After Pakistan, Nepal Blames Farm Fires in India for Smog
New Delhi area on Friday morning. Image credit The Raisina Hills
Air Quality Worsens in Nepal with Experts Warning Worse Yet to Come
By Amit Kumar
New Delhi, November 15: After Pakistan, Nepal has also begun blaming India for deteriorating air quality in Kathmandu and other places in the Himalayan nations. Nepal-based environmental experts warned that worst is yet to come.
Pakistan cities such as Lahore and Multan are battling several spells of smog. The authorities have barred the people from visiting the public place. The hospitals are full of the people affected by smog and air pollution.
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“Farmers both in India and Nepal are in a rush to clear fields for wheat cultivation. They have been opting for easier methods like burning of stubble and open burning of waste, both of which are major contributors to worsening air quality,” Kathmandu Post quoted an air quality and clean energy specialist Bhupendra Das telling the daily.
Farmers in Nepal are also setting their farmland on fire to clear the stubble in quick time. Besides, environmentalists are growing worried that waste burning is further worsening the air quality in Nepal.
The waste burning also remains in several parts of the national capital where emergency measures have been imposed from Friday morning. Primary schools have been shut down amid worsening air quality.
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The Kathmandu Post in a report quoted a past study, saying “that around three million tonnes of agricultural residue are burnt in the Tarai of Nepal”. “Many other factors such as emissions from brick kilns, factories, vehicular emissions, and construction activities also add to the deteriorating air quality,” added the report.
The daily quoted Sarita Rai, chief of the Environment Department under the Kathmandu Metropolitan City, saying: “We should not forget that there are several other local units within the Kathmandu Valley where open burning also occurs, and this causes air pollution not only in the immediate surroundings, but across the Valley.”
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The Pakistan-based environmental experts have blamed the Punjab farm fires to the air quality plunging in excess of 800 in Lahore and Multan. A report by The Raisina Hills this week said that the air quality even in Kathmandu has plunged into unhealthy category with the pollution-laden wind travelling across the borders.
A report by The Raisina Hills last year had stated that the people in the Delhi National Capital Region are condemned to life with heavy pollution despite the government claiming to spend ₹9000 crore annually on anti-pollution measures.
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