New Delhi (NVI): A day after witnessing a slight improvement, the air quality further deteriorated in Delhi-NCR this morning and remained under ‘severe’ category with the overall AQI at 452.
According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data, the air quality index (AQI) in Delhi’s Sonia Vihar was 486 today, 451 in RK Puram, 456 in Dwarka and 394 at Lodhi Road, all four in the ‘severe’ category.
The AQI in the neighbouring cities of the national capital—Gurugram was 463, at 458 in Noida, at 469 in Ghaziabad and 421 in New Industrial Town Faridabad.
An AQI between 0 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”.
Officials at the monitoring stations said that the poor visibility was noticed in several parts of Delhi-NCR due to rise of pollutants in the atmosphere.
The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data showed that on Wednesday afternoon, the AQI was in the ‘very poor’ category – between 301 and 400, but worsened rapidly to ‘severe’ due to a shift in meteorological conditions.
The wind speed gradually reduced and became calm, which left no room for dispersal of pollutants last night.
Furthermore, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said, the maximum wind speed was 5 kilometres per hour this morning and the minimum temperature of 11.2 degrees Celsius.
Due to calm winds and low temperatures pollutants trap close to the ground, while favourable wind speed helps in their dispersion.
However, the air quality situation is likely to worsen over the next one day or two, owing to unfavourable weather conditions, as per the forecast.
-RJV
