Weather experts have refuted the claims of Pakistani officials that stubble burning in India’s Punjab is causing air pollution in Lahore, saying that air was instead flowing from Pakistan into India.
“The general flow of air at this time is from northwest to southeast, which means that air is coming into India from Pakistan,” said Sunderpal Singh, director of Indian Meteorological Department’s (IMD) Chandigarh Centre.
“Since air flowing into India, there isn’t possibility that air pollution from paddy straw burning could flow against the air into Pakistan,” he added.
However, he noted that due to complex weather patterns there may be some areas from where air might move back in the opposite direction. But emphasized that it was not strong enough to have any effect on the larger scale.
Singh claimed that paddy straw burning was also prevalent in Pakistan. “There is straw burning in Pakistan as well. Perhaps that is the reason behind the pollution there,” Singh said.
Air speed too low to allow pollution to travel
Singh further added that air speed in the state was not high enough for pollution to travel so far.
“Besides October 22-25, when air speed was higher due to Cyclone Dana, the air speed in the state has been rather low, around 5 kmph,” Singh said. “During the cyclone the speed did go up to 10-15 kmph,” he added.
Air is classified into different classes depending on the speed. Under 2 kmph is said to be stable condition, from 2-5 kmph is called light air, from 6-11 kmph is called light breeze, and above 11 kmph is called wind.
Pavneet Kaur Kingra, head of department of agricultural meteorology, Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), said that for any movement of pollution, the speed of air must stay above 6 kmph.
Lahore under smog
Pakistan’s capital Lahore has been battling deteriorated air quality in the last few days, with AQI crossing 1000 at a couple of occasions.
The authorities there have blamed it on paddy straw burning in Indian Punjab.
Mariyam Nawaz, chief minister of Pakistani Punjab, had on October 31 said that she would write to her Indian counterpart Bhagwant Mann regarding the issue.
