Delhi Not Alone, These Cities Too Breathed Toxic Air as AQI Drops After Diwali

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posted on 1 year ago — updated on 1 second ago

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Air quality in Noida (312), Gurugram (313), Faridabad (311) and Charkho Dadri (301) in Haryana reported very poor air quality while Greater Noida (282) and Ghaziabad (272) in UP were also nearing the very poor category

While the debate on air pollution largely remain around Delhi, several other towns and cities, especially in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan witnessed a spike pollution levels a day after Diwali. Delhi woke up to a relatively clear morning the day after Diwali. In what has come as a welcome surprise to many, the Air Quality Index (AQI) for Delhi continued to hover in the ‘very poor’ category and did not breach the ‘severe’ mark despite the high emissions as predicted earlier.

However, pollution levels in Delhi and its nearby areas were relatively better than previous years due to favourable weather conditions related to temperature and wind direction.

In Delhi, the air quality had begun to deteriorate to severe levels by 8pm on Diwali night and peaked at 9pm, with AQI at almost all monitoring stations across the national capital above 450. However, it dropped to 326 by 6 am on Tuesday.

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An AQI between zero and 50 is considered ‘good’, 51 and 100 ‘satisfactory’, 101 and 200 ‘moderate’, 201 and 300 ‘poor’, 301 and 400 ‘very poor’, and 401 and 500 ‘severe’.

Bhiwani, Ambala, Bahadurgarh, Sonipat, Jind, Yamunanagar, Kurukshetra, and Panipat in Haryana reported their AQI at 291, 241, 279, 214, 296, 211, 276 and 192 respectively, according to the Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) data On Tuesday afternoon.

In Punjab’s Ludhiana, Amritsar, Mandi Gobindgarh, Patiala, Jalandhar and Khanna, the AQI recorded at 10.10 am was 313, 249, 208, 225, 260 and 212 respectively.

Jodhpur (337) in Rajasthan and Bulandshahr (329) in UP also recorded very poor air quality.

Other cities with poor air quality included Rajasthan’s Jaipur (265), Ajmer (226) and Kota (216); Gujarat’s Ahmedabad (243), Belgaum (221) in Karnataka; Jabalpur (235), Katni (237) and Dewas (207) in Madhya Pradesh; in UP, Agra (206), Lucknow (241), Kanpur (218) and Khurja (238); Begusarai (325) in Bihar and Tamil Nadu capital Chennai (229).

(With PTI inputs)

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