Delhi wakes up to toxic haze on Deepavali, close to ‘severe’ AQI at 383

Delhi was enveloped in a haze of toxic air on the morning of Deepavali, with the city’s air quality nearing the ‘severe’ category with an Air Quality Index (AQI) reading of 383.

Of the 54 monitoring stations across the city, 24 recorded ‘severe’ air quality, while the remaining stations were in the ‘very poor’ category.

Jahangirpuri recorded the highest AQI at 450, followed by RK Puram at 448, according to the Sameer app.

The city’s AQI had shown marginal improvement from 382 on Friday to 369 on Saturday, but remained close to the threshold of 401 for the ‘severe’ category. Several monitoring stations had already recorded AQI levels above 400.

According to the Air Quality Early Warning System (EWS) for Delhi, air quality is likely to remain in the ‘severe’ category on November 8 and 9.

The outlook for the following six days indicates that pollution levels are expected to fluctuate between the ‘severe’ and ‘very poor’ categories.

According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), 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’. PTI SHB SKY