Air quality improves, goes from 'severe plus' to 'poor'

New Delhi: Clear blue sky was finally seen in the national Capital on Wednesday, with air quality slumping to "poor" category. Delhi had been choking in smog and "severe plus" category of air pollution that has come down with the change in wind direction.

Delhi government's Odd-Even scheme has also helped to curb air pollution, say experts. The scheme that was implemented on November 4, and will go on till November 15.

"Factors of climatic conditions played a major role here. So, with change in winds all the pollutants due to firecrackers, stubble burning and vehicular emissions, which was earlier getting trapped in the lower atmosphere, has helped change the condition," Dr. Radha Goyal, Deputy Director at Indian Pollution Control Association.

The overall air quality index (AQI) in Anand Vihar, Bawana, Dwarka sector – 8, Wazirpur, Punjabi Bagh, ITO and Lodhi Road was 264, 277, 268, 280, 229, 183 (moderate) and 155 (moderate).

Environment Ministry's SAFAR also predicted that the air quality has improved since Tuesday, while further improvement is expected. "The change in wind direction has lead to very low biomass plume intrusion in spite of the fact that fire count observed yesterday was very high (5300) as per multi-satellite SAFAR product (particular satellite counted even higher)," said SAFAR's report.

It added that approaching westerly disturbances brought cleaner air to the region. Thundershower has also been forecasted by the agency. "Isolated thundershower is expected for the next two days and wind direction is likely to be southeasterly on November 7, so no biomass intrusion," forecasted SAFAR. Meanwhile, improvement in AQI is expected for Thursday to the lower end of the poor to moderate category in case of high rainfall.