Delhi AQI: The city’s overall AQI stood at 346 at 6:05 am on Monday. Most monitoring stations recorded pollution levels in the “severe” to “very poor” rangeDelhi’s air quality showed a slight improvement on Monday morning after hitting a season’s high of 391 – ‘very poor’ category – the previous day. Despite the marginal improvement, the air remained toxic to breathe.
Taking a note of the air quality, the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) called a review meeting at 4 pm, but decided not to invoke the next stage of the Graded Response Action Plan (Grap) across NCR. Citing a trend in the 24 hour average and no forecasts of ‘severe’ air ahead, it said, Stage-3 curbs — such as a ban on private BS-3 petrol and BS-4 diesel four-wheelers — were “not required at the moment”, while, 1 and 2 will continue to remain in place.
It added that the sub-committee was “keeping a close watch on the situation” and will review the air quality scenario of Delhi-NCR accordingly.
The improvement in AQI, experts said, was because of rising wind speeds, with the share of stubble burning also reducing marginally. Further, the wind direction fluctuated to westerly and southwesterly, as compared to northwesterly, which brings farm fire smoke to Delhi, on Saturday.Data from the Decision Support System (DSS), which estimates the contribution of sources to Delhi’s PM 2.5, said the contribution of stubble burning was 5.38% on Sunday, down from a contribution of 8.64% on Saturday. It has not forecast any stubble contribution for Monday.
Mahesh Palawat, vice president at Skymet, said winds were becoming calm overnight, with temperatures dipping. However, strong winds are being seen during the day, aiding dispersion of pollutants. “In comparison to Saturday, where the wind direction was northwesterly, thus bringing more smoke from Punjab and Haryana, it was southwesterly to westerly on Sunday, meaning it was coming from Rajasthan and south Haryana. Thus, possibly the impact of farm fires was lower.”
Palawat said accumulation was seen till Sunday morning but winds of 14-15 km/hr were then recorded on Sunday post noon. “Saturday also had a slightly higher moisture content, which can again negatively impact pollution,” he added.The capital has not officially recorded a ‘severe’ air day so far this year. The last such reading was on December 23, 2024, when the AQI was recorded at 406. The AQI at 4pm — when Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) releases its national bulletin, was 370 (very poor) and 352 at 10pm.
Meanwhile, forecasts by the Centre’s Air Quality Early Warning System (EWS) for Delhi said ‘severe’ air is unlikely in recent days. “Delhi’s air quality is very likely to be in the ‘very poor’ category from November 10 till November 12,” said the daily bulletin, adding the forecast for the subsequent six days also shows ‘very poor’ AQI.
An AQI of 51 to 100 is classified as “satisfactory”, and between 101 and 200 is classified as “moderate”, between 201 and 300 is “poor”, between 301 and 400 is “very poor”, and over 400 is “severe”, as per the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).The capital has not officially recorded a ‘severe’ air day so far this year. The last such reading was on December 23, 2024, when the AQI was recorded at 406. The AQI at 4pm — when Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) releases its national bulletin, was 370 (very poor) and 352 at 10pm.
Meanwhile, forecasts by the Centre’s Air Quality Early Warning System (EWS) for Delhi said ‘severe’ air is unlikely in recent days. “Delhi’s air quality is very likely to be in the ‘very poor’ category from November 10 till November 12,” said the daily bulletin, adding the forecast for the subsequent six days also shows ‘very poor’ AQI.
An AQI of 51 to 100 is classified as “satisfactory”, and between 101 and 200 is classified as “moderate”, between 201 and 300 is “poor”, between 301 and 400 is “very poor”, and over 400 is “severe”, as per the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).
