Air quality remains ‘very poor’ for 9th consecutive day; 11 stations log ‘severe’ AQI

There was little respite from toxic air for Delhi on Saturday as it continued to endure ‘very poor’ air quality, with the overall AQI settling at 370, while 11 monitoring stations logged readings in the ‘severe’ range.

The 24-hour average Air Quality Index (AQI) settled at 370, in the very poor category for the ninth consecutive day, according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

This week, the average AQI stood at 374 on Friday, 391 on Thursday, 392 on Wednesday, 374 on Tuesday, and 351 on Monday, data says.

The CPCB’s Sameer app, which displays AQI readings from all monitoring stations across Delhi, showed that out of 38 operational stations, 11 recorded air quality in the severe category on Saturday.

These include stations at DTU, Bawana, Anand Vihar, Mundka, Narela, Rohini, Vivek Vihar, and others, where AQI levels crossed the 400 mark.

As per CPCB standards, an AQI between 0-50 is ‘good’, 51-100 ‘satisfactory’, 101-200 ‘moderate’, 201-300 ‘poor’, 301-400 ‘very poor’ and 401-500 ‘severe’.

Meanwhile, the Decision Support System (DSS) of the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, estimated that vehicular emissions contributed 14.9 per cent to Delhi’s pollution on Saturday, while stubble burning accounted for 2.8 per cent.

For Sunday, these projections are 19.1 per cent and 2.6 per cent, respectively.

Satellite imagery detected 30 farm fires in Punjab, 11 in Haryana and 250 in Uttar Pradesh on Friday.

Meanwhile, the minimum temperature on Saturday was recorded at 11.8°C, 0.5 degrees below normal, while the maximum settled at 23.7°C, 0.6 degrees above normal, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

For Sunday, the IMD has forecast moderate fog, with maximum and minimum temperatures expected to hover around 26 and 11°C, respectively.