It’s fog not smog, clarifies city govt

Contradicting the recent claims, the Environment Department of the Delhi government has on Tuesday claimed that pollution levels in the city is showing decrease in trend from the corresponding levels in the 

first week of November. The department noted that as per the analysis of the data of different pollutants, levels of PM10 and PM2.5 is decreasing. 

“Fog and smog are two separate environmental phenomenon. The present scenario of weather in the city is primarily due to fog,” the department maintained, while claiming that there is an “improvement in Delhi’s air quality,” said a department official.

The department was apprising the Environment minister Imran Hussain about the status of existing ambient air quality during a review meeting. The minister desired to know the status of air quality in the wake of existing foggy weather conditions being observed across North India. On the occasion, the minister was informed that the air quality in Delhi especially during the winter is influenced by multiple factors such as metrological parameters like wind speed, wind direction, humidity and solar index.

Meanwhile, there was dense fog here on Tuesday morning with the minimum temperature recorded at 9.5 degrees Celsius, two notches above the season’s average. The sky will remain clear in the day. However, there was very dense fog at some isolated places, an official from the India Meteorological Department said. 

According to the weather office, the maximum temperature is likely to hover around 24 degrees Celsius. The humidity was 100 per cent and fog at some places brought down the visibility to 50 metre. The minimum temperature was 9.3 degrees Celsius on Monday and the maximum was 24.3 degrees Celsius.

“The temperature is expected to remain constant for two more days and set to rise by one or two degrees from January 6 onwards. The fog situation would continue for at least three more days,” the official said.

Meanwhile, at least 55 trains were running late and six cancelled due to dense fog in parts of North India on Tuesday morning, a railway official said. 

As many as 22 trains were rescheduled on Tuesday and two were cancelled for Wednesday, the official said. The trains cancelled on Tuesday included the New Delhi-Howrah Poorva Express, New Delhi-Bhubaneshwar Rajdhani Express, Amritsar-Howrah Mail, Jodhpur-Varanasi Marudhar Express, Delhi Jn-Azamgarh Kaifiat Express and Varanasi-New Delhi Kashi Vishwanath Express. Varanasi-Jodhpur Marudhar Express and New Delhi-Varanasi Kashi Vishwanath Express were cancelled for Wednesday. As far as air traffic is concerned, 112 departing flights were reportedly delayed while two inbound flights were diverted due to low visibility on Tuesday.