New Delhi, Nov 15 (The Street Press India) – The harmful haze covering Delhi got worse on Wednesday. The air quality is almost in the “severe” category due to not-so-great weather conditions. At 8 am, the Air Quality Index (AQI) in the national capital was 392. The 24-hour average AQI, measured at 4 pm daily, was 397 on Tuesday, 358 on Monday, and 218 on Sunday.
Air pollution reached severe levels (AQI above 400) in various areas within the city, such as ITO (427), RK Puram (422), Punjabi Bagh (432), IGI Airport (404), Dwarka (416), Patparganj (417), Sonia Vihar (413), Rohini (421), Nehru Nagar (434), and Anand Vihar (430). Neighboring areas like Ghaziabad (362), Gurugram (322), Greater Noida (312), Noida (364), and Faridabad (369) also experienced very poor air quality.
The Air Quality Index (AQI) ranges from zero to 50 considered ‘good,’ 51 to 100 ‘satisfactory,’ 101 to 200 ‘moderate,’ 201 to 300 ‘poor,’ 301 to 400 ‘very poor,’ 401 to 450 ‘severe,’ and above 450 ‘severe plus.’
According to IQAir, a Swiss air quality monitoring company, Delhi ranked as the most polluted city globally on Tuesday, followed by Dhaka, Lahore, and Mumbai.
As per a system developed by the Pune-based Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology to assess different pollution sources, stubble-burning contributed to 12% of the air pollution in the capital on Tuesday, expected to rise to 14% on Wednesday and reduce to 6% on Thursday.
The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) official stated that the final stage of the central government’s air pollution control plan, the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP), will persist with strict measures. This includes a ban on construction and entry of polluting trucks in Delhi, and it will continue until further notice. The official highlighted the increase in stubble burning incidents and unfavorable meteorological conditions, indicating a need for ongoing evaluation and responsive actions.
According to doctors, inhaling Delhi’s polluted air is comparable to the harmful effects of smoking around 10 cigarettes a day.
Long-term exposure to elevated pollution levels can lead to or worsen respiratory conditions like asthma, bronchitis, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), significantly increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease, according to experts.
Unfavorable meteorological conditions, along with emissions from vehicles, burning of paddy straw, firecrackers, and other local sources of pollution, collectively contribute to the hazardous air quality levels in Delhi-NCR during the winter months.
As per an analysis by the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC), the city witnesses peak pollution between November 1 and 15, coinciding with a surge in stubble-burning incidents in Punjab and Haryana.
Delhi’s air quality consistently ranks among the poorest among the world’s capital cities. A report from the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC) in August highlighted that air pollution is reducing lives in Delhi by nearly 12 years.
