‘Not sending pollution through missiles,’ says Indian climate expert

Punjab's Air Quality Index, on both sides of the border between India and Pakistan, has become one of the biggest causes of concern, not just in South Asia but globally as well.

A BBC Urdu report about the hazardous conditions of smog in Lahore and Delhi, with the former being particularly in a bad spot with AQI at 1000 plus points, Indian Punjabi correspondent Harmandeep Singh quoted Punjab Agricultural University’s Department of Climate Change and Punjab Pollution Control Authority’s study about the air pollution in the area. 

“There is no scientific study that can prove that the fires in the villages of Indian Punjab after harvesting the crops cause air pollution in Lahore and Delhi,” says the university’s report.
Experts say that there are scientific arguments which prove that the air pollutants created by burning the residue of harvested crops are not reaching the borders of Lahore and Delhi.

However, on both sides of the border, stubble burning is considered to be the main cause of smog, whereas farmers claim that fire is set only to prepare the land for the next harvest. 

Contrary to the claims of experts from Indian Punjab, experts from the country's central educational institutions also blame the fires as the cause of Delhi's pollution while maintaining that the contribution of this fire to pollution is very minor.

Notably, smoke from post-harvest fires in any state, including Punjab, contributed only 4.44 percent to Delhi's pollution this year, as per Indian research institutes.

Satellite data of the US space agency NASA showed more fires seen on the Indian side than on the Pakistan side. Pakistani side concluded that because Lahore is close to the Indian border, so it can easily be affected by cross-border smog.

Additionally, the Pakistani Punjab’s Environment Department claimed the reason behind the hazardous conditions of smog in Lahore is because of the “Eastern Corridor of winds” while talking to The Current a week ago. 

Meanwhile, talking to BBC Urdu, the Department of Climate Change and Agricultural Meteorology at Punjab Agricultural University, India, said that it is natural that light and moderate winds prevail in Punjab in October and November. “For the polluted particles to move from one place to another, the speed of the air must be more than six kilometres per hour,” the department said in their defence, implying the wind is not the reason for pollution in Delhi and Lahore. 

Puneet Kaur Dhingra, Head of the Meteorological Department, says, “Wind speed should be more than six kilometres per hour for particulate matter and smoke to move in any direction. Since October, there is light wind in eastern Punjab. Only twice the wind speed was more than four kilometres per hour.”

Adding on, he said, “For the first time on October 5, the wind speed was recorded at 4.4 km per hour and for the second time on October 24, the wind speed was recorded at 4.1 km per hour. Therefore, the pollution created by the fires set after harvesting the crops in Punjab cannot travel in any direction.”

University’s Department of Climate Change further asserted that the concentration of pollution and smog in a particular place during the months of October and November is associated with a drop in temperature.

When the temperature gets warmer, the air expands and the pollutant particles disperses easily. Meanwhile, when the temperature drops like it is happening with the start if winters, the pollutant particles stay in one place and smog is created. 

"Therefore, if there is smoke and pollution in Lahore and Delhi, there are self-generated reasons behind it."

Adarsh Pal Vij, the chairman of the Pollution Control Board of Indian Punjab, emphasised that the PM 10 and PM 2.5 polluting particles released from the gases produced by the stubble fires in Punjab don’t have the potential to travel much. “There is no such research which proves that the pollution of Punjab plays a role in the pollution of Delhi and Lahore. PM 10 and PM 2.5 particles do not fly as far,” he said categorically. 

Punjab Pollution Control Board's Environmental Scientist Avatar Singh rationalizes his claim by saying, "After harvesting, the land is set on fire in Indian as well as Pakistani Punjab, so Lahore is itself responsible for the polluted air."

"Even under these conditions, PM 10 particles can travel a maximum distance of 25 km, while PM 2.5 can travel a maximum distance of 50 km," emphasised another expert as quoted by BBC Urdu. 

Former Chairman of the Indian Punjab Pollution Control Board SS Marwaha strongly criticised the ongoing claims as he asserted, “Punjab can play an important role in the pollution of Lahore and Delhi if it sends its pollution towards these two cities through missiles.”

Notably, Professor Vinayak Sinha of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research admitted that the impact of Punjab's pollution on Delhi's pollution is negligible.

“The effect of pollution in Punjab is only in Punjab. Incidents of post-harvest fires in Uttar Pradesh or other neighboring states have a greater impact on pollution in Delhi than in Punjab,” he noted. 
Indian Institute of Science Education and Research is a government research institute located in New Delhi and their finding say that pre-Diwali and winter analysis in Delhi found that the main cause of pollution is vehicle smoke rather than farm fires.

Talking to The Current, Environment Department’s Secretary Raja Jahangir also highlighted the other factors contributing to the pollution.  “Lahore is a city of 15 million, with 4.5 million bikes and 1.3 million cars on roads. There are 6,800 industrial units because it is the fastest growing city in the country and has the most construction sites, as well as more than 1,200 brick kilns,” Jahangir highlighted.

For a city spread over 1,757 square kilometres, the green cover is not enough.

“Ideally, it needs to be more than 30 per cent, but unfortunately, it is not more than four per cent,” he said, further that the smoke emitted from harvesting of 6.6 million of rice given a boost by air pressure is disturbing the air of Lahore while it doesn’t have enough to combat.

“Ideally, it needs to be more than 30 per cent, but unfortunately, it is not above four per cent,” he said, adding that the smoke emitted from the harvesting of 6.6 million tons of rice, combined with air pressure, is contributing to the air pollution in Lahore, which lacks sufficient resources to combat it.

Read more: Why is Lahore more polluted than Delhi?