Delhi Air Pollution: AQI In ‘Poor’ Category Today For Residents Of National Capital, Likely To Worsen Day Ahead Of Diwali

Delhi Air Pollution: Residents of Delhi On Tuesday woke up to a slightly better air quality index (AQI) in the ‘poor category’ which was earlier predicted to take a turn for the worse. The AQI, according to Air Quality Early Warning System (AQEWS) at 9 am, stood at 272. The recorded improvement from Monday’s 327 AQI in Delhi is due to slight increase in wind speed, the weather department officials said. The AQI forecast says the air is expected to fall back into the ‘very poor’ to ‘severe’ range a day before Diwali, on Wednesday.

In terms of measures in place to tackle pollution in Delhi, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) pulled up the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) for “lapses” in preventing the dip in the air quality. It also observed that despite the bench’s emphasis earlier on taking effective steps, there was no improvement in air quality. The green body observed that a transparent process should be followed to invoke different stages of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP).

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As of 9 am this morning, Mumbai’s AQI stood at 115 under the “moderate” category. Though in the same category, the air quality stands improved from Monday with AQI at 126. Of the 22 AQI monitoring stations, 20 showed moderate AQI, while one station recorded “poor” and “satisfactory” AQI readings.

In view of dipping AQI, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Monday announced that bursting of firecrackers will be allowed only till 10 pm in the city on Diwali. The civic body has also deployed monitoring squads in all the 26 municipal wards to keep an eye on violators flouting dust mitigation norms.

Bengaluru

Moving up from ‘moderate’, Bengaluru recorded an AQI of 98 this morning pushing the air quality just into the ‘satisfactory’ category. It is expected to improve the through the day with AQI dipping to the 60s range.

Pune

The overall air quality in Pune was observed under the ‘satisfactory’ category with an AQI of 89 this morning. However, the forecast shows a slight increase in AQI is likely later in the day pushing the air quality to ‘moderate’ category till Tuesday.

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Meanwhile, Patna, which had been recording ‘satisfactory’ air quality for the last few days, slipped drastically to the ‘poor’ category with AQI at 218 Tuesday morning.

While Kolkata (161) and Hyderabad (133) remain under the ‘moderate’ category as of 9 am Tuesday, the forecasts say the former can slip to the ‘poor’ category later in the day. Furth, Lucknow and Ahmedabad enjoyed ‘satisfactory’ air quality with AQI levels of 105 and 62, respectively.