The National Capital is faced with a tough battle against the double whammy in form of pandemic novel coronavirus - Covid-19 and ‘severe plus’ pollution. The Air Quality Index (AQI ) on Tuesday settled at 735 micrograms per cubic. There is an air emergency in the National Capital Region ( NCR) making life miserable for senior citizens and children.
The sky rocketing values of Suspended Particulate Matters ( SPMs) turned city map in dark maroon color indicating air is filled with extremely dangerous noxious particles, places like - Delhi University, Pusa Road, Mathura Road, IIT-Delhi, Indira Gandhi International Airport (Terminal-3) and Ayanagar recorded air quality in the 'severe' category with an AQI of 779,747, 723, 549, 676 and 748 respectively.
Like every year, the winter pollution adds up trouble for North Indians as farm fire escalated value of Particulate Matters ( PM ) 2.5 on the NAAQI.
This was the first time in season when PM 10 was recorded at 819 and PM 2.5 at 519.
As MeT factors the only saviours, showing less active with zero dispersion of harmful pollution causing poor visibility in the atmosphere.
According to System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research ( SAFAR), a unit of Ministry of Earth Sciences ( MoES), AQI may improve touching very poor from severe.
“No quick recovery is forecasted unless moisture content decline with radiative heating. The calm wind is forecasted for the next 24 hrs and air quality is forecasted to remain in Severe Category for Tuesday on Wednesday , AQI is likely to improve to the lower end of Severe to higher end of Very Poor owing to a forecast change in transport level wind direction and marginally better ventilation condition,” SAFAR said.
“ The SAFAR synergized stubble fire counts over Punjab, Haryana, UP, Uttarakhand, and neighbouring areas have marginally reduced since last reported but still significantly high and stood at Ëœ 2247 yesterday. Stubble burning share in PM2.5 in Delhi's air is estimated as ~22 percent on Tuesday,” it added further.
Meanwhile, Gurugram , Bawana, Jahangirpuri,IIT Delhi, Vivek Vihar, Peeragrahi,Dwarka, Sahibabad, Ashram road and Narela tagged as major hotspot region in terms of pollution on the Air Quality Index meter.