India’s capital Delhi is breathing toxin. On Monday, people in most part of northern India woke up to a thick blanket of smog, a toxic blend of smoke and fog. The readings of air quality in New Delhi hit their highest this year following dense fog overnight.
For the past few years, the smog has become a common phenomenon during winters in Delhi and neighbouring Noida and Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh and Gurugram in Haryana. This has been happening as cold air traps dust, emissions, and smoke from illegal farm fires in some surrounding states.
In Delhi, visibility dropped to 100 m on Monday disrupting flights and trains movement resulting in delays.
As per pollution control authority, the national capital territory’s (NCT) 24-hour air quality index (AQI) reading was at 484, classified as “severe plus”, the highest this year.
According to Swiss group IQAir’s live rankings, New Delhi was the most polluted city in the world with the air quality at a “hazardous” 1,081 and the concentration of PM2.5 – particulate matter measuring 2.5 microns or less in diameter that can be carried into lungs, causing deadly diseases and cardiac issues – was 130.9 times the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) recommended levels.
A report by Reuters quoted experts as saying that scores vary because of a difference in the scale countries adopt to convert pollutant concentrations into AQI, and so the same quantity of a specific pollutant may be translated as different AQI scores in different countries.
With the situation turning grim, authorities in Delhi have directed all schools to conduct classes online.
Also, restrictions on construction activities and vehicle movements have been intensified, citing unfavourable meteorological conditions and low wind speed.
According to SAFAR, a weather forecasting agency under the ministry of earth sciences, stubble burning or farm fires – where stubble left after harvesting rice is burnt to clear fields – have contributed to as much as 40 per cent of the pollution in Delhi.
Satellites detected 1,334 such events in six states on Sunday, the most in the last four days, according to India’s Consortium for Research on Agroecosystem Monitoring and Modeling from Space.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD), meanwhile, has forecast “dense to very dense fog” for Delhi and other northern states including Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan for Monday.
With inputs from Reuters.
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Delhi world’s most polluted city, air quality ‘hazardous’ at 1081 AQI, PM2.5 131 times WHO levels
