Much to the relief of the residents of Delhi-National Capital Region, the air quality showed significant improvement on Monday after rainfall and gusty wind speed on Sunday, said the Central Pollution Control Board.
The Air Quality Index(AQI), which remained under ‘severe’ category for almost two weeks before Diwali, came down to 221, falling in the ‘poor’ category’.
Before Monday, the last time AQI in Delhi was recorded in the ‘poor’ category was on November 2.
The Air Quality Index (AQI) stood at 205 in R K Puram, 208 in Ashok Vihar, 213 in Najafgarh, 192 in Bawana, 189 in Okhla Phase-2, 186 in Rohini and 173 in Anand Vihar, as most of them were in ‘poor’ and ‘moderate’ categories as per the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) data.
Before the rainfall on the Sunday eve, Delhi’s AQI stood at 467, indicating severely polluted air that can lead to respiratory problems.
Meanwhile, the average 24-hour AQI at 4 pm on Nov 16 was 186 in Faridabad, 207 in Ghaziabad, 226 in Greater Noida, 243 in Noida and 246 in Gurgaon, according to CPCB’s Sameer app.
The AQI on Nov 15 had docked up to 448 in Ghaziabad 441 in Noida, 417 in Greater Noida, 425 in Gurgaon and 414?in Faridabad.
“Recent rains helped. Used to feel breathing difficulty and irritation in eyes, it’s better now,” ANI quoted a Delhi ITO resident as saying.
Even as the AQI reached under moderate category on Monday evening, the Delhi-NCR region still witnesses a thin layer of smog on Tuesday morning, creating less visibility across the city.
According to the reports, the air quality in Delhi-NCR is expected to remain in the “moderate” and “poor” categories for the next two days.
Earlier, in its special report, he Central Pollution Control Board said that almost all pollutants reported higher values on Diwali this year as compared to 2019.
It can be credited to continuous stubble burning in the neigHbouring states of Punjab and Haryana and bursting of firecrackers, the CPCB said.
Picture credit: Google
