Amid stubble burning, Delhi's air quality deteriorates to 'very poor'

Amid the rising number of incidents of stubble burning increase in Punjab and Haryana, the air quality in Delhi has deteriorated further and reached the 'very poor' category on Tuesday.

With the rising pollutants in the air, people in the national capital are gasping for breath.

The Air Quality Index (AQI) is at 332 in 'very poor' category at PM 10 was 320 and PM 2.5 at 389 at ITO.

In Anand Vihar, the air quality was in very poor; category in the morning as the AQI at PM 10 was 428 and PM 2.5 at 397.

An AQI between 0-50 is considered 'good', 51-100 is 'satisfactory', 101-200 'moderate', 201-300 'poor', 301-400 'very poor' and 401-500 is marked as 'severe/hazardous'.

As the air quality in the national capital region continues to deteriorate, close to 700 cases of stubble burning were reported from Punjab and Haryana between September 21-29, according to sources in the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFF & CC) quoted by news agency ANI.

According to the data, between the nine-day period, Active Fire Events (AFE) registered in Punjab and Haryana this year were 579 and 120, against the much lower 208 and 27, respectively, incidents reported from the two states last year in the same period.

The Delhi government has already launched a campaign, "War against Pollution" (Yuddh Pradushan ke Viruddh) on October 9. A tree transplantation policy has also been passed in this regard in a recent Cabinet meeting.