Air quality in Delhi remained in the “severe” category on Saturday after the average temperatures dipped on Friday followed by slow wind speed leading to accumulation of pollutants. The air quality index (AQI) stood above 400 in most of the areas in the national capital, according to the data by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).
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The recent forecast by the Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) showed that the city will see a partly cloudy sky with very light rain and thundershowers next Monday. A generally cloudy sky is expected throughout this week.
Delhi has been witnessing a gradual increase in AQI levels after a marginal improvement on Sunday. The AQI in Anand Vihar was recorded at 458, 462 in Wazirpur, 431 in RK Puram, 427 in Burari Crossing and 438 in Dwarka Sector-8, as per CPCB’s data updated at 6 am.
On Friday, the national capital‘s 24-hour average AQI, recorded at 4 pm, stood at 415. It was 390 on Thursday, 394 on Wednesday, 365 on Tuesday, 348 on Monday and 301 on Sunday.
The air quality early warning system developed by the Pune-based Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology showed that pollution levels are likely to oscillate in the “very poor” to “severe” categories in the next five to six days.
Data from a joint project by the Delhi government and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur, revealed that vehicular emissions accounted for about 38 per cent of the capital’s air pollution on Thursday.
Besides this, secondary inorganic aerosols, particles such as sulfate and nitrate are the second major contributor to Delhi’s foul air, accounting for 25 to 35 per cent of the air pollution in the city over the last few days. These particles are formed due to the reaction of gases and particulate pollutants from sources like power plants, refineries and vehicles.
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Biomass burning, including post-harvest paddy straw burning in neighbouring states, contributed 21 per cent to the capital’s air pollution the previous day.
