https://www.reuters.com/world/india/new-delhi-smog-grows-more-intense-farm-fires-rage-2023-11-16/
Toxic smog gripping New Delhi grew more intense on Thursday as farm fires raged in nearby fields despite a court-ordered ban, making India's capital the world's most polluted city again.
There were more than 2,500 farm fires in Punjab state on Wednesday, north of Delhi, as farmers defied a Supreme Court-ordered ban on crop residue burning and the local police warned of legal action against them, The Indian Express newspaper reported.
This is a really intractable problem. I don't know what they are going to do.
That air quality is going to cost lives.
🤖 I'm a bot that provides automatic summaries for articles: ::: spoiler Click here to see the summary NEW DELHI, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Toxic smog gripping New Delhi grew more intense on Thursday as farm fires raged in nearby fields despite a court-ordered ban, making India's capital the world's most polluted city again.
Pollution levels have risen since earlier this week after a brief respite and further mitigation measures are being discussed, but a plan to make rain via cloud seeding to battle the smog has been pushed back due to unfavourable weather.
The city held the top spot on a real-time list of the world's most polluted cities on Thursday, with an air quality index of 509 around noon, according to Swiss group IQAir which categorised the air quality as "hazardous".
A northwesterly wind blowing over the city is carrying smoke from farm fires in nearby fields and the wind speed within Delhi is light and unfavourable for dispersion of pollutants, a meteorological department official said on condition of anonymity.
There were more than 2,500 farm fires in Punjab state on Wednesday, north of Delhi, as farmers defied a Supreme Court-ordered ban on crop residue burning and the local police warned of legal action against them, The Indian Express newspaper reported.
Delhi's Environment Minister Gopal Rai told ANI news agency that authorities are trying to enforce laws in a better way and that a meeting would be held later in the day to discuss further measures.
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This isn't a wild fire. This is intentionally done by farmers to prepare their land for the next crop. The farmers know that the smoke is choking and killing people in Delhi. But they don't care because the winds carry the smoke away from them. There is a ban imposed by the courts against this. And they still don't care.
There's a lot we can do in labs, the snag is often when you try to bring it to scale. Regardless, doing this is like trying to clean your lungs while still smoking
Yeah it's a huge effort to do large scale biochar production. The dream is to take all those waste stems they're burning and sequester the carbon in the soil. This will improve soil quality and improve air quality by stopping the burning, but it will cost big bucks.