Nightly high pollution in Delhi caused by biomass burning emissions, finds IIT Kanpur study-Education News

According to a joint study led by IIT Kanpur, biomass burning emissions are to blame for Delhi’s high night-time particle pollution levels.

The Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), IIT Delhi, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), Switzerland, and the University of Helsinki, Finland, all contributed to the study that was published in the Nature Geoscience magazine under the direction of IIT Kanpur.

Suneeti Mishra and Professor SachchidaNand Tripathi from the Department of Civil Engineering at IIT Kanpur are co-authors of the study.

DELHI HAZE AND ITS AFFECT

Delhi frequently encounters high levels of particulate pollution, generally known as haze; nevertheless, the precise causes of its production were unknown until recently.

The thorough investigation revealed the cause of the extreme haze episodes that Delhi, one of the world’s most populous cities, experiences in winter.

Professor Sachchida Nand Tripathi, from IIT Kanpur, who was the principal investigator in the study said, “The uncontrolled biomass burning for residential heating and cooking in the Indo-Gangetic plain gives rise to ultrafine particles, affecting the health of 5% of the world’s population and impacting the regional climate.”

“The study becomes important as air pollution is responsible for 18% of the total annual premature deaths in India,” the professor added.

According to the study, reducing uncontrolled combustion, particularly when the weather is favourable, may reduce the amount of supersaturated vapours available for nanoparticle formation and, as a result, may be a successful technique for reducing night-time particulate numbers during Delhi’s haze.

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