Delhi wakes up to ‘very poor’ air quality again

Delhi woke up to ‘very poor’ air on Tuesday, with the city’s AQI touching 344 and four stations reporting ‘severe’ pollution levels, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data showed.

Out of 37 monitoring stations, Bawana (426), Wazirpur (412), Jahangirpuri (418) and Vivek Vihar (402) were in the ‘severe’ range.

According to the forecast, the air quality is expected to remain in the ‘very poor’ category over the next few days.

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

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On the weather front, the minimum temperature settled at 9.6 degrees Celsius, 2.7 notches below the season’s average, and the maximum temperature is likely to hover around 26 degrees Celsius.

Meanwhile, the Decision Support System (DSS), a mechanism used by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune, for air quality analysis and forecast, showed that vehicular emissions contributed around 18 per cent to the city’s pollution on Monday, while stubble burning accounted for 8.2 per cent.

For Tuesday, these parameters are projected to comprise 17.9 per cent and 8.3 per cent, respectively, of Delhi’s pollution.

Satellite imaging detected 95 farm fire incidents in Punjab, 47 in Haryana, and 461 in Uttar Pradesh on Sunday.

According to the Air Quality Early Warning System of the Ministry of Earth Sciences, the city’s AQI is likely to remain in the ‘very poor’ range for the next six days.