Status of Air Pollution in Delhi

Prof. Pramila Goyal

Center for Atmospheric Sciences
Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
Email: pramila@cas.iitd.ac.in

Introduction
According to the WHO Global Burden of Disease (GBD) report
(2014), Air pollution has become the fifth largest killer in India after high
blood pressure, indoor air pollution, tobacco smoking, and poor nutrition.

About 620,000 premature deaths occur in India from air pollution-related

diseases each year which rose from 100,000 in the year 2000.
Human activities directly or indirectly affect the outdoor environment
adversely. Automobiles, in general, emit oxides of nitrogen, sulphur
dioxide, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and a complex mixture of
unburnt hydrocarbons and black soot which pollute the atmosphere.

There are many other sources like industries, power plants, waste
disposal, road dust, brick kilns, construction activities and waste burning.
Air pollution may be defined as the presence of any solid, liquid or
gaseous substance in the atmosphere in such concentration and for such a
duration that may be directly and indirectly injurious to humans or other
living organisms, plants, property or interferes with the normal
environmental processes.

Status of India

Distribution of Medically Certified Deaths- Major

Causes 2011

Concentration of Particulate Matter (PM2.5) on Global Map

Out of world top 100 polluted cities, 27 are in India
(WHO, 2011).
Delhi is reported as one of the most polluted city according
to ambient air quality report of WHO Report 2014.

Source: Van Donkelaar et. al (2006)

Most Polluted Cities of the world

600
Delhi ranks
among top 20
most polluted
cities of the world

500
400
300
200

100
Khanna

Agra

Allahabad

Ludhiana

Amritsar

Kanpur

Firozabad

Lucknow

Nabih Saleh

Ras Hayan

Ma'ameer

Karachi

Delhi

Raipur

Hamad Town

Ahvaz

Gwalior

Mazar-e Sharif

Rawalpindi

0
Peshwar

PM10 Concentration (g/m3)

Top 20 most polluted cities in the world

(WHO Database(2014) for PM10)

Out of 20 cities, 11 cities belong to India

WHO Database(2014) for PM10

Dipping Air Quality of Delhi in comparison to Beijing

Urbanization of Delhi

Source: Mukhopadhyay et al., 2010

Status of Air Quality in Delhi and Surrounding Areas

Registered Vehicles in Delhi

Growth of Commercial and Personal Vehicles in Delhi

Contribution of various sources towards CO, NOx, SO2 and PM10 emissions over
Delhi and surrounding Areas (area 4900km2)

Sindhwani, R. Goyal, P. Kumar, S and Kumar, A (2015). Anthropogenic Emission Inventory of Criteria Air Pollutants of an Urban Agglomeration National Capital Region (NCR), Delhi. Aerosol and Air Quality Research. DOI:10.4209/aaqr.2014.11.0271

Air pollution at different locations

in Delhi over the years 2010-2014 in
winter season.

Source: Live Mint 27th Feb, 2014

Diesel Vehicles - A rising Concern

The growing number of diesel vehicles in the region has
further worsened the air quality scenario.
A study conducted by Pramila Goyal in 2007 for Delhi
Government titled Ascertain the effect of diesel
operated trucks, tempos, three-wheelers and other
commercial vehicles on ambient air quality of Delhi
revealed an expected serious concerns about
exceedances of emissions due to commercial vehicles
in near future.
Also, Kumar and Goyal (2014) estimated that nearly
80% of PM10 emissions are from diesel-fueled vehicles
in Delhi in 2008-09.
The market share of diesel cars is more than 50 per cent
(of sales), which is due to the major difference in the
prices of petrol and diesel fuel in 2010 (Sindhwani et
al., 2015).
The diesel emission norms legally allow higher limits
for NOx and PM10 emissions compared to a petrol car
(Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) Factsheet,
2012)

Source: Daily Mail, 9th Dec, 2012

Assessment of Air Pollution

There are two types of methodologies to know the exact scenario of air pollution:
1.Air Quality Monitoring
The understanding of air pollution is not sufficient to accurately predict air quality
and related to daily health problems at all times because of unavailability of
monitoring data.
Monitoring provides raw measurement of air pollutant concentrations, which can
then be analyzed and interpreted.
The economic constraints may even lead to the reduction of existing monitoring sites
with reference technologies, which are costly and labor intensive to run.
2.Air Quality Modelling
The atmospheric dispersion and chemistry transport models have been used for the
assessment of ambient air quality at different locations.
Model validation often relies on few measurements, which are representative for
individual locations only.
It can provide the future scenario of air pollution also and thus can be used for
making policies to improve the air quality and control the emissions.

Lessons to be learnt from Beijing

Source: TOI, 8th May, 2015

Methods to Control Air Pollution

Introduction of stringent emission norms for private vehicles i.e. Euro IV
for 2-Wheelers and EURO-V for passenger cars.
Shifting from coal based power plants to gas based power plants.
Maintenance of roads an important step that is required to reduce road-dust
emissions.
Use for renewable source of energy like solar energy for generating
electricity.
Congestion a major cause of air pollution. Encroachments should be strictly
dealt with stringent laws.
Improvement in public transport system like introduction of more number
of CNG buses and battery operated e-rickshaws.
Regular vehicle pollution check including phasing out of more than 10 year
old vehicles from NCT Delhi.

Thanks!!