Delhi beats Lahore as worlds most polluted city after air quality turns hazardous with AQI at 494

PTC News Desk: Delhi on Friday overtook Lahore in Pakistan to become world's most polluted city with air quality plunging into hazardous levels  and visibility dropping as smog blanketed the city of 20 million people.

Delhi’s air quality deteriorated to hazardous levels on Friday morning, with the overall Air Quality Index (AQI) touching 494 at 7:31 am.

According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), several areas of Delhi continued to experience severe air pollution.

IIT Delhi recorded the highest AQI of 488, followed by ITO at 455, Anand Vihar at 419, Rohini at 413 and Rajokri Border at 402. All these areas fell under the severe category.

Other locations also reported very poor air quality. R K Puram recorded an AQI of 391, Mandir Marg 378, Dwarka Expressway 369, Uttam Nagar 363 and Lodhi Road 341.

Meanwhile, the Delhi government has stepped up pollution-control measures to reduce the impact of dust and harmful particles in the air. Water sprinklers are being used across the city as part of these efforts.

However, the area around Dhaula Kuan recorded a comparatively better AQI of 161, which falls in the moderate category, according to CPCB data.

Saurabh Bhardwaj alleges manipulation of pollution data

AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj, referring to a report by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), alleged that Delhi's pollution levels were being underreported. He claimed that actual pollution figures were around 49 per cent higher than the readings displayed on the government's official website.

“Today, many newspapers completely exposed the Delhi government and the Central Pollution Control Board. CREA showed that the pollution shown for Delhi was 49% higher than what you were told—meaning it was almost one and a half times higher. So, if I put this into AQI terms, the AQI shown as 370 was actually 560, or maybe even higher. Why? Because the data they gave us yesterday when we met the CPCB was ridiculous. The CPCB said that when our pollution level hits 999, we don’t even consider that level, because we can’t measure above 999 and we don’t display 999. So it’s just shown as zero.....So this fraud done with pollution wasn’t just done with the numbers, but with the health of our kids, our elders, and the two crore people of Delhi,” said Bharadwaj.

The report analysed hourly PM2.5 data from 59 monitoring stations across Delhi. It reportedly found that 255 hourly readings were missing between 4 pm on November 8 and 4 pm on November 9.

According to the report, the 24-hour average PM2.5 level increased from 269 to 400 micrograms per cubic metre, marking a rise of nearly 49 per cent.