Capital’s pollution set to worsen, forecast warns of ‘severe’ stretch ahead
New Delhi: Delhi’s air quality inched close to the ‘severe’ category on Wednesday, with the city’s average AQI climbing to 392.
The forecast says Delhi’s air quality is likely to deteriorate further and slip into the ‘severe’ category in the coming days, remaining in the ‘very poor’ to ‘severe’ range for the next six days, according to Ministry of Earth Sciences’ Air Quality Early Warning System.
The 24-hour average Air Quality Index (AQI) settled at 392 — in the ‘very poor’ category for the sixth consecutive day — up from 374 on Tuesday and 351 on Monday, data from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) showed.
While the pollution levels rose from the previous day, the Sameer app — which displays AQI readings from all 40 monitoring stations in Delhi — did not show the evening data even though the stations were working in the morning.
In the morning, a total of 18 stations recorded AQI in the ‘severe’ category, including Chandni Chowk, DTU, Bhawana, Anand Vihar, Mundka, Narela and Wazirpur, with readings above 400. As per CPCB standards, an AQI between 0–50 is ‘good’, 51–100 ‘satisfactory’, 101–200 ‘moderate’, 201–300 ‘poor’, 301–400 ‘very poor’ and 401–500 ‘severe’. Meanwhile, the Decision Support System of the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, estimated that vehicular emissions contributed 18 per cent to Delhi’s pollution on Wednesday, while stubble burning accounted for 3.8 per cent. For Thursday, these contributions are projected at 16.1 per cent and 2 per cent, respectively. Satellite imagery detected 15 farm fire incidents in Punjab, six in Haryana and 377 in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday.
On the weather front, the minimum temperature was recorded at 10.2 degrees Celsius, 2.1 notches below normal, while the maximum settled at 28.3 degrees Celsius, 0.5 notches above normal, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD).
For Thursday, the IMD has forecast moderate fog, with the maximum and minimum temperatures expected to hover around 27 and 11 degrees Celsius, respectively.
