A thick smog has enveloped the capital as the air quality further worsened with 8 areas in Delhi recording “severe” pollution levels.
According to the Central Pollution Control Board(CPCB) reports, “8 major areas in Delhi namely Dwarka Sector 8, Jahangirpuri, Mundaka, Narela, Nehru Nagar, Rohini, Anand Vihar and Wazirpur recorded “severe” air quality . And 23 localities recorded “very poor” air quality.”
According to CPCB reports, Greater Noida, Gurgaon, Faridabad and Noida recorded “very poor” air quality. PM 2.5 and PM 10 are at 245 and 247 respectively, at Lodhi Road which fall in ‘poor’ category.
The reports further said, Narela observed the worst air quality with AQI recorded at 449 which falls in the ‘Hazardous’ category and the best air quality at 155 in ‘moderate’ category. In NCR, Ghaziabad had the ‘worst’ air with an Air Quality Index reading of 407.
System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research(SAFAR), a centre-run agency, reported that the pollution levels will gradually increase in the next 2 days.
The agency issued a statement, “The increase in pollution can be attributed to decline in wind speed as compared to past two days. All other meteorological factors were already unfavourable.”
The Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology reported that the wind speed and the ventilation index– which determine how fast pollutants get dispersed – are “extremely unfavourable”. A ventilation index is favorable at around 6,000 square metre/second as it gets rid of pollutants. But in Delhi it came down to 1,500 square metre/second on Tuesday.