Air Pollution: Delhi's air quality improves marginally but remains in 'very poor' category

Delhi Air Pollution: Following the action after being nudged by the Supreme Court to curb the rising air pollution, Delhi's air quality on Monday witnessed marginal improvement. The air quality in the capital city has reached the lower end of 'very poor' category with the Air Quality Index (AQI) at 318 (overall). The air pollution level in the National Capital Region (NCR), especially Noida and Gurugram, have also shown slight improvement. Noida reported AQI in the upper end of the 'very poor' category at 387, while the air quality in Gurugram has seen significant improvement and has now reached the lower end of the 'very poor' category at 317. Also Read | Air pollution: Schools in Haryana’s Gurugram, Faridabad, Sonipat, Jhajjar to remain shut till Nov 17 As per SAFAR's bulletin, the AQI is likely to improve by Tuesday "as winds at transport level are slowing down resulting in the lesser intrusion of farm fires related pollutants into Delhi." Also Read | Air Pollution: Punjab farmers continue to burn stubble, say govt has not provided compensation However, according to SAFAR, calm local winds reduce the dispersion of pollutants, the net effect of which is likely to make air quality remain very poor category. The effective farm fire count for yesterday was 3445, contributing to 12 percent of Delhi's PM2.5. "Implementation of lockdown for the two days with restrictions in anthropogenic activity emitting pollutants, air quality may improve a little but likely to remain in the very poor category if stubble burning share does not increase," SAFAR's bulletin read. The agency further said that the AQI is likely to deteriorate from November 16 night onwards due to calm wind conditions, as predicted. "On November 17, it is likely to be in the upper end of the very poor category," they added. The mercury in the capital city has dropped to 11.8 degrees Celcius on Sunday, India Meteorological Department (IMD) said. Owing to high levels of air pollution, schools in Delhi and Haryana have been closed. All construction activities have also been shut down. -PTC News