Lok Sabha Question No. 3415 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-03-23
Subject: Increasing Pollution Levels
Ministry: EARTH SCIENCES
Asked by: S. Muniswamy, Annasaheb Shankar Jolle

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EARTH SCIENCES LOKSABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3415 TO BE ANSWERED ON WEDNESDAY, 23RD MAR H, 2

## INCREASING POLLUTION LEVELS

3415. SHRI S. MUNISWAMY: SHRI ANNASAHEB SHANKAR JOLLE:

Will the Minister of EARTH SCIENCES be pleased to state:

- whether the department of meteorology is providing timely and crucial a arming statistics of pollution levels to the relevant Government agencies like the ME~CC an others in the eco­ system to head towards a solution for the serious issue of pOllutiI leve s, especially in the city of Delhi; (a)
- if so, whether there is considerable reduction in air pollution II er t increased use of battery operated vehicles in the metros; I (b)
- whether the department has detected a pattern in the system that !laves ay to increased air pollution levels in the city of Delhi and surrounding areas post the harvest seasons in the States ofHaryana and Punjab; I (c)
- if so, whether analytics of this peculiar pattern of increased pollution lev· Is has been sent to the Delhi Government and the MEFCC for further research; and (d)
- if not, the reasons therefor? (e)

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHAR E) F R MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AND EARTH SCIENCES

(DR. JITENDRA SINGH)

- (a) Yes Sir. Ministry of Earth Sciences is providing timely statistics of poltution levels to the Government agencies like the MOEF and CC and others in the eco-system to head towards a solution for the serious issue of pollution levels especially in tHe cityjof Delhi. For this, MoES institutions (IITM and IMD) have developed air quality early warning system (AQWES) and Decision Support System (DSS) for advanced ai~ quality management for Delhi NCR region. DSS is designed to deliver quantitapve information about a) the contribution of emissions from Delhi and the surtound+g 19 districts to the air quality in Delhi b) the contribution of emissions from 8 ~ifferert sectors in Delhi to the air-quality Delhi c) the contribution from biomass-buT-ing activities in the neighboring states to the degradation of air quality in Delhi Addilionally, DSS also gives information about the quantitative effects of Possibler, emission source-level interventions on the forecast air-quality event in Delhi. All this inf rmat~'bnwould assist in managing the air quality in a timely manner. The system iss e tim ly warnings for forthcoming air quality events and prediction for source contribution for I ext 5 days to take necessary steps as per the newly designed Graded Responsei Action Plan (GRAP) of Government of India. This system is now used operationally br newly formed commission for air quality management in Delhi and adjoining I area (CAQM) by GoI, Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), MoEFCC and DPOC. The system also has a feature whereby user can create possible emission reduction scepario {from 20 different districts including Delhi) to examine the possible projected improveme t in air quality in

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Delhi for the next five days. This information explicitly highli hts th most important emission sources responsible for the degraded air quality in Delh and suggest possible solutions to the policymakers. MoES has also dereloP Information dissemination system that provides real-time and future air qualitf information to Government agencies like the MOEF and CC, DPCC and also to the public. This website disseminate air quality forecasts to the public and decision-m I kers, 1 near real-time observations of air quality for Delhi, Warning Messages, Alerts, an, Bulle ins.

- Currently, Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) deals with the observati ns, research and warning dissemination in respect of air quality and doesn't keep a ~ecord on the number of battery vehicles in metros. (b)
- The collaborative research work carried out by the MoES Institutions and the decision support system developed for Delhi has detected a pattern in the s~stem that paves way to increased air pollution levels in the city of Delhi and surrounding are post the harvest seasons in the States of Haryana and Punjab. The modelling study Farrie4 out by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) under MoES and Ce~tre fo Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC) under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, indicates that on an average, -20% ofPM2.5 concentJation' Delhi during the post-monsoon season (October-November) was found to be cont ibute by non-local fire emissions. However, on typical air pollution events, fire emissio s con ibuted as high as 50-75% (80-120 Ilglm3) to PM2.5 in Delhi, highlighting the im ortanoe of both external transport and local emissions to PM2.5 pollution in Delhi. (c)
- Yes Sir. The analytics of this peculiar pattern of increased pollutia leve s due to non-local fires has been made available through the Decision Support Systl m (n'SS) and are being communicated to the Delhi Government, Commission for Air Qu lity Management (CAQM) and the MOEFCC for further research. (d)
- (e) Doesn't arise.

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