Cracker ban goes up in smoke; Delhi wakes up to hazy morning

New Delhi, October 20 : Delhi and the National Capital Region woke up to a blanket of smog on Friday, after a quiet and promising Diwali evening gave way to noisy and relentless bursting of firecrackers till late night on Thursday, despite a Supreme Court ban on their sale in the NCR. The online indicators of the pollution monitoring stations in the city glowed red, indicating a ‘very poor’ air quality as the volume of ultra fine particulates PM2.5 and PM10, which enter the respiratory system and manage to reach the bloodstream, sharply rose from around 7 pm on Thursday.Real time pollution data appeared alarming. The Delhi Pollution Control Committee’s (DPCC) RK Puram monitoring station recorded PM2.5 and PM10 at 878 and 1,179 micrograms per cubic metre at around 11 pm. The pollutants had violated the corresponding 24-hour safe limits of 60 and 100 respectively, by up to 10 times.While it is difficult to quantify the immediate effect of the ban on firecrackers, residents across the national capital felt the beginning was promising with neighbourhoods reporting much lesser noise and smoke till about 6 pm, compared to the previous years. But as the festivities picked up, the faint echos of crackers started growing louder.
According to the SAFAR (System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research), the 24-hour rolling average of PM2.5 and PM10 were 154 and 256 micrograms per cubic metre respectively, at around 11 pm on Thursday.