The city’s air quality slipped to the “severe” category again on Tuesday and the air quality index (AQI) is likely to be in the range of “very poor” to “severe” level till Thursday, said the Government-run monitoring agency SAFAR (System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research).
Air pollution of “severe” level “affects healthy people and seriously impacts those with existing diseases”, according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).
On Tuesday, the contribution of stubble burning in neighbouring States to PM2.5 (a chief pollutant) in Delhi came down to 8%. Also, effective fire counts in the region dropped to 1,820, SAFAR said.
“Surface winds are likely to be very calm with a low ventilation index pushing the AQI to ‘severe’ by tomorrow and fluctuate between ‘severe’ and the upper end of ‘very poor’ thereafter until November 18,” SAFAR said.
The AQI was 403 on Tuesday, up from 353 on Monday, as per the CPCB’s 4 p.m. bulletin, which is the average of the last 24 hours.
The air quality entered the “severe” level for the first time this winter on November 5 with an AQI of 462. A higher value of AQI indicates more air pollution.
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 on Tuesday said that the Union Environment Minister should clarify the Centre’s stand on pollution caused by stubble burning as its submission of two contrasting facts in the Supreme Court has “created chaos”.
“In a single affidavit the Central Government has submitted in the Supreme Court, there are two contrasting statements. One says that stubble burning contributes to 4% of the pollution in Delhi-NCR while the other statement indicates that a meeting was held a day earlier, in which it was told that the contribution of stubble burning to Delhi’s pollution was 35% to 40%,” Mr. Rai said.
He said that both of these statements cannot be true at the same time. “Either 4 is the correct statistic or 40 is. Therefore, I request the Union Environment Minister that the facts and statements in that report need to be clarified publicly,” Mr. Rai said.
