Delhi's Air Quality Hits 'Poor' For This First Time This Season, Stage 1 Of GRAP Kicks In
The average air quality in Delhi was recorded at 212 (poor category) on Friday. The early warning system says the air quality is likely to remain "poor" till Sunday.
With the winter approaching, the air quality of Delhi fell to 'poor' category for the first time this season. The average air quality in Delhi was recorded at 212 (poor category) on Friday.
According to the early warning system, air quality is likely to remain "poor" till Sunday.
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What is Delhi's AQI
"The air quality is likely to be in the poor category from October 6 to 8. The air quality is likely to be in the moderate category on October 9. The outlook for the subsequent six days is that it is likely to remain in the moderate or poor category," the warning system stated.
On Saturday morning the average AQI in Delhi was 162 (moderate) but it had fallen below the 200 mark in several locations, with the observatory at Delhi University recording the lowest (283).
What is GRAP
As the air quality in NCR dropped Stage 1 of the 'Graded Response Action Plan' (GRAP) to combat air pollution during the winter season came into effect.
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Under this, the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) on Friday banned coal usage in hotels and restaurants and also directed authorities to take punitive measures against polluting industries and thermal power plants.
GRAP categorizes actions into four stages: Stage I - 'Poor' (AQI 201-300), Stage II - 'Very Poor' (AQI 301-400), Stage III - 'Severe' (AQI 401-450), and Stage IV - 'Severe Plus' (AQI > 450).
Stage 1 of GRAP
Stage 1 also mandates the suspension of work at private construction and demolition projects with a plot size equal to or exceeding 500 sqm that are not registered on the state government's portal for remote monitoring of dust mitigation measures.
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Ensuring the proper implementation of guidelines for dust mitigation at construction and demolition project sites and sound environmental management of resulting waste is also part of Stage 1.
What Delhi government is doing
On Friday the Delhi government said that an anti-dust campaign will be carried out in the national capital from October 7 to November 7 under the 'Winter action plan'.
Under this campaign, 591 teams from 13 departments have been deployed for inspection across Delhi. Along with this, it is mandatory to do self-registration of all construction sites above 500 square meters on the C&D portal, an official statement said.
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Why Delhi's air turn toxic in winter
A combination of factors, including seasonal changes in wind patterns, vehicular and industrial emissions and stubble burning in neighbouring Punjab and Haryana have been blamed for the worsening air quality in Delhi and NCR during the winters.
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Bobins Abraham is the Assistant News Editor at Indiatimes. He has more than twelve years of experience in TV and digital journalism. An avid student of history and geopolitics, he is a conservationist and environmentalist at heart. He writes on environment, sustainability, human-animal conflict and more.
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