By Nivedita Khandekar

New Delhi, Aug 13 (IANS): In wake of the Commission on Air Quality Management (CAQM) being made a permanent body, Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav on Friday held a "familiarisation meeting" with representatives of states and others concerned.

Representatives from stakeholder states, members of the CAQM, officials from Agriculture, Railway, and Environment, Forests and Climate Change Ministries attended the meeting.

"It was just a familiarisation meeting," Yadav said, adding that no decisions were taken.

Every year, the transition time between kharif and rabi crops becomes important in view of the stubble burning by farmers in Punjab and Haryana contributing, among the many reasons, towards increasing air pollution in Delhi-NCR area.

The CAQM will be looking into "airshed" approach (like watershed, airshed is a geographical area beyond political boundaries wherein winds blowing from one area have an impact on other areas) and the authorities are looking at improved management of the air quality this season.

The meeting was given a brief overview of the air pollution situation. The daily active fire events (AFE) from Punjab during Kharif season increased from 43,686 in 2016 to 51,766 in 2018 to 76,590 in 2020. However, the daily AFE for kharif season for Haryana went down from 12,564 in 2017 to 10,354 in 2018 to 5000 in 2020, the meeting was told.

As per SAFAR model by the Ministry of Earth Sciences, the average estimated and maximum contribution of external biomass burning to PM2.5 levels in Delhi has been 13 per cent and 42 per cent, respectively, in 2020, up from 12 per cent and 58 per cent in 2018.

"This was just one of the first meetings. This issue will be taken up regularly and we are hoping, with the involvement of everyone, air quality condition would be better," said an Environment Ministry official.