Itchy throat, watery eyes as Delhi’s air pollution goes off the charts

New Delhi: From “severe” last night, the air quality in the national capital has slipped to the category of “dangerous” this morning, after the Diwali festival.

Continuing its upward trend, the city’s air quality index, which stood at 382 at 4 p.m. yesterday, entered the severe zone around 8 p.m. as the low temperature and wind speed allowed the accumulation of pollutants.

Pollution Meter (PM) 2.5 concentrations stood at 999 at the city’s Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on Friday morning. The number 999 is the upper limit of Delhi pollution gauges and the reading could mean that the actual value may be higher.

The neighboring cities of Faridabad (424), Ghaziabad (442), Gurgaon (423), and Noida (431) also recorded “ severe ” air quality, with cookie popping peaking after 9 pm.

Despite the Delhi government’s complete ban on firecrackers, including green ones, several people were seen popping cookies, contributing to the degradation of air quality.

Residents of Lajpat Nagar in South Delhi, Burari in North Delhi, Paschim Vihar in West Delhi, and Shahdara in East Delhi reported firecracker explosion incidents at 7 pm. A substantial dip in the cookie popping at night seemed like a break with tradition.

People from various parts of the city and its suburbs complained of itchy throats and watery eyes, as a layer of smog, the first episode of this season, lingered in the region.

The Haryana government also imposed a ban on the sale or use of all types of firecrackers in 14 of its districts in the National Capital Region, while restrictions were placed elsewhere.

According to the Center-run Weather and Air Quality Research and Forecasting System (SAFAR), air quality will likely not improve until Sunday night (November 7). However, the improvement would only fluctuate in the “Very Poor” category.

Experts said the deterioration in air quality was due to unfavorable weather conditions (calm winds, low temperature, and low mixing height) and a poisonous cocktail of firecracker emissions, stubble burning, and local sources.

Earlier on Thursday, the city reported its first episode of fog that reduced visibility at Indira Gandhi International Airport and Safdarjung Airport to a range of 600 to 800 meters in the morning.

The capital’s 24-hour average air quality index (AQI) stood at 382 on Thursday, down from 314 on Wednesday. It was 303 on Tuesday and 281 on Monday.

An AQI between zero and 50 is considered ‘good’, 51 and 100 ‘satisfactory’, 101 and 200 ‘moderate’, 201 and 300 ‘poor’, 301 and 400 ‘very poor’ and 401 and 500 ‘severe’.

According to the SAFAR model forecasts, the stubble burning rate may increase to 35 percent on Friday and 40 percent on Saturday with the wind direction shifting to the northwest.

Winds from the northwest carry smoke from agricultural fires in Punjab and Haryana towards the national capital.

Relief is expected only from the night of Nov. 7, but the AQI will fluctuate within the “very poor” range, the air quality forecasting agency said.