Delhi's Air Quality likely to deteriorate to 'Very Poor'

Curbs imposed ahead of the upcoming festival!

Ahead of the upcoming festival Diwali and the arrival of winter season, the national capital is soon going to witness a bad air quality index. 

Many alarms, warnings and precautions have been taken ahead of it to curb the infection level. 

Delhi’s Diwali started with “very poor” air quality, which is predicted to take a turn for the worse irrespective of cracker bursting, according to authorities.

At 8am, the capital’s Air Quality Index (AQI) stood at 341, up from 314 at 4pm on Wednesday. The 24-hour average AQI was 303 on Tuesday, and 281 on Monday.

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.

While SAFAR said that the air quality may become severe on November 5 and 6 if firecrackers are burnt, an official from the India Meteorological Department said that model predictions do not indicate the AQI reaching the severe category “even with higher emissions”.

On Wednesday, Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai had urged the Centre on Wednesday, to issue an advisory to Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh, to completely stop stubble burning during the Diwali period so that people could breathe easy after the festival. The contribution of stubble burning in Delhi’s PM2.5 concentration was 32 percent on Diwali day last year as compared to 19 percent in 2019.