Poor Air Quality Closes Schools in India: Once Again Burning Crop Waste is a Big Factor

 

     Air Quality Index numbers in the severe range 50 times above WHO recommended limits are occurring in India. Delhi is covered in a thick blanket of smog. This is the season of burning crop waste, an environmental problem in need of solutions. Particulate matter (PM2.5) is particularly dangerous to children. The crop waste-burning season lasts from mid-October into January. Emissions from diesel trucks and factories add to the problem in big cities like Delhi. Efforts to alleviate the problem such as spraying water either by truck or with drones have been criticized as ineffective. Farmers groups have not found a better way to deal with their waste. There are potential solutions but little political will to implement them. Many farmers are small, poor, and non-mechanized. This has been a seasonal problem in Northern India for many years now

“The implementation of {Graded Response Action Plan} GRAP-III in Delhi has led to stricter restrictions. Non-essential construction and demolition activities have been halted, and both interstate buses and trucks are banned from operating in the region.” 

“Additionally, vehicles with outdated BS-III petrol and BS-IV diesel emission standards are prohibited from entering Delhi and certain areas of the National Capital Region (NCR), including Gurugram, Ghaziabad, Faridabad, and Gautam Budh Nagar.”

     I wrote in more detail about the dangers of burning crop waste on this blog last year during the last crop-waste air pollution spike last November.

 

     India by far leads the countries of Southeast Asia in the weight of crop waste that is burned. Perhaps the small, unmechanized, farmers that people like anti-GMO activist scientist Vandana Shiva favor should take heed that it is not big corporations that are polluting the air to dangerous levels every year but the small farmers she seeks to champion.

 

References:

 

India's capital shuts all primary schools due to smog. AFP. November 14, 2024. India's capital shuts all primary schools due to smog

Air pollution worsens: Haryana closes schools up to Class 5 as AQI hits 'severe' category. Business Today Desk. November 16, 2024. Air pollution worsens: Haryana closes schools up to Class 5 as AQI hits 'severe' category

A state of the art review in crop residue burning in India: Previous knowledge, present circumstances and future strategies. Asik Dutta, Abhik Patra, Kali K. Hazra, Chaitanya P. Nath, Narendra Kumar, and Amitava Rakshit. Environmental Challenges. Volume 8, August 2022, 100581. A state of the art review in crop residue burning in India: Previous knowledge, present circumstances and future strategies - ScienceDirect