Delhi's Air Quality Has Improved To 'Moderate' But It Is Going To Be A Short Lived Relief

The toxic air quality has been showing signs of some improvement over the past few days. On Monday morning, the overall air quality in the national capital stood at 190, which is moderate. This was an improvement from the poor category on Sunday and was very poor the previous day.

This, however, was far better than 'severe' during the week, which forced the government to declare an emergency and close all schools for two days.?

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An AQI between 0-50 is considered "good", 51-100 "satisfactory", 101-200 "moderate", 201-300 "poor", 301-400 "very poor", and 401-500 "severe". Above 500 is the "severe-plus or emergency" category.

"It was very difficult to even step out of the house last week, but from two days, though the air quality is still bad but we can at least take a walk outside," a Delhi resident said.

Harish Pandey, another Delhi resident, said: "Today, the quality of air is better. But it will still take a few more days for pollution levels to come down further. Many factors have led to this deterioration of air -- festivals, traffic, and stubble burning have harmed the environment badly."

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But the current improvement in air quality could be shortlived. According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), conditions are again likely to deteriorate from Wednesday when a cover of clouds and fog will return.

“Air quality will continue to be in ‘poor’ category on Monday. However, it may dip on Tuesday with slowing down of winds and may fall into ‘very poor’ zone,” the forecast bulletin released by the Air Quality Early Warning System of the Union ministry of earth sciences (MoES) said.

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This is bad news for Delhites, especially schoolchildren. All private and government schools in Delhi and NCR reopened on Monday and further deterioration of AQI could force the government to announce another shutdown.

On Sunday, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal asserted that there is a "very strong correlation" between stubble burning and pollution in north India as he attributed the improvement in air quality to dip in cases of setting crop residue afire.

"A very strong correlation can be seen between stubble burning and the spike in air pollution in North India. As soon as stubble burning began in the first week of Oct, the AQI started rising. Now that burning is coming to an end, air quality is also improving'" the chief minister said in a tweet.