Delhi Air Quality Index today, Air Pollution: To put into perspective how bad is Delhi’s air quality, the prescribed safe limit of PM2.5 particles in the air is 25 per cubic metre, as per detail provided by the World Health Organisation. (Reuters image)
Delhi Air Quality Index today, Air Pollution: The Air Quality Index in Delhi on Friday deteriorated to “very poor” as air pollution is increasing in the national capital. Every year air pollution in Delhi worsens in the months of October and November. This year during the Lockdown, air quality remained satisfactory. But as wind speed started getting low coupled with an increase in stubble burning incidents led to the present situation. The central government body SAFAR-India has predicted that air quality will remain in the ‘very poor’ category in Delhi in the next week too.
On Friday, PM 10 was measured at 382 which falls in the “very poor” category and PM 2.5 reached 308 in the “very poor” level, as per data provided by SAFAR-India, System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research, which works under the Ministry of Earth Science. On Thursday, Delhi’s air quality deteriorated to the ‘severe’ category. The average air quality index (AQI) in Delhi on Thursday was 450 which was the highest in 2020, as per data provided by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). On Wednesday, the AQI was measured at 343.
Two factors become pivotal. Since Wednesday night, the wind speed became “very slow”, said Head of the India Meteorological Department’s Environment Monitoring and Research Center Dr. V K Soni. Along with this, 4,135 incidents of farm fires or stubble burning incidents were reported. The numbers are the highest in 2020. The share of stubble burning in total Delhi’s PM 2.5 was recorded at 42 per cent on November 5 by SAFAR-India.
To put into perspective how bad is Delhi’s air quality, the prescribed safe limit of PM2.5 particles in the air is 25 per cubic metre, as per detail provided by the World Health Organisation. On Thursday, Delhi recorded 450 per cubic metre and on Friday, it stood at 308 per cubic metre. The PM2.5 particles have a detrimental impact on the human body by potentially causing cardiovascular and respiratory diseases such as lung cancer, as per a Reuters report.