Mumbai: National capital Delhi is standing at a very severe level of air pollution. Analysing AQI figures for the month of October, India Today Data Intelligence Unit found that air quality in the Capital started deteriorating at least two weeks before Diwali and peaked on Sunday, October 27.
The first week of October was relatively good for the Capital as air quality remained below 200 (moderate air quality). By the end of the second week, AQI crossed the 200-mark, taking air quality to the poor’ zone. Barring Thursday and Sunday (Diwali), AQI remained below 300. On Diwali, AQI reached 340. By the next day, i.e. Monday, AQI, peaked at 368.
On Tuesday, the Delhi-NCR region was covered by smog and dust with an overall AQI of over 500 falling in the ‘hazardous’ over ‘severe’ category and within that Chandni chowk was a most populated area with an overall AQI of 673.
The conditions were similar at Dhirpur, PUSA, Lodhi Road and IIT-Delhi with an overall AQI of 395, 400, 384 and 395 respectively.
There was a very poor air recorded with an AQI of 399 each at Indira Gandhi International Airport (terminal 3), Mathura Road and other cities of Delhi.
SAFAR had predicted that the air quality will get worse in the coming days and the AQI is expected to be over 300 due to Diwali and continuous stubble burning.
According to the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB), the state has recorded 9,600 incidents of stubble burning incidents till October 27 last year. In 2019, this figure rose to 12,027 in October.
In fact, the Capital did not fare even in the top 10 polluted cities. Four of the top five polluted cities are in western Uttar Pradesh.
Muzaffarnagar, a city in western UP, had severe’ air quality on Diwali. Its AQI was 426. Following Muzaffarnagar were Moradabad (398), Noida (397) and Ghaziabad (396) in UP, and Kurukshetra (392) in Haryana.
Delhi stood at 13th position with an AQI of 368, which is categorised as very poor’.
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