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Delhi pollution news: Rain brought a huge sigh of relief for residents in the national capital, who have been breathing toxic air over the last few weeks. The overall air quality in the national capital continued to stay in the ‘poor category’ with AQI at 204 marking a significant improvement from the last few days, according to System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR) data at 7:30 am.
As per SAFAR data, areas like Delhi University, IIT Delhi, Airport (T3), Dhirpur, Lodhi Road witnessed ‘poor’ category air with AQI at 269, 221, 239, 228, 218 respectively. Bringing a major relief, some areas like Pusa, Mathura Road, Noida, Gurugram, Ayanagar, recorded ‘moderate’ category air with AQI at 142, 159, 183, 169, 159 respectively.
As per CPCB data, Anand Vihar recorded ‘poor’ category air with AQI at 266 which is a major improvement after last week aqicn.org data recorded AQI at 999.
Speaking of other areas in the national capital, Dwarka Sector-8 recorded AQI at 221, ITO recorded AQI at 231, Jahangirpuri recorded 268 AQI, RK Puram at 242, Rohini at 215, Shadipur at 264, Wazirpur at 248 all in ‘poor’ category, as per CPCB data.
Currently, Stage IV of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) has been implemented in the national capital after air quality plummeted to the ‘severe plus’ category last week.
Also Read: From early school winter break to vehicular curbs – Here’s 5 things Delhi can expect as AQI soars
Earlier on Saturday, Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai said the rainfall dispersed pollutants and reduced the extent of pollution in the city by 50 percent. While speaking to ANI, Rai said, “The rainfall on Friday dispersed pollutants from the city air. The wind, too, picked up, helping cleanse Delhi’s air of toxic matter. The showers reduced the extent of pollution in the city by 50 per cent — from an AQI of 450 to 225. However, it’s too early to say how long will be the impact of the showers on the city’s air quality.”
Meanwhile, Delhi University has declared an early winter break from November 13-19 which is generally given in December. Amid the increasing pollution levels, Anumita Roy Chowdhury, Executive Director, Research and Advocacy, Centre for Science and Environment has asked to speed up action throughout the year to build adequate infrastructure. “On November 2, when the massive buildup of pollution happened. We were amazed at the rate and the speed with which the pollution had increased by nearly 68 per cent within 24 hours. We really have to ramp up our action throughout the year so that we can build adequate infrastructure systems to scale, to implement the solutions at a scale so that vehicular pollution can be controlled by improving public transport,” Anumita Roy Chowdhury said as quoted by ANI.
She added, “Eliminate solid fuel burning in all sectors. At the same time, deal with and aggressively scale up the use of clean fuel and technology in industries.” Currently, the Delhi government also announced to delay proposed implementation of the odd-even car-rationing scheme in the city which was earlier slated to be implemented tomorrow i.e. from 13 November.
Punjab records over 100 farm fires
Despite SC directing the Punjab government to put an end to the practice of stubble burning in order to address the issue of air pollution in the Delhi-NCR region, on Saturday Punjab reported 104 farm fires, taking the total number of stubble-burning incidents to 23,730. The fresh figure of farm fires in Punjab was much lower than what the state was witnessing a few days ago. Paddy straw burning in Punjab and Haryana is considered one of the reasons behind the alarming spike in air pollution levels in Delhi in October and November. Only six cases of stubble burning were reported in Punjab on Friday as rains lashed many parts of the state.
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Updated: 12 Nov 2023, 07:28 AM IST
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