Delhi's air quality improves a little, Gurugram's still 'poor'
NEW DELH: Delhi's air quality improved on Monday but the authorities predicted that air quality will again worsen by the end of the week. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court appointed environment watchdog EPCA is expected to convene an emergency meeting on Friday to decided the plan of action. However, the Air Quality of Gurugram remained "poor".
SAFAR, which works under the Ministry of Earth Sciences and is India's official pollution monitoring system, has forecast that pollution levels are likely to increase over the next two days. The Supreme Court-appointed body Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA) has called for a meeting on Friday to explore possible solutions to control local dust.
Till Monday evening, the Air Quality Index was at 148 which comes in the moderate quality. On Monday, Gurugram showed 'poor' air quality but Noida was also 'moderate'. In Delhi, the major pollutants were PM 2.5, Ozone and PM 10. On a scale of 0–500, an AQI value between 201 and 300 is considered to be 'poor' while a value between 301 and 400 is considered to be 'very poor'. Beyond 400, it is tagged as 'severe'.
In the winter of 2017, Delhi encountered a week-long spell of smog when the AQI hit a peak of 486 on November 9. CPCB scientists had then blamed it on incoming dust particles from west Asia.
Experts said that the sudden spike in pollution levels this time is because of the rise in natural and coarse dust particles, the levels of which have shot up alarmingly since September 24 –the day when Delhi received its last monsoon rain. "From around 39ug/m3 at 6 pm on September 24, the level of PM10 (coarse dust particles) has shot up to 254ug/m3 around the same time on Saturday. It is now more than 2.5 times above the daily permissible limits of 100ug/m3," said the CPCB official.
The level of PM2.5 (ultrafine particles that comes out from vehicles, industries and garbage burning) has also risen, but not to that extent. PM2.5 level was registered to be 101 ug/m3 at 6 pm on Saturday. The permissible limit is 60ug/m3.
The air quality of Delhi started deteriorating since Thursday night and by Friday the average air quality stood at 197, just four notches below the 'poor' zone. "On Saturday, the AQI in Delhi was recorded to be 219, which is 'poor' according to the National Air Quality Index. Pollution levels started increasing soon after rains stopped in the city. The AQI of Gurugram and Greater Noida were 298 and 299 respectively," said a senior official of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).
