On Tuesday, Delhi breathed easier as the air quality slightly improved from ‘severe’ to ‘very poor’ category. This will bring a huge relief to the population grappling with toxic air and also a brief respite to policymakers struggling with ways to control this emergency air pollution.
According to News18, scientists at the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said the pollutants from the air were cleared because of the increase in wind speed on Monday. With winds gusting up to 20 kilometres per hour dispersing pollutants faster, the visibility level improved to 2,000 metres.
The India Meteorological Department said Cyclone Maha and a western disturbance will cause rainfall in parts of the northern plains, covering Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh and Delhi-NCR, on Wednesday and Thursday which is likely to improve the situation, reported News18.
According to the Meteorological (MeT) department, there is a possibility of strong winds in the next 24 hours. At 9.44 am, Delhi's air quality index (AQI) was recorded at 365. The AQI at Vivek Vihar, Anand Vihar and ITO were registered at 410, 395 and 382 respectively. On Monday, the city's average AQI stood at 370 at 8.30 pm due to a slight increase in wind.
An AQI between 0-50 is considered 'good', 51-100 'satisfactory', 101-200 'moderate', 201-300 'poor', 301-400 'very poor' and 401-500 'severe'. An AQI above 500 falls in the 'severe plus' category. In the National Capital Region (NCR), AQI in Noida was registered at 388, followed by Ghaziabad (378), Faridabad (363) and Gurgaon (361).
Terming the pollution in national capital as 'atrocious', the Supreme Court on Monday said that people are not safe even inside their house. The top court ordered an immediate and complete stop to stubble burning by farmers in Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, blamed for 46 per cent of the pollution.
(Inputs from Agencies)
