Don’t gasp for a whiff of fresh air! | Save eco-fragile environs of J&K from Air pollution

Country’s capital city New Delhi is gasping for breath for the past over a week due to severe Air pollution levels. The situation has become so serious that even construction activities and primary schools have been shut.

The Air Quality Level on November 3, breached the ‘400’ danger mark on a scale of 500 with AQI reaching alarming levels in several places. The air quality in Delhi NCR region was also ‘severe’ with CPCB registering AQI of 410 in Ghaziabad, 441 in Gurugram, 436 in Noida, 467 in Greater Noida, and 461 in Faridabad. According to health experts, AQI for a healthy individual should be below 50 and present levels are detrimental to health, Smoke from stubble burning accounted for 25% of the PM2.5 pollution in Delhi on November 2. .

The situation in Delhi has prompted the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to seek responses from the Chief Secretaries of the affected states and directed them to take immediate remedial action and submit the action taken report before the Tribunal.

On Saturday, Sri Lanka cancelled their training session in Delhi following advice from team doctors, due to the severe air pollution in the city. The ICC and BCCI are monitoring the air quality in Delhi are dark clouds hover over Sri Lanka’s match with Bangladesh in Arun Jaitley Stadium on Monday. As per ICC's guidelines on air quality, an AQI reading of below 200 is considered safe for play in most cases.

The Jammu and Kashmir government and stakeholders must learn lessons from the situation that arose due to Air pollution in Delhi. Eco-fragile J&K has been facing spells of Air pollution especially in winter mainly due to burning of biomass for coal making.

We have to understand that Kashmir valley is bound by Pir Panjal and Greater Himalayan mountain ranges and these do not allow air masses to find an escape route. Temperature inversion in late Autumn and winter restricts vertical mixing of air and triggers build-up of haze primarily comprising dust (PM10 and PM2.5) and smoke (black carbon).

The PM2.5 concentration in Srinagar’s air on January 9 this year was 28.2 µg/m³, which is 5.6 times over the World Health Organisation’s air quality values. The problem is compounded by Increasing number of diesel-run vehicles, and pollution from brick kilns, cement plants, and dusty roads. Rising air pollution levels even caught the attention of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), America’s civil space programme and the global leader in space exploration in 2022. NASA had released a satellite picture of Kashmir Valley shrouded by haze.

“Temperature inversions often occur in the Kashmir Valley when cold, dense air flows down from the surrounding Himalayas and becomes trapped under warmer, comparably less dense air. Inversions are more common in winter, when the days are shorter and snow on the valley floor helps keep the air in the lower atmosphere from warming and mixing with upper level air,” NASA had stated..

NASA states that a byproduct of temperature inversions in Kashmir Valley is a buildup of haze—an aerosol mixture composed of fine particles found in smog, smoke, and dust.

“The trapped aerosols absorb and scatter incoming sunlight, creating a layer of poor visibility. Haze has also been observed in the Kashmir Valley over the previous years by satellite sensors. The city of Srinagar is located underneath a region of haze near the center of the photograph. Srinagar is the largest municipality in the Kashmir Valley and a contributor of smog, smoke, and other human-caused aerosols.”

Traces of Black carbon (BC) , a component of particulate matter (PM) in air that is produced by incomplete combustion of carbon-containing materials such as gasoline and coal, have been found in glaciers of Kashmir.

Health experts have also set alarm bells ringing over J&K’s deteriorating air quality. As per a study in Lancet, around 10, 000 deaths in J&K annually upto 2019 are attributed to air pollution.
Under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), works on a Rs 33 crore plan was being executed in Srinagar to reduce PM10 levels by 2025 to improve Air Quality Index in Srinagar district.

The project includes creating green zones by way of mass plantations/landscaping along western Highways and adjoining areas, plantation of central verges, medians of major city roads and paving of earthen shoulders and installation of fountains in Srinagar City.

However, on the ground no tangible measures are visible in the summer capital. Most of the roads in the city were dug up for laying drainage pipes. These roads were filled up haphazardly and after passing of vehicles, billows of dust envelope air. In absence of a proper dumping system, tons of garbage including polythene is burnt on roads causing air pollution. There is no regulation on macadam and stone crusher plants to install pollution prevention devices.

Many people living in Khrew-Khanmoh areas adjoining Dachigam National Park are facing respiratory and other health complications due to emissions from cement plants. Rising air pollution levels and excavation works in mountains in the eco-fragile area has affected endangered Hangul.
It is high time for initiating mitigation measures to prevent air pollution. We need to wake up before we gasp from the whiff of fresh air. We must bear in mind that our existence depends on the air which we breathe. We must prevent the situation where we have to carry oxygen cylinders with us for breathing!

Author is Executive Editor, Greater Kashmir