Pollution due to stubble burning, Odd-Even won’t help: JNU study
A study by researchers at Jawaharlal Nehru University’s (JNU) department of environmental sciences has stated that measures like the Odd-Even scheme will not help in controlling pollution levels that the Capital is currently witnessing, as it is not the vehicular pollution but stubble burning in fields in neighbouring states that is causing the air quality to worsen.
Researchers studied pollution patterns between October 1 and November 10, 2016, when air quality had touched similar severe levels as last three-four days and found that it was mainly stubble burning from farm fields in Punjab and Haryana that contributed to the air quality going bad while other things like crackers and vehicular pollution did not have much effect.
Last year, Diwali fell in the beginning of November when the air quality was already at ‘severe’ levels worsened after. The research, however, shows that crackers contributed very little to pollution levels.
“We conducted a study on pollution patterns in Delhi and NCR for a similar period of 2016. We studied the material present in pollutants and found that it was mainly carbonaceous material,” said JNU professor AP Dimri who headed the research team.
“Things like nitrogen and sulphur, present in crackers were not present in a significant …read more