A collaborative study led by Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur has found that the high amount of particulate pollution in Delhi during nightly hours was caused by biomass burning emissions. The study published in Nature Geoscience journal is led by IIT Kanpur and is contributed by Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), IIT Delhi, Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) Switzerland and University Helsinki, Finland. The research paper is co-authored by Suneeti Mishra and Prof Sachchida Nand Tripathi from the Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Kanpur.

Delhi often experiences high amount of particulate pollution also termed as haze; however exact reasons behind their formation was hitherto unknown. The exhaustive research unearthed the reason behind the severe haze events experienced during winters in Delhi which is one of the world's most-populated cities. 

This study was designed for Delhi during the winter months of 2019 where aerosol size distribution and molecular composition of ambient aerosols and gases were measured.  

The measurements helped calculate growth of aerosols during night time along with the sources of aerosols and also the sources of gases. The study found that very high growth rates (tens of nano meter per hour) of aerosols especially for those smaller than 100 nano meters (nano particles) have been found in unfavourable new particle formation conditions compared to other places in the world, leading to haze formation in an span of few hours during extreme pollution events.