New Delhi: The national capital continues to witness air quality which falls under the ‘Very Poor’ category as the city woke up on Tuesday morning (October 24) with the latest AQI being 303, as per SAFAR-India. New Delhi has been experiencing a significant drop in the air quality for the last few days. The city’s AQI was recorded at 306 on Monday. The Sunday morning saw the air quality categorised as 'Poor' with an AQI of 266, a significant decline from the 173 AQI recorded the previous Saturday.
The overall AQI in New Delhi stands at 303, according to SAFAR data at 7 am. Delhi University recorded AQI at 335, Noida at 308, Airport (T3) at 313, and IIT Delhi at 306. All of them witnessed ‘very poor' air quality.
With the arrival of winter in a short while, New Delhi has once again started witnessing a rise in air pollution. Stubble burning is Punjab and Haryana has started leading to rise in air pollution in neighbouring Delhi.
Steps to curb air pollution
Aiming to curb the pollution in the capital city, the Centre's air quality panel on October 21 directed authorities in the National Capital Region (NCR) to increase parking fees to discourage private transport and enhance CNG or electric bus and metro services.
The action comes as part of 'Stage II' of the central government's pollution control plan known as the 'Graded Response Action Plan' (GRAP), which is implemented in the Delhi-NCR to combat air pollution during the winter season.
At a meeting to review the air quality situation in the Delhi-NCR, the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM), a statutory body responsible for proactively implementing GRAP, said forecasts by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) and the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) suggest Delhi's overall air quality is likely to dip and enter the 'very poor' category on October 23 (Monday) and 24 (Tuesday), owing to unfavourable meteorological and climatic conditions.
Delhi's Environment Minister, Gopal Rai announced initiative, 'Red Light On, Gaadi Off,' aimed at curbing air pollution in the national capital as the Odd-Even traffic rule remains on hold.
"The particulate matter is staying near the ground. The second phase of GRAP has been implemented in Delhi... A meeting has been called with all the concerned departments to discuss the execution of the GRAP phase 2... The weather is not in our hands but the sources need to be controlled... GRAP 2 is mainly about cleaning and water sprinkling etc... Frequency of buses and trains would be increased... A meeting has been called at 12 pm (today)..." he said.
AQI categories: What does 'Very Poor' mean?
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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(With ANI inputs)
