Image Source: India TV News

Agencies:

Delhi's air quality 'very poor', likely to improve over next 2 days

New Delhi
October 31, 2020

Delhi's air quality recorded a marginal improvement but remained in the "very poor" category on Saturday morning, while a Government forecasting agency said it is likely to get better due to a favourable wind speed.

The city recorded an air quality index (AQI) of 369 at 9.30 am. The 24 hour average AQI was 374 on Friday, 395 on Thursday, 297 on Wednesday, 312 on Tuesday and 353 on Monday.

Jahangirpuri (412), Mundka (407) and Anand Vihar (457) recorded the air quality in the "severe" category. An AQI between 0 and 50 is considered "good", 51 and 100 "satisfactory", 101 and 200 "moderate", 201 and 300 "poor", 301 and 400 "very poor" and 401 and 500 "severe".

On Thursday, Delhi's AQI touched the "severe" levels for a brief period, before slipping back to the "very poor" category.

According to the Ministry of Earth Sciences' air quality monitoring agency, SAFAR, the share of stubble burning in Delhi's PM 2.5 pollution was 19 % on Friday. It was 36 % on Thursday, the maximum so far this season, 18 % on Wednesday, 23 % on Tuesday, 16 % on Monday, 19 % on Sunday and 9 % on Saturday.

The number of farm fires has again increased in Punjab (around 3,000), Haryana and Uttar Pradesh and is likely to impact Delhi-NCR's air quality. The wind speed has picked up. A significant improvement is predicted by Monday and the air quality is likely to slip back to the "poor" category, the SAFAR said.