CHANDIGARH: Burning of paddy stubble in

and

did not contribute to the alarmingly high levels of air pollution in Delhi on November 10 and onward. This has been established scientifically for the first time by the

(

) at Nagpur. This initial finding is likely to end the political blame game.

The study conducted the premier research institute was the commissioned in October by the

(CPCB). NEERI, in its preliminary report, has been able to evaluate that stubble burning was not the source of the toxic air in Delhi, based on wind analysis, satellite imagery and field survey.

A team of environmental scientists concluded that agriculture residues were not the pollutants from

and Haryana. “We based our phase one study on wind analysis, field survey and satellite imagery. The wind was calm as the speed was less than one meter per second. Therefore, there is no possibility of the stubble particulate matter being carried towards NCR,” said NEERI director

.

The scientists also got photographs during monitoring from the stubble burning areas of Punjab and Haryana. “First we did the ground measurement. We took multiple location samples of particulate matter and measured that too. In the plume region (wind spread out area) — where it is believed that stubble burning in particular place happens and that moves towards Delhi — in that pathway we took multiple measurements of PM levels,” said the director. He said, “We have to now do chemical fingerprinting for confirmatory tests. This will take at least a month or so.”

However, the photographs taken from the monitoring stations in Punjab and Haryana show that there was no active burning which caused the PM levels to rise 40 times more than the normal levels as permissible by the WHO in Delhi.

“The Delhi government has been blaming the states of Punjab and Haryana for stubble burning. However, we still have 5,000 CNG buses since 2000 when the need is for 20,000 such buses to reduce emissions. This is hardly a concern in Delhi,” said

, additional director and head of environmental training unit of CPCB.

The NEERI is now completing the source profiling which can find out which pollutants come from which source. “Some profiling has been done for coal, diesel, stubble where we know what comes of various sources of pollutants. Once we have the template of these sources, we can match with it with a particular site and understand the major source of pollution. There is a need to quantify these pollutants for an effective regulation,” said Kumar.