The air quality in Delhi has entered the very poor category just ahead of Diwali. he overall air quality index (AQI) of the city was 303 on Tuesday, according to the Central Pollution Control Board.
Delhi’s neighbouring cities — Faridabad (306), Ghaziabad (334) and Noida (303) — also recorded very poor air quality. This is the worst AQI of this season. Before this, the highest AQI of the season recorded in Delhi was 298 in the “poor” category on October 17.
Air quality forecast agency SAFAR said stubble burning accounted for 6 per cent of the PM2.5 pollution in Delhi on Tuesday. The rest of the pollution was due to local sources, as per PTI.
For the unversed, an AQI between zero and 50 is considered ‘good’, 51 and 100 ‘satisfactory’, 101 and 200 ‘moderate’, 201 and 300 ‘poor’, 301 and 400 ‘very poor’, and 401 and 500 ‘severe’.
“It is (very poor air quality) a result of accumulation of pollution from local sources due to low temperature and low mixing height,” said Gufran Beig, the founder project director of SAFAR.
SAFAR has predicted that Delhi’s air quality may slip to the “severe” category om Diwali night.
“Even if we consider 50 per cent of firecracker-related emissions of 2019, the AQI is predicted to degrade to the ‘severe’ category from November 4 night and will remain so till November 5,” SAFAR said.