Delhi Air Quality update: Delhi chokes as air quality edges close to ‘severe’, AQI crashes to…

Delhi Air Quality update: Delhi air quality witnessed a sharp decline on Saturday, hovering dangerously close to the ‘severe’ mark, with city recording an average Air Quality Index (AQI) of 385.

Delhi air quality close to ‘severe’

According to Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data, Delhi’s 24-hour average AQI stood at 385, in the ‘very poor’ category, at 4 pm on Saturday, with 20 of the city 40 air quality monitoring stations registering AQI levels above the 400 mark, in the ‘severe’ bracket.

Data from the CPCB’s SAMEER app showed that monitoring stations at Shadipur, Vivek Vihar, Ashok Nagar, Bawana, Chandni Chowk, DTU, Dwarka, ITO and Mundka, among others, recording AQI in the ‘severe’ category.

In contrast, Delhi had seen a brief relief from toxic air earlier in the week as air quality on Wednesday and Thursday had remained well below the 300 mark, in the ‘poor’ category. However, pollution levels spiked on Friday with the city’s average AQI settling at 332, nearly 100 notches higher than Thursday’s reading of 234, CPCB data showed.

An AQI between 0 and 50 is considered good, 51–100 satisfactory, 101–200 moderate, 201–300 poor, 301–400 very poor and 401–500 severe, as per CPCB standards.

Vehicular pollution remains highest contributor

According to data from the Decision Support System (DSS) for Air Quality Management, vehicular emissions remained the largest contributor to Delhi’s pollution load on Saturday, accounting for 16.2 per cent, followed by emissions from industries in Delhi and adjoining areas (8.5 per cent), residential emissions (4 per cent) and biomass burning (1.6 per cent).

Among NCR districts, Jhajjar in Haryana contributed the highest share to Delhi’s pollution levels at 17.5 per cent, followed by Sonipat (5.8 per cent) and Rohtak (5.6 per cent), the data showed.

Delhi air quality is likely to remain in the very poor category in the coming days, according to the forecast.

Delhi weather forecast

On the weather front, Delhi recorded a maximum temperature of 22.2 degrees Celsius on Saturday, 1.8 degrees above normal, while the minimum temperature settled at 7.8 degrees Celsius, slightly below seasonal average, the India(BHARAT) Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

Relative humidity stood at 70 per cent at 8.30 am and rose to 100 per cent at 5.30 pm.

The IMD has forecast a minimum temperature of 8 degrees Celsius and a maximum of 22 degrees Celsius for Sunday, with shallow to dense fog likely during morning and evening hours.