Prime Minister Narendra Modi, began his remarks to the media before the Parliament Winter Session on Monday with a line that made many eyebrows arch upwards.
“Aap bhi mausam ka mazaa lijiye [You too should enjoy the weather],” he said, before launching into a speech about Parliament not being a place for “drama” but “delivery”.
The average Delhi resident is unlikely to find much mazaa in the mausam; the national capital woke up to yet another smog-filled morning on Monday.
“In recent weeks the city has repeatedly recorded an air quality index [AQI] in the ‘very poor’ to ‘hazardous’ range, some areas registering levels over 440–500, with dangerous spikes in PM2.5 & PM10 concentrations,” environmentalist Bhavreen Khandari pointed out to The Telegraph Online.
“For large parts of the year, and even now, Delhi’s mausam is less about pleasant winter air and more about choking smog; hardly a backdrop to enjoy, much less to celebrate,” Khandari added.
Many on the Internet juxtaposed the prime minister’s comment with Delhi’s AQI levels.
On Monday, Delhi’s AQI stood at an ‘unhealthy’ 245 at 1pm, according to AQI.in. The number was at a ‘severe’ 383 at 8am on Monday, 1 Dec. It wasn’t long ago that the capital’s AQI had breached the ‘hazardous’ 400 mark, 443 to be specific, on 28 November. While the conditions did improve slightly because of winds over the weekend, the AQI has still stayed between 200-350. South Delhi’s Nehru Nagar recorded the highest pollution levels Monday with an AQI of 351, while other hotspots including Anand Vihar (323), Burari Crossing (304), Bawana (337), Jahangirpuri (319), Punjabi Bagh (326), Mundka (330), Shadipur (325), and Wazirpur (321), registered AQI readings in the 'very poor' category.
Noida recorded an AQI of 316, while Greater Noida was at 288 and Ghaziabad was at 291.
This is the story of the national capital every year when post Diwali, the AQI spikes to hazardous levels. The only difference this year being the visuals of water sprinkler trucks spraying water around the AQI monitoring stations going viral on the internet.
Meanwhile, hospitals have reported a surge in patients coming in with respiratory problems, along with severe pulmonary diseases in some cases. They have advised residents to leave the city if they can afford it, or stay indoors whenever possible and constantly use air purifiers. Several residents have reported experiencing persistent health issues, including chronic cough, debilitating fatigue, and respiratory irritation due to polluted air.
The Centre’s Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) revoked the stringent Stage III restrictions under the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) across Delhi, a move which has also invited a harsh response from environmentalists and experts.
This was a decision that was taken amid forecasts that the air would continue to remain in the ‘very poor’ category, and the Supreme Court had urged the commission to take stricter action to curb the pollution.
In such a scenario, it is definitely difficult to find much mazaa in the mausam.