Delhi's Air Quality Has Already Dropped To 'Very Poor', Could Worsen Further As Winter Sets In
Delhi woke up to a cold morning on Saturday with a minimum temperature of 14.8 degrees Celsius, a notch below the season's average.
As the winter sets in, the air quality of Delhi is also getting worse. On Saturday the air quality index of Delhi at 9 am was in the "poor" category at 286, real-time data of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) showed.
As per the CPCB, Anand Vihar recorded an AQI of 317 under the 'very poor' category, ITO's AQI is 'poor' at 272, Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium is 'poor' at 292, Shadipur is 'very poor' at 364.
"Very poor"
The concentrations of PM 2.5 stood at 122 in the "very poor" category and PM 10 at 253 in the "poor" category.
An AQI between zero and 50 is considered ''good'', 51 and 100 ''satisfactory'', 101 and 200 ''moderate'', 201 and 300 ''poor'', 301 and 400 ''very poor'', and 401 and 500 ''severe''.
The air quality in Delhi was in the poor category on Friday, which was the worst recorded this season.
Stubble burning
Though the number of stubble burning incidents in Punjab, which is one of the main reasons behind the spike in air pollution in Delhi, has come down, it still remains a matter of concern.
Earlier this week, the Centre had informed the Supreme Court that paddy residue burning events from September 15 to October 25 this year, have been reduced by one-third in Punjab, compared to the last year.
According to the status report submitted by the Centre with respect to steps taken to abate air pollution in Delhi-NCR, 2,446 events were reported in Punjab this year - between September 15 and October 25 - as compared with 7,429, in the same period, last year. In 2022, Haryana reported 1,091 events, however this year in the past one month it reported 1027; and in Uttar Pradesh 54 events were reported in 2020, but this year only 30 events were reported so far.
According to the year-wise fire count of cumulative paddy stubble burning incidents reported from October 1 to October 25, Punjab has recorded drastic reduction in such incidents. On October 19, 2019, Punjab reported 7,572 incidents, which increased to 16,221 on October 19, 2020. However, on October 19, 2021, Punjab cumulatively recorded 5,919 incidents. For Haryana, 3,183 incidents were recorded on October 19, 2019, which reduced to 2,218 a year later, and on October 19, this year, it recorded 1,828 cumulative stubble burning incidents.
Uttar Pradesh recorded a marginal increase in fire incidents - On October 19, 2019, 55 incidents were reported and on October 19, this year, 61 incidents were reported.
With air quality predicted to decrease further in the coming days, the Sub-Committee on Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) on Thursday directed authorities in Delhi and the NCR states to stop using diesel generator sets and increase the frequency of bus and metro services.
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