AQI in national capital in red zone
NEW DELHI: Delhi residents woke up to a hazy Tuesday morning as the air quality index (AQI) slipped to “very poor” for the first time this season amid increased farm fires in Punjab and Haryana, and local factors such as low wind speed and accumulating pollutants, sparking widespread calls for pre-emptive measures against a crisis that has become routine as winter approaches.
According to the Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) recordings, Delhi’s average 24-hour air quality index (AQI) at 4pm settled at 300 — in the “poor” zone.
However, until 2pm, the hourly AQI average was well above 300. An AQI between 0 and 50 is classified “good”, 51 and 100 “satisfactory”, 101 and 200 “moderate”, 201 and 300 “poor”, 301 and 400 “very poor”, and 401 and 500 “severe”.
Nasa’s satellite imagery showed a large cluster of fires near Amritsar and Firozpur in Punjab and Patiala, Ambala and Kaithal in Haryana. Experts said relief is not on the horizon and the situation will likely become worse in the coming days.
“In Delhi, the development of strong surface level inversion and sudden local calm surface wind conditions led to a low ventilation coefficient and accumulation of pollutants near the surface… AQI is likely in the very poor to poor category for the next two days. An increase in stubble burning fires observed yesterday around Punjab, Haryana, and neighbouring border regions with SAFAR synergized fire count estimated as 675 on 12th October but, the transport wind direction is not favourable and hence only marginal stubble contribution in PM2.5 is expected,” the Centre-run System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR) said.
This means that the wind speeds were not strong enough to facilitate the dispersion of pollution particles accumulated near the surface, leading to a spike in levels.
On Tuesday, the prominent pollutant in most of the monitoring stations in Delhi was PM10 (particulate matter with diameter lower than 10 micrometres), which is primarily dust.
At 7am, Delhi’s hourly average AQI was 298, and it progressively slipped to reach 306 at 10am and then deteriorated further to reach 318 by noon.
CM Arvind Kejriwal said state governments should stop blaming each other and work together to find a solution to the issue of stubble burning.
He said that while farmers of neighbouring states and people of Delhi were bearing the brunt of stubble burning, “governments have shut their eyes”.
“State governments should stop blaming each other. We have to work together to find a solution to the issue… All agencies and governments need to take it seriously now,” he told reporters in Hiranki village in Narela, where the spraying of Pusa bio-decomposer solution started on Tuesday.