‘Fields upon fields…’: Pilot shares photos of farm fires as Mumbai chokes on poor AQI – BusinessToday

It isn’t solely North India that suffers with poor AQI from farm fires; India’s monetary capital additionally faces the identical destiny. 

Recent issues about air high quality in Mumbai have been triggered by eyewitness accounts from the skies, pointing to agricultural burning within the state’s hinterland as a contributing issue to the town’s air pollution spikes. 

Vishal Jolapara, a pilot who continuously flies throughout Maharashtra, not too long ago shared visuals of huge stretches of scorched farmland, providing a perspective hardly ever seen to residents on the bottom. 

“The explanation for Mumbai’s horrible AQI, one thing we pilots see on a each day foundation flying throughout my nice state: Fields upon fields set on fireplace within the hinterland. Winters and easterly winds carry that air to Mumbai,” he wrote. 

His remarks have added to an ongoing debate about how seasonal crop-residue burning — extra generally related to northern states — can even affect air high quality alongside the western coast beneath particular meteorological situations. 

The difficulty got here into sharper focus when Worli recorded an Air High quality Index (AQI) of 278 round 4 pm on February 20, putting it firmly within the ‘poor’ class. Performing swiftly, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Company (BMC) really useful cease-work notices for 12 building websites inside the G-South Ward jurisdiction, signalling concern over the position of mud and ongoing infrastructure exercise in compounding the issue. 

Citywide readings, nonetheless, painted a combined image. In accordance with the Central Air pollution Management Board, Mumbai’s general AQI stood at 130 on February 20 — categorized as ‘reasonable’. Even so, the information exhibits a sample of persistently elevated air pollution ranges by February. 

The town logged AQI readings of 141 and 140 on February 2 and three, adopted by 134 on February 4 and once more on February 15. Aside from February 10, 18 and 19 — when ranges dipped beneath 100 — the index has largely remained in three digits all through the month. 

Environmental observers say the mix of regional biomass burning, building mud, and seasonal wind patterns can create episodic air pollution occasions even in coastal metros historically perceived as much less weak than landlocked northern cities.