissions which come from the industry and vehicles.

In the coming years, those pollution level can be stopped by making sure that the each and every city implements the Centre’s dust management plan, so there will be restrictions on registration of new fuel-guzzling vehicles, and green dust barriers which can be seen around the developed cities.

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