The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has come out with data that shows that the pollution level in the national capital has significantly gone down, informed Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai on Thursday.

He told media persons that 70 per cent of pollution in Delhi was coming from outside, and only 30 per cent was from Delhi’s own sources. He added that the CSE had analysed the data of a Central government agency, the IITM, which revealed that the pollution generated inside Delhi had got reduced during the last five years.

In 2016, as much as 64 per cent of pollution was from outside and 36 per cent was from inside Delhi. The minister said that in the Supreme Court, the Central government had accepted that the share of stubble burning in pollution increased from 35 to 40 per cent, the effect of which is visible inside Delhi.

He further appealed that the Union Environment Minister should convene a meeting of all Environment Ministers of Delhi-NCR to find a long-term sustainable solution to the pollution problem. The responsibility of every state should be fixed by making a joint action plan on a scientific basis.

He pointed out that in Delhi, a source apportionment study was done by the Energy and Resource Institute (TERI) in 2016. That study had put forward the fact that 64 per cent of the pollution in Delhi came from outside and only 36 per cent was from inside Delhi. Now the question would arise whether the situation has remained the same since 2016.

For this, a well-known organisation working on pollution, the CSE collaborated with a Central government institute — the Indian Institute of Tropical Management (IITM). The IITM releases data through SAFAR.

The CSE took the data from the Decision Support System (DSS) for 15 days per hour from 24 October to 8 November and analysed it. According to the analysis carried out by the CSE of the data provided by a Central government institute, the pollution inside Delhi is 31 per cent from within the city and 69 per cent is from outside.

Rai added, “The people of Delhi have been blamed unnecessarily that they have stirred poison into their own air when the data presented by both TERI and CSE shows the same thing. This is the central government’s own analysis that the pollution generated within Delhi is only 30 per cent of the total pollution. As much as 70 per cent of
this pollution is coming from outside.”