India
Air becomes ‘severe plus’; schools go online, except Standard 10, 12 | India News – Times of India
CM Atishi posted: “Physical classes will be stopped for all students except classes 10 and 12. All schools will hold online classes until further notice.” Grap-4 also offers central and NCR governments the option to switch to working from home for employees.
Sign of four: JOKE to put further pressure on Delhi
JOKE-IV is curtailed when the poison in the air reaches ’emergency level’, where the AQI exceeds 450 (on a scale of 500). It focuses primarily on vehicle restrictions to reduce pollution. Under Phase 4, entry of non-emergency trucks into Delhi is barred for non-BS 6 compliant light commercial vehicles (LCVs) registered outside Delhi, and BS-4 and below diesel-powered medium and heavy trucks in Delhi demolition (B&S) operations in linear public projects such as highways, roads, flyovers, over bridges, electricity transmission and pipelines have now been removed.
The Central Pollution Control Board data shows that the AQI rose rapidly during the day as visibility remained poor. Delhi’s AQI was 421 at 9 am, which rose to 452 at 6 pm and further rose to 468 at 10 pm. This was the fourth ‘heavy’ day of the month. Previously, the AQI briefly remained in the ‘severe plus’ band on November 13, when it rose to 454 at 9 p.m. However, if CPCB considers the day’s AQI at 4 pm, Delhi recorded an AQI of 441 on Sunday, the second highest this year after 447 on January 14.
Anumita Roychowdhury, Executive Director of Research and Advocacy, Center for Science and Environment (CSE), said: “This is happening due to the combined impact of deepening winter inversion and accommodating high local and regional pollution. We need urgent action to slow further pollution from major sources.”
According to the Decision Support System, the contribution of stubble burning in Delhi’s PM2.5 was 25.2% on Saturday.
No reprieve from toxic air is expected in the coming days. “The average AQI for Delhi is expected to remain in the unfavorable range due to heavy fog, variable winds and very unfavorable meteorological and climatic conditions. Forecasts from IMD/llTM indicate that Delhi’s AQI is likely to remain mainly in the higher segment. in the coming days in the ‘severe’/’severe+’ category,” CAQM said.
The measures under GRAP-IV complement the preventive/mitigation actions mentioned under phases 1 to 3, which are already in force. Although the ban on construction and demolition activities came into effect on November 15 under Phase 3 of GRAP, linear public projects were included in the exemption. However, the commission on Sunday banned construction and demolition activities in linear public projects.
CAQM said the governments in Delhi and NCR should take a decision on allowing public, municipal and private offices to operate at 50% strength and the rest to work from home. The central government may take an appropriate decision on allowing work from home for employees in central government offices. “State governments may consider additional emergency measures such as closure of colleges/educational institutions and closure of non-urgent commercial activities, thereby allowing plying of vehicles on an odd-even basis of registration numbers, etc.,” the committee said in its decision.
The Met department said mainly smog conditions with wind speed of less than 6 km per hour from a northwesterly direction prevailed over the region on Sunday afternoon. Wind speeds below 6 km/h are unable to disperse pollutants.
The lowest visibility on Sunday was 500 meters at Palam between 8.30 am and 9 am, while it dropped to 300 meters at Safdarjung, the city’s base station, at 7 am, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD). Even during the day, while sunlight remained weak, visibility remained low throughout the day. A maximum visibility of 900 meters was recorded at Palam at 5.30 pm and 800 meters at Safdarjung at 2.30 pm.
By 11pm in the evening, visibility at Palam had dropped dramatically to 150 metres.
Even the maximum temperature dropped to 27.2 degrees Celsius, one degree lower than normal. It was the lowest maximum temperature of the season. The minimum temperature was 15.9 degrees Celsius, four notches above normal.
IMD has issued an ‘orange’ warning for very dense to dense fog on Sunday night or Monday morning.
