Delhi's residents can breathe a sigh of relief as the city's air quality registers a significant improvement, landing in the 'Moderate' category, according to data from SAFAR-India (System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research). After months of dealing with poor air quality and hazardous conditions, the shift to 'Moderate' air quality is a welcome change for the national capital.
The air quality in the National Capital Region also remained between 'moderate' and ‘poor’ categories, with AQIs at 158 in Gurugram, 248 in Greater Noida, 170 in Noida, and 179 in Faridabad.
AQIs in other cities of the country where the air quality was recorded in ‘the'moderate’ category include Ahmedabad (141), Chennai (126), Lucknow (150), Mumbai (163), Patna (142), Pune (126), and Jaipur (134), according to the CPCB data.
The air quality in the national capital remained in the ‘poor’ category on Tuesday as well. The 24-hour average AQI stood at 220, improving from 263 at 4 pm on Monday.
For the first time since May, Delhi’s air quality turned ‘very poor’ on Sunday, mainly due to a drop in temperature and wind speed, which allowed pollutants to accumulate. A few incidents of burning firecrackers were also reported on Tuesday on account of Dussehra.
On Monday, Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai said that eight more pollution hotspots have been identified by the government in addition to the existing 13 in the national capital, and special teams will be deployed there to check pollution sources.
He added that the government has also decided to use suppressant powder to prevent dust pollution in the city.
The minister also said that the government was moving towards the implementation of the second phase of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) ahead of the festival of Diwali.
AQI categories
The AQI is a standardised system used globally to communicate the level of air pollution to the public. It categorises air quality into different levels, each associated with a color code and a set of health advisories.
- Good (0-50): Air quality is satisfactory and poses little or no risk to health.
- Satisfactory (51-100): Air quality is acceptable; however, it may pose a moderate health concern for some individuals with respiratory problems.
- Moderately polluted (101-200): Air quality is acceptable; however, there may be a concern for some people who are unusually sensitive to air pollution.
- Poor (201-300): Everyone may begin to experience health effects; members of sensitive groups may experience more serious health effects.
- Very Poor (301-400): Health alert: everyone may experience more serious health effects.
- Severe (401-500): Health warnings of emergency conditions. The entire population is likely to be affected.
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