Green War Room Launched by Delhi Government. - UPSC Preparation Made Easy

Green War Room Launched by Delhi Government. What is this?

What is the news?

There is a lot of air pollution in Delhi, especially in the winter. People who live in the city are at major risk of getting sick because the air quality often drops to dangerous levels. The Delhi government has set up a “green war room” to carry out the Winter Action Plan and keep an eye on smog 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

What is the Winter Action Plan?

The Delhi government’s Winter Action Plan is a list of steps they are taking to clean up the air in the winter.

Some of the steps in the plan are:

Stopping construction work
Putting limits on burning trash
More services for public transportation
Putting water on roads to cut down on dust
Schools will be decided if there is a lot of smog in the air.

What does the green war room do to help?

Putting the Winter Action Plan into action and keeping an eye on air pollution 24 hours a day, seven days a week will depend on the green war room. They will put cutting edge technology in the war room and staff it with experts from different areas.
Stations across Delhi that check the air quality will send real-time data to the war room. This information will be used to find places with a lot of pollution and keep track of how well the Winter Action Plan is working. The war room will also work with other offices to make sure that all the steps needed to clean up the air are taken.

How it will work?

The war room will be linked to a mobile app called the Green Delhi app, which will stress how important it is for everyone to help solve the problem.
To deal with pollution sources in the city, the Delhi government will also start a program to get rid of dust.
The Green Delhi app lets people report smog problems, and the green war room will keep an eye on them.

Important to know:

Creating the “green war room” is a good move by the Delhi government to clean up the air.
Putting the Winter Action Plan into action and keeping an eye on air pollution 24 hours a day, seven days a week will depend on the war room.
The war room has cutting edge technology and is staffed by a group of experts.
Stations across Delhi that check the air quality will send real-time data to the war room.
The war room will work with different teams to make sure that all the steps needed to clean up the air are taken.

In conclusion

The green war room is a big step that the Delhi government has taken to clean up the air. People expect the war room to be very important in cleaning up the city’s air and keeping its people healthy.
A study from the Center for Science and Environment (CSE) says that 31% of the pollution in Delhi comes from inside the city itself, while 69% comes from outside the city in states nearby.

Since pollution is caused by both natural and human activities, it gets worse after the rainy season, especially in northern India. One of these is winter inversion.

What is winter inversion?

The planetary boundary layer is the lowest part of the atmosphere. It is warmer and lighter in the summer, and air in it rises more easily. Pollutants are carried away from the ground and mixed with cleaner air in the upper sky. This is known as “vertical mixing.”
The planetary boundary layer is smaller in the winter because the air close to the earth’s surface is cooler and denser. The warmer air on top traps the cooler air below, making a “lid” in the atmosphere. The name for this effect is “winter inversion.” Because the vertical mixing of air only happens in this layer, the toxins that are released don’t have enough room to spread out in the air.
In the summer, pollution levels drop because warmer air rises easily, making the boundary layer thicker and giving pollutants more room to spread out. The same thing happens in the afternoons in the winter, when the extra heat makes smog a little less bad.
At night, the affects of inversion are stronger, which is why the air quality drops at night. This is also why environmentalists tell people not to go for walks early in the morning, when smog levels may be much higher.

But why do places like Punjab, Haryana ,Delhi and Uttar Pradesh have the worst air in the country if winter inversion happens everywhere?

Pollution is spread more evenly in places near the coast, like Mumbai, where the sea breeze and moisture help. The Indo-Gangetic plain, on the other hand, is like a valley ringed by mountain ranges like the Himalayas. It is made up of Punjab, Delhi, UP, Bihar, and West Bengal. This landlocked valley traps dirty air that can’t get out because the winds are too slow.
There was image in 2017, Mumbai’s local trains are seen running through thick smog.
The valley effect and inversion trap more pollution in the area’s big towns, like Delhi and Kanpur. This is because of the high emissions from vehicles and factories, as well as the burning of biomass in the surrounding areas.

What is Valley Effect?

At sustained downward velocities of this magnitude, a pollution source on or near the slope would spread throughout the valley floor in significant quantities.

To sum up, Dr. Vinoj V., Assistant Professor at IIT Bhubaneshwar’s School of Earth, Ocean, and Climate Sciences, says, “Local pollution, topography, and weather all make the pollution problem worse in Delhi and other northern cities.”

Is the air getting better or worse in the winter?

Most countries are becoming more polluted because of more emissions and economic activity. In the winter, the Indo-Gangetic Plains are where most of the smog is. Things look like they are getting worse there.
“On the Indo-Gangetic Plains, bad air quality is getting worse for an extra one to two days each year.” This means that the number of days with good, clean, or acceptable air is the same. “This is a big problem that needs to be fixed,” says Dr. Vinoj.
He also says that the problem with particulate matter needs to be fixed. “The amount of biomass burning that starts after the monsoon has been rising at a scary rate of almost 25% per year.” Also, we’ve seen that over the last few years, the winter air over the Indo-Gangetic plain has been getting less moving. This means that pollution are taking longer to spread. “All of these things have made cities in the north perfect for high pollution loads,” says Dr. Vinoj.
In short, the location of the Indian Subcontinent and the way winds come in from the south and west through the Himalayas make a bubble where pollution can stick. Large areas of farmland (which can cause crop fires), offices or businesses that use generators, and traffic (not just EVs) are all to blame.

MCQ:

One of the main goals of the green war room is which of the following?

(a) To put the Winter Action Plan into action

b) To keep an eye on air pollution 24 hours a day, seven days a week

c) To work with different departments to cut down on pollution

(d) Everything else

The answer is (d).

The right answer is (d), because all of those choices are important goals for the green war room.

Question for Mains Exam or Subjective Question:

Question: Talk about the problems the Delhi government is having putting the Winter Action Plan into action and how the green war room can help solve these problems.

or

Question: Discuss the challenges faced by the Delhi government in implementing the Winter Action Plan and how the green war room can help address these challenges.

Model answer is:

Introduction:

There are many problems that the Delhi government has to deal with in order to carry out the Winter Action Plan. One big problem is that different sections don’t work together well. Several organizations, like the environment department, the transportation department, and the municipal corporation, need to work together on the plan. But these teams often work alone, which makes it hard to carry out the plan properly.
One more problem is that there are not enough resources. To make the Winter Action Plan work, the Delhi government needs to put a lot of money into facilities and people. The government does not have unlimited funds, though.

Main Body:

A study from the Center for Science and Environment (CSE) says that 31% of the pollution in Delhi comes from inside the city itself, while 69% comes from outside the city in states nearby.
These problems can be solved with the initiatives like green war room, which gives different teams a place to work together. The war room can also help the government keep track of the Winter Action Plan’s success and find places where things need to be made better.
The green war room can also help the government get the word out about how unhealthy air pollution is. This might make people want to do something to clean up the air they breathe.
The green war room is a useful tool that the Delhi government can use to fight air pollution and make the air quality in the city better.

Conclusion

The green war room is a big step that the Delhi government has taken to clean up the air. People expect the war room to be very important in cleaning up the city’s air and keeping its people healthy.