Musings on Dust - The Health Hazard of Delhi

Musings On Dust in Delhi

Many studies on Delhi Pollution point to Road Dust or dust per se, as the major culprit.

Swaminathan Ankaleshwaria made an interesting, out-of-box suggestion about finding ways to gainfully use massive quantities of dust, if mechanically swept by equipment expected in operation by April 2016. He recommends finding  ways to convert the dust so collected to sand /aggregates for  use in construction.

Such a solution also has many attendant benefits, like lesser quarrying needs around Delhi.

But that begs a question : where does the dust come from?   

At another level, a senior scientist told the High Court, that geography of Delhi is such that it will have varying dust levels of dust, in different times of the year and climatic conditions. Under some conditions it can be 10 times more than permissible levels.

For Geography, one should read, proximity to the great deserts of Rajasthan – the Thar. There have been numerous studies on ‘desertification’ of Delhi- creeping desert.

Hills of Aravalli are the natural barriers: many have strongly recommended the ‘greening of Aravalli” as a barrier to the dust that floats into Delhi.  There is attendant benefit of cooling the atmosphere and re-charging the ground water of Gurgaon and environs.