New Delhi: The city’s air quality turned poor on Wednesday after a day’s reprieve. Coarser PM10 particles and ozone were the major pollutants were the reasons behind the poor-category air quality.
The pollution in Anand Vihar remained the worst, like it was on Tuesday. Its AQI touched severe levels. In some other areas of the city, the air quality index was in the ‘very poor’ category.
Delhi’s Air Quality Index (AQI) at 4pm was 230, s steep rise from 198 a day earlier.
At Anand Vihar, around 4pm, the AQI was 426. The air quality is likely to remain poor for the next few days, even as GRAP-1 measures remain in force.
According to the Decision Support System maintained by the ministry of earth sciences, of all the pollution in Delhi on Wednesday, 19.2% was due to transport, 4% was from industrial units in Delhi and its periphery, 4.9% was residential emission, 2.6% was due to construction, 1.7% was due to waste burning, while the rest was mostly from other NCR cities.
On Oct 15, stubble burning contributed about 1.2% to the city’s pollution.
On Wednesday, 99 farm fires were reported from Punjab, 14 from Haryana, 59 from UP, and one in Delhi.
Over the past month, since Sept 15, 1,212 farm fires were reported in Punjab, 573 in Haryana, 587 in Uttar Pradesh, and eight in Delhi.
However, so far, their volume has not reached a level to make a major impact on the city’s air quality, though the temperature in the city has also not fallen to a level that would retain the emissions.
The city is likely to see poor air quality over the next two days. “The air quality is likely to remain in the poor category from 17.10.2024 to 19.10.2024,” the air quality early warning system for Delhi has said.
The outlook for the subsequent 6 days shows air quality is likely poor or moderate. “The predominant surface wind is likely to be coming from southeast/east directions in Delhi with wind speeds of 6-12 kmph. A clear sky is forecast for Oct 17.
The maximum temperature on Wednesday was 35.4 degrees Celsius, two notches below normal, and against 34.2 a day earlier.
The minimum temperature was 19 degrees Celsius, a notch below normal. It was a bit higher than 17.4 degrees Celsius a day earlier.
According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to hover around 34 and 18 degrees Celsius on Thursday, respectively.
