Delhi’s Air Quality ‘Very Poor’, Stubble Burning Impact

Aakhir Tak – In Shorts

1. Delhi’s air quality worsened to ‘very poor’ category, with an AQI of 307 recorded on Monday morning.
2. A major contributor to this is stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana.
3. BJP’s Delhi chief criticized the AAP government for failing to control pollution.

Aakhir Tak – In Depth

Delhi’s air quality deteriorated to the ‘very poor’ category on Monday, with an Air Quality Index (AQI) of 307 recorded in the morning. Just a week ahead of Diwali, several areas in the capital reported an AQI above 300, according to data from SAFAR-India. For the first time this season, the AQI reached such a high level, with a thick layer of smog reducing visibility across many parts of Delhi.

#WATCH | Delhi: A layer of fog engulfs Akshardham temple and surrounding areas as the AQI slips to 'very poor' category with AQI at 307, as per SAFAR-India pic.twitter.com/h4Px0uNdIS

— ANI (@ANI) October 21, 2024

The Anand Vihar area recorded the worst air quality, with an AQI of 361. The minimum temperature was logged at 20.4 degrees Celsius, two notches above the seasonal average, while the maximum temperature is expected to reach 35.8 degrees Celsius on Monday.

An AQI between 0 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’. A major factor contributing to Delhi’s declining air quality is stubble burning in agrarian states like Punjab and Haryana, which releases vast amounts of smoke and particulate matter into the atmosphere every autumn.

Notably, stubble burning accounted for 1.7 percent of total PM2.5 pollution on Sunday, with expectations that this contribution would rise to one percent on Monday. Similarly, stubble burning is predicted to contribute around 7 percent of PM2.5 concentration in Delhi’s air quality on Tuesday.

PM2.5, or fine particulate matter, consists of tiny particles and droplets in the air that are 2.5 micrometers or less in diameter, which is less than the thickness of a human hair.

Meanwhile, BJP’s Delhi chief, Virendra Sachdeva, criticized the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-led government for failing to control pollution. He told ANI that former Delhi Chief Minister and AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal, current Chief Minister Atishi, and Environment Minister Gopal Rai have done nothing to address air pollution “except issue statements.”

“They set up a smog tower worth Rs 20 crore, but that ‘crematorium’ still stands there. It doesn’t function. Over the 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 stated that one of the major contributors to pollution in the Anand Vihar area is the influx of buses from other states. The Delhi government plans to engage with the Uttar Pradesh government to implement anti-pollution measures at their bus depot near the national capital.

Aakhir Tak Editor-in-Chief

See Full Bio