India given 2 days for Delhi smog action plan
Print Edition
INDIA’S top court yesterday gave the federal government two days to chalk out a plan to tackle alarming levels of smog in Delhi, the world’s most polluted capital.
An environmental body filed a petition with the Supreme Court earlier this week demanding a review of the government’s previous lackluster attempts to control the pollution levels, describing it as a “public health emergency.”
Delhi has been shrouded in a toxic soup in recent days as pollution levels spiked after the Diwali festival which is marked by setting off ear-splitting — and highly polluting — fireworks.
The air quality generally worsens with the onset of winter, as farmers in neighboring states burn crop stubble after the harvest and cooler temperatures trap pollutants in a smoggy haze over the city.
The government yesterday asked the court for two days to come up with a plan, which was granted.
“Give me two days. We will have a meeting with the environment secretary and come up with a comprehensive response to the problem of Delhi pollution,” India’s solicitor general, Ranjit Kumar, told the court.
Yesterday morning, the US embassy showed the concentration of PM2.5 — the fine particles linked to higher rates of chronic bronchitis, lung cancer and heart disease — at a “hazardous” level of 372, below Monday’s off-the-charts reading of 778.
Levels between 301 and 500 are classified as “hazardous.”
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