AQI deep into ‘Very Poor’ category

Delhi woke up to another day of hazardous air on Sunday as pollution levels surged across the city, pushing the Air Quality Index (AQI) deep into the ‘very poor’ category and triggering fresh health concerns for residents.

According to data from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the city’s overall AQI stood at 390.

The meteorological department has issued an orange alert of very dense fog for Monday, with maximum and minimum temperatures likely to hover around 22 and 7 degrees Celsius, respectively.

According to data on the CPCB’s Sameer App, 19 monitoring stations in Delhi reported air quality in the “severe” category, with Anand Vihar recording the highest AQI of 457, while the remaining recorded “very poor” levels.

Several hotspots recorded alarming pollution levels, with Anand Vihar once again emerging as one of the worst-affected areas at 445. Wazirpur followed closely at 437, while Jahangirpuri and Narela reported AQI levels of 433 and 435, respectively. Bawana recorded 423, RK Puram 414, Dwarka 401, and Rohini around 429. Other areas, such as Alipur (385) and Aya Nagar (344), also remained heavily polluted.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said the minimum temperature recorded at 8.30 am was 6.3 degrees Celsius, while the maximum temperature is expected to hover around 21 degrees Celsius during the day.

Visibility dropped sharply in the early hours as dense smog blanketed large parts of the Capital.

The IMD reported extremely poor visibility, with Safdarjung recording just 100 metres and Palam around 500 metres at 8 am, disrupting normal morning movement in several areas.

Despite the deteriorating air quality, the Centre’s air quality panel had earlier decided to lift Stage 4 of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) on Wednesday after a brief improvement in pollution levels, when the AQI moved from ‘very poor’ to ‘poor’.