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New Delhi: Delhiites woke up to toxic air on Sunday, with several parts of the national capital recording "very poor" to "severe" air quality levels just a day ahead of Diwali. According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the Air Quality Index (AQI) around Akshardham touched 426, placing it in the "severe" category.
As per CPCB data, Delhi's overall AQI stood at 274 at 5.30 am, putting the city in the "poor" category for the sixth consecutive day. By 7 am, air quality had sharply deteriorated in several localities. Anand Vihar recorded the worst level at 426, while RK Puram (322) and Vivek Vihar (349) reported "very poor" air quality. Other areas such as Ashok Vihar (304), Bawana (303), and Jahangirpuri (314) also remained in the "very poor" range.
The CPCB categorises air quality between 0-50 as "good", 51-100 as "satisfactory", 101-200 as "moderate", 201-300 as "poor", 301-400 as "very poor", and 401-500 as "severe".
By Saturday evening, nine of the 38 monitoring stations in Delhi had reported "very poor" air, inching closer to "severe" levels. These included Anand Vihar, Wazirpur, Bawana, Jahangirpuri, Okhla, Vivek Vihar, Dwarka, and Siri Fort.
A similar trend was observed across the National Capital Region (NCR). Loni (Ghaziabad) recorded an AQI of 341, while Noida's Sector 125 and Gurugram's Sector 51 both reported 342.
The worsening air quality can be attributed various factors including vehicular emissions, stubble burning in neighbouring states, and low wind speeds that prevent dispersion of pollutants.
The Air Quality Early Warning System has forecast that pollution levels are likely to remain in the "poor to very poor" range in the coming days, with the potential to worsen during and after Diwali due to firecracker use.
The first phase of Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) has been in place in Delhi-NCR for past several days.
