Some experts suspect that farmers have, over time, become aware of the surveillance period and shifted the time of burning their crop waste to evade the NASA satellites, because of which while counts were lower this year, pollution levels were not.
The government said on Friday that data from stationary satellites was “sub optimal” and not “actionable”, dismissing an earlier direction from the court to use them instead.
Delhi has been battling hazardous air this month, with the air quality index (AQI) touching a peak of 494 on a scale of 500 on Monday, when farm fires also recorded a high of 2,893, prompting the government to restrict vehicle movement and construction and shift schools to online teaching.
