A thick blanket of fog seems to linger in the national capital, with residents choking even though the overall air quality improved slightly on Friday. The capital, however, recorded the ‘severe’ category Air Quality Index for three consecutive days. Meanwhile, the average AQI dropped to 387 in the ‘very poor’ category. PM10 and PM2.5 dominate the pollutants as per the Central Pollution Control System.
As per the reports of the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology’s Decision Support System, transport emissions contributed 19.88%, industrial emissions in Delhi and the periphery 3.75%, and residential emissions 4.88%. Neighboring areas like Jhajjar added around 8.55% to Delhi’s PM2.5 load.
“The air quality is likely to be in the ‘Very Poor’ category from November 15 to 17. The outlook for the subsequent six days indicates ‘Very Poor’ to ‘Severe’ conditions,” the IITM forecast stated.
The maximum temperature recorded on Friday was 26.4 degrees Celsius, while the minimum was 10.2 degrees Celsius, and satellite data recorded 1,022 stubble-burning incidents across six states on Saturday.
CPCB data reported only three cities in India recorded ‘severe’ pollution on Thursday—Bahadurgarh (466), Rohtak (430), and Delhi (404).Meanwhile, Punjab has also seen a surge in farm fires this month, with 55% of all 4,662 stubble-burning cases reported in November alone, as reported by the Hindustan Times.
As reported by the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB), 2,578 incidents were registered between November 1 and 12, despite 82% of the state’s 31.72 lakh hectares under paddy already harvested by October 31.
