Delhi’s AQI dips to ‘very poor’ category

The city witnessed a decline in air quality on Wednesday morning, reaching the ‘very poor’ category. At 9:05 am, the Air Quality Index (AQI) for the city stood at 394, marking a significant increase from 365 recorded on Tuesday.

Simultaneously, the minimum temperature was noted at 10.6 degrees Celsius, slightly below the normal range. Relative humidity levels were recorded at 76 per cent around 8:30 am.

Delhi has experienced a rapid surge in AQI levels following a minor improvement noted on Sunday. On Monday at 4 pm, the city’s AQI stood at 348, a decline from 301 reported on the previous Sunday.

The AQI scale categorizes levels between zero and 50 as good, 51 to 100 as satisfactory, 101 to 200 as moderate, 201 to 300 as poor, 301 to 400 as very poor, 401 to 450 as severe, and above 450 as severe plus.

This rise in pollution levels followed the removal of stringent restrictions by the Centre on Saturday. These restrictions, part of Stage IV of the Centre’s air pollution control plan known as the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP), included bans on construction activities related to linear projects and the entry of polluting trucks into Delhi.

These measures were relaxed due to a reduction in pollution levels owing to favourable wind speed and direction. (With inputs from PTI)