No, this isn’t Diwali pollution! Delhi's air turns 'hazardous'; AQI dips below 736 in region

Every year, ahead of Diwali, some 'Bollywood actors & intellectuals appear on social media to request not to use firecrackers citing increasing pollution. News Bharati is here to give you a reality check about these 'Buddhijeevi'.

 

As per the current data provided by SAFAR-India, the air quality in the national capital took a nosedive on Monday morning, slipping into the 'Very Poor' category as the Air Quality Index (AQI) reached 306, up from 302 recorded on Sunday afternoon.

 

 

 

 

The key reason behind the hazardous situation in Delhi is low wind speed and continuous stubble burning in the Punjab state for the dropping of air quality levels.

 

 

The AQI is a way to measure how clean or polluted the air is. An AQI between zero and 50 is considered "good", 51 and 100 "satisfactory", 101 and 200 "moderate", 201 and 300 "poor", 301 and 400 "very poor", and 401 and 500 "severe".

 

 

The level of air quality is likely to get worse over the next few weeks despite government actions to curb it.

 

 

On Wednesday, the air quality in Delhi remained in the "very poor" category for the fifth consecutive day, as the maximum temperature was recorded at 32.3 degrees Celsius. Delhi's overall Air Quality Index (AQI) was recorded at 357 at 7 pm, according to the Central Pollution Control Board’s data.

 

 

 

 

Recently, NASA's Worldview satellite captured the stubble-burning incidents in Punjab between October 25 and 29. As per the image, the state saw a 740 per cent increase on Sunday with 1,068 farm fire incidents - the highest in a single day in the current harvesting season. Saturday witnessed only 127 stubble-burning incidents.

 

 

 

 

 

The October 26 image shows an increase in the red dot clusters as compared to October 25. After a significant rise in the number of fires on October 27, the next day (Saturday) witnessed a sharp decline.

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, Delhi’s Environment Minister, Gopal Rai, has asked the Central Government to ban buses that use low-quality diesel in the National Capital Region (NCR) areas of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan. This request is made to address one of the major sources of air pollution.