NEW DELHI: The sobering effects of Cyclone Maha, which is currently positioned over the Arabian Sea, and western disturbances couldn’t last long, as pollution levels in the national capital shot up again on Thursday.
High concentration of pollutants or ambient particles dragged the Air Quality Index (AQI) down to the ‘very poor’ category at several parts of the city.
The numbers suggested a drop downhill from Wednesday when the AQI had improved to between ‘moderate’ and ‘poor’ in Delhi-NCR.
“The light rainfall that the city experienced today wasn’t enough to disperse or dissipate ambient matter in the air. This explains why the AQI in several places dropped back to ‘very poor’. During light rainfall, the concentration of pollutants in the air gets heavier. Had the rain been heavy, the city would have fared a lot better on the pollution scale,” Kuldeep Srivastava, a senior scientist at the India Meteorological Department (IMD), said.
The IMD said the city recorded 000.8 mm of rainfall on Thursday.
The Met office said that the maximum temperature would rise to 28°C on Friday and the skies would remain partly cloudy.
Srivastava said the city would experience moderate-to-heavy fog. However, the fog would lift as the day wears on, he said.
“However, the wind speed is likely to pick up again by November 9 or 10. It would help in making the air quality better,” he said.
With the air quality plumbing new depths in the wake of Diwali, pollution has become a big political issue.
While the AAP has been blaming the BJP-ruled Haryana and Congress-ruled Punjab governments for failing to curb stubble burning, the rivals hit back, accusing the ruling party of politicising the issue.