Things may again become a little difficult for the people of Delhi as
the city’s average Air Quality Index (AQI) level has entered the ‘very
poor’ category on Sunday.

According to the Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) daily AQI
bulletin for the city released on Sunday evening at 4 pm, the index
value was recorded at 302, based on the average of the past 24 hours.
Compared to the previous day, there is an increase of 69 points in the
AQI level, as the value was 233 on Saturday.

Advertisement

The places that recorded the highest AQI levels in the city at 4 pm
include, Shadipur at 377, Anand Vihar at 374, Nehru Nagar at 371,
Wazirpur at 370, and Mundka at 369, all reeling under a higher range
of the ‘very poor’ category.

However, according to the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology’s
weather and air quality bulletin for Delhi, the air quality may step
back to the ‘poor’ category in two days as the outlook for the
subsequent six days suggests that it is likely to be in ‘poor’ zone.

The AQI levels in the adjoining cities to the national capital like
Ghaziabad, Noida, and Gurugram, were in the ‘poor’ zone, while
Faridabad recorded the air pollution in the ‘moderate’ zone.

On December 5, the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM)
revoked stages III and IV of the anti-pollution Graded Response Action
Plan (GRAP) after the directions of the Supreme Court in the wake of
the improvement witnessed in the AQI levels. However, it asked the
agencies to intensify the actions under stages I and II of the
anti-pollution plan to prevent the pollutant levels from rising.

If the AQI levels in the city go past 350, the sub-committee may
invoke GRAP stage III curbs and if the index values touch 400 and
beyond the stage IV curbs will be again enforced.