By Michelle Alles
New Delhi, India (CWBN)_ Air pollution levels have fallen marginally in most parts of north-west India on Wednesday, as moderate winds helped dispersion the previous day.
India is home to some of the world’s most polluted cities. An unintended, but welcome consequence of the lockdown to contain the coronavirus has been improved air quality throughout the country.
Poor air quality
Poor air quality has come to be recognised as a serious health risk and drag on economic development in India. Air quality has been deteriorating across the country since the 1990s, and in 2017, as much as 97 percent of the country’s population was estimated to be exposed to unhealthy levels of ambient PM2.5. Though there are many types of air pollutants, these small particulates in the air, about one-thirtieth the width of a human hair, are the most harmful to human health. They can penetrate deep into the lungs, enter the bloodstream and cause deadly illnesses such as lung cancer, stroke, and heart disease.
On Wednesday morning, Delhi, Baghpat, Ambala, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Gurugram, Karnal and Kurukshetra which had recorded ‘very poor’ air on Tuesday, showed a marginal improvement and graduated to ‘poor’ category, despite raging stubble burning in Punjab.
Conditions are becoming favourable for withdrawal of monsoon from the country and for commencement of north-east monsoon rainfall over parts of extreme southern peninsula on Wednesday, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD).
A cyclonic circulation lies over the south-west Bay of Bengal off north Tamil Nadu (TN) coast. Under its influence widespread and heavy rainfall and moderate thunderstorm and lightning is likely to occur over Kerala, Mahe, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry during the next five days.
