NEW DELHI: The national capital on Thursday struggled to breathe as the air quality entered the ‘severe’ category with AQI touching 450, highest since December 2019. According to the experts, unfavourable meteorological conditions — calm winds and low temperatures — and smoke from farm fires in neighbouring states led to a dense layer of haze on Wednesday night.
The haze thinned on Thursday with higher wind speed helping in dispersion of pollutants. All the 36 monitoring stations in Delhi recorded air quality in the ‘severe’ category. The neighbouring cities of Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Greater Noida, Gurgaon and Noida also recorded ‘severe’ air pollution.
Dr. V.K. Soni, IMD confirmed that it might be attributed to sudden calming of winds, which could not be captured by the model. It was also apprised that PM10 was the prominent pollutant. Further, Dr. Soni indicated that air quality is likely to improve from today evening due to increased wind speed and will remain in Very Poor category for next 2 days.
A meeting was also held on Thursday by the Task Force on Graded Response Action Plan and suggested that offices and other establishments are advised to reduce vehicle usage by at least 30% by working from home, car-pooling, and optimizing their field activities, etc. It also suggested that implementing agencies to step up their efforts, be more vigilant, and ensure quick actions including on redressal of complaints on SAMEER app and other Social media platforms to curb polluting activities.
PM10 levels in Delhi-NCR stood at 563 micrograms per cubic metre (‘g/m3) at 10 am. It came down to 497 ‘g/m3 by 5 pm, according to CPCB data.PM10 levels below 100 ‘g/m3 are considered safe in India. The level of PM2.5 was 360 ‘g/m3 at 12 noon. PM2.5 levels up to 60 ‘g/m3 are considered safe.
The Ministry of Earth Sciences’ air quality monitor, SAFAR, said the farm fire count in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and neighbouring areas increased significantly and stood at 4,135 on Wednesday, the highest in this season so far. “The share of stubble burning in Delhi’s PM2.5 pollution was estimated at 42 per cent on Thursday,” it said.