New Delhi (NVI) After showing improving trend for the last few days, Delhi air quality saw a marginal deterioration this morning, touching the higher end of the ‘poor’ category even as experts said it may worsen in next 24 hours.
According to the experts, the western disturbance on the western side of the Himalayas is going to impact the flow of air in the Delhi-NCR region which is likely to slip its air quality back to “severe” category. Over the weekend, the air quality had drastically improved aided by surface winds.
According to SAFAR, the AQI in Delhi fell 243 points between Friday and Sunday, and from severe to poor in less than 24 hours. According to Central Pollution Control Board, a change in wind direction and a sudden increase in wind velocity were the main reasons behind Delhi going from severe to poor in a little over a day.
The overall air quality index in Delhi stood at 269 at 8:30am, at the higher end of the ‘poor’ category, deteriorating a notch from Tuesday when it was at the “lower end of Poor category” at 218.
Delhi University North Campus area, however, remained in the ‘very poor’ category with AQI of 301. The air quality at Ayanagar was much better with 193, which is in the ‘moderate’ category. Lodhi Road showed an AQI of 283, which is at the higher end of the ‘poor’ spectrum.
The AQI in Gurugram was recorded at 247, which is at the lower end of the ‘poor’ category. In Noida, the AQI was recorded at 333, which is in the ‘very poor’ category.
Discussions in Lok Sabha
Earlier on Tuesday, the air quality in Delhi-NCR came up for discussions in Lok Sabha. Notwithstanding the political blame game, the parliamentarians cutting across the party lines sought an integrated approach to tackle the situation while stressing that it was wrong to blame only stubble burning by farmers for the pollution in the national capital. They said that vehicles, dust, construction activities and factories etc too substantially contributed to the pollution.
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