Blinding volcano ash drifts to China

Visibility and air traffic across northern Indian States were affected on Tuesday as a cloud of volcanic ash drifted over the region. The ash cloud from Hayli Gubbi volcano in Ethiopia, which erupted for the first time in nearly 12,000 years on Sunday morning, is expected to drift towards China by Tuesday evening.

The cloud did not, however, affect Air Quality Index (AQI) in the national Capital, which is battling very poor category air over the past week. According to Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data, average AQI for the week stood at 377. On Tuesday, the AQI in the Capital stood at 353, remained in the very poor category across most of the city even as the monitoring station in Rohini recorded an AQI of 401 in the very severe category.

Meanwhile. the Decision Support System of the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, estimated that vehicular emissions contributed 19.6 per cent to Delhi’s pollution on Tuesday, the highest among all sources, while stubble burning accounted for 1.5 per cent.

Satellite imagery detected three farm fires in Punjab, one in Haryana and 522 in Uttar Pradesh on Sunday. For Wednesday, these contributions are projected at 21.1 per cent and 1.5 per cent.