Delhi woke up to another morning of toxic air on Sunday as the city’s air quality lingered in the "very poor" range for the 10th consecutive day post-Diwali as a dense layer of smog blanketed parts of the national capital. The Air Quality Index (AQI) stood at 334. Key areas, including Alipur, Anand Vihar, Jahangirpuri, Rohini, and Bawana, remained in the "very poor" AQI category, indicating hazardous pollution levels.
PM2.5 concentration is currently 31.6 times the World Health Organization annual PM2.5 guideline value. “There will be no relief in the coming days, There was no significant change in Minimum temperature in the national capital region, according to India Meteorological Department (IMD).
According to Air Quality Early Warning System for Delhi, Mist/Shallow fog reported at Safdarjung airport. Safdarjung airport recorded lowest visibility 700m at 0700 hours IST. Palam airport recorded lowest visibility 1200m at 0800 hours IST. In many parts of the city, buildings, monuments, offices, flyovers, roads, and bridges were hardly visible as they were covered by a thick layer of smog.
The mainly smog condition with wind speed upto 04 -10 kmph from southeast/east direction prevailed over the region in the forenoon today. Predicted maximum mixing depth is traced to be 1400 m. The ventilation index is lower than 6000 m2/s with average wind speed less than 10 kmph is unfavourable for dispersion of pollutants.
The transport sector is the most significant contributor at 11.992 percent, as per the Decision Support System data by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM). While the residential sector contribution is 3. 073 percent, industries contributed 2.652 percent, construction 1. 682 percent, energy sector 1. 317 percent, waste burning 1.117 percent, and road dust 0.896 percent.
According to data from SAFAR-India, several areas in Delhi reported concerning AQI levels, including Anand Vihar (351), Bawana (383), CRRI Mathura Road (323), Dwarka Sector 8 (341), IGI Airport (326), ITO (328), Lodhi Road (319), Mundka (358), Najafgarh (341), New Moti Bagh (394), Okhla Phase-2 (339), RK Puram (368), and Wazirpur (366). Delhi Technological University in Rohini and ITO was the cleanest area here where the AQI stood at 168 and 198 ( moderate category )respectively.
The Kartavya Path in central Delhi as well as the high-rise buildings in Kalindi Kunj and nearby areas were covered in smog. Authorities are sprinkling water using anti-smog guns to bring down the pollution levels, visuals showed from the city's Ashoka Road. There has been slight rise in maximum temperature and no significance change in minimum temperature over Delhi/NCR during past 24hr.
In addition to air pollution, drone videos showed toxic foam floating on the Yamuna River in the Kalindi Kunj area, apart from an air quality which was recorded in the 'very poor' category in the vicinity.
