Delhi's air quality improves to poor category; AQI at 299

NEW DELHI: Delhi's air quality improved to the ‘poor’ category on Tuesday, with the 24-hour average Air Quality Index (AQI) settling at 299, just below the ‘very poor’ category threshold.

The air quality is expected to improve further in the next few days, with experts attributing it to an increase in wind speed.

Mahesh Palawat, vice president at Skymet and a weather expert, said, "The wind direction and speed have changed. Now northwesterlies are impacting the Delhi region, with an average speed of 12-14 kmph, which has helped the dispersion of pollutants."

Palawat added that the speed is expected to remain high for the next couple of days, which might lead to a further improvement in the AQI.

According to the Air Quality Early Warning System (EWS) for Delhi, the particulate matter concentrations in the air – PM2.5 and PM10 – are also set to see a decline for the next two days.

Of the 58 monitoring stations that recorded data on Tuesday, air quality was in the ‘very poor’ category at 28, ‘poor’ at 28 and moderate at two. No monitoring station recorded ‘severe’ air quality.

The air quality monitoring stations at Delhi Cantonment area and Sri Aurobindo Marg recorded ‘moderate’ air quality, with the average AQI at the locations settling at 135 and 155, respectively.

The city's average AQI improved from 344 on Monday to 299 on Tuesday.

As per the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), an AQI between 0 and 50 is classified as ‘good’, 51 and 100 as ‘satisfactory’, 101 and 200 as ‘moderate’, 201 and 300 as ‘poor’, 301 and 400 as ‘very poor’, and 401 and 500 as ‘severe’.

PM10 was the predominant pollutant in the national capital on Tuesday.

According to the Decision Support System (DSS) for Delhi, the transport sector was set to be the largest contributor to the city's pollution on Tuesday, accounting for 18 per cent.

Stubble burning was set to contribute 2 per cent, with forecasts suggesting that the contribution might go up to 7.9 per cent on Wednesday.

Satellite data showed that 559 residue-burning incidents were detected across six states on Monday.

Of these, 198 incidents were reported in Punjab, 17 in Haryana, 47 in Uttar Pradesh, 50 in Rajasthan, eight in Uttarakhand and 239 in Madhya Pradesh.

A total of 8,665 farm-fire incidents have been detected across the six states between September 15 and November 9.

The data was provided by the Consortium for Research on Agroecosystem Monitoring and Modelling from Space (CREAMS) Laboratory of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute in its bulletin.