Delhi air quality deteriorates, turns ‘hazardous’ as stubble burning begins

at 5:51 pm

New Delhi (NVI): Delhi’s air quality deteriorated today and turned ‘hazardous’ at several places with the beginning of stubble burning.

Air Quality Index was recorded at 275 in Anand Vihar, at 263 in Rohini, at 275 in ITO, and 229 in Nehru Nagar; all four in ‘poor’ category on Monday, according to Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) data.

Delhi government had earlier launched a campaign, “War against Pollution” (Yuddh Pradushan ke Viruddh) on October 9.

A tree transplantation policy has also been passed in this regard in a recent Cabinet meeting, according to media reports.

On Sunday, Delhi’s air quality was recorded in the “poor” category for the fifth consecutive day and the city recorded a 24-hour average air quality index (AQI) of 216. It was 221 on Saturday.

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’.

Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai said a 10-member team has been constituted to monitor the levels of primary pollutants, and measures have been taken to curb pollution and status of complaints received through Green Delhi mobile application.

-CHK