Delhi’s air quality worsens to ‘very poor’, thick layer of fog engulfs city

The air quality in Delhi worsened to ‘very poor’ category just a week before Diwali on Monday, as several areas in the capital region recorded an Air Quality Index (AQI) of over 300, according to data by SAFAR-India.
A thick layer of fog also engulfed several parts of Delhi on Monday morning, lowering the visibility, as the AQI fell to 307 in the capital.
An AQI between zero and 50 is considered ‘good’, 51 to 100 ‘satisfactory’, 101 to 200 ‘moderate’, 201 to 300 ‘poor’, 301 to 400 ‘very poor’, and 401 to 500 ‘severe’.
One of the major factors for the declining air quality in Delhi is stubble burning in agrarian states like Punjab and Haryana, which release copious amounts of smoke and particulates into the atmosphere every autumn.
Notably, stubble burning contributed to 1.7 per cent of the total PM 2.5 pollution on Sunday, and the contribution is expected to go up to one per cent on Monday.
Similarly, stubble burning is predicted to contribute around 7 per cent of the PM 2.5 concentration in Delhi’s air quality on Tuesday.
PM2.5, or fine particulate matter, is a mixture of tiny particles and droplets in the air that are 2.5 micrometers or less in diameter. This is less than the thickness of a human hair.
Meanwhile, BJP’s Delhi chief Virendra Sachdeva attacked the Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government for not taking action to control pollution.
He told news agency ANI that former Delhi chief minister and AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi Chief Minister Atishi and Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai have not done anything to control air pollution “except issuing statements”.
“They set up a smog tower worth Rs 20 crore, but that ‘crematorium’ still stands there. It doesn’t function. In last 10 years, they have turned Delhi into hell,” he said.
Atishi and Gopal Rai inspected pollution control measures at the Anand Vihar bus depot on Sunday. The Chief Minister said that one of the biggest contributors to pollution in the Anand Vihar area is the influx of buses from other states, adding the Delhi government will engage with the Uttar Pradesh government to implement anti-pollution measures at their bus depot near the national capital.