Haze enveloped the city with visibility reduced to 500 metres during early morning hours
The Capital's air has been reeling under'very poor'category for a fortnight now. The air quality index (AQI) stood at 378 on Tuesday, six times above the prescribed standards of 60 units. However, it was slightly better than Monday's AQI of 390 units.
Haze enveloped the city with the visibility reduced to 500 meters during the early morning hours.
This comes at a time when Sri Lankan cricketers wore anti-pollution masks during the Test match at Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium. A player even threw up on the field during the match on Tuesday.
'Very poor' AQI comes with the warning that people may develop respiratory illness on prolonged exposure to air which affects healthy people and seriously impacts those with existing respiratory or cardiovascular diseases. The United Nations (UN) marked Tuesday as the first international smog day.
However, relief is likely with expected rainfall in parts of northern India on Thursday.
"There is no movement of air on the Indo-Gangetic plains. A condition of complete calm, which means no winds to disburse pollutants are there. With light rain expected in Delhi -NCR on Thursday, however, it is expected to clear the air and improve the air quality," said Dipankar Saha, air lab chief, Central Pollution Control Board. The Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority had on Monday said if pollution levels enter'severe plus (500+)' category in the next 48 hours, it will issue emergency directions. The PM 2.5 — most prominent pollutant in Delhi NCR — had shot up on Monday. NCR towns including Ghaziabad, Noida had 'severe' levels of pollution at 462 units and 411 units, respectively.
While Gurugram and Faridabad remained high in the'very poor'category — at 369 and 375 units, respectively. The units for pollution concentrations are measured in microgramms per cubic meters. "If the wind speed picks up the pace in the coming days, it will get better. The weather conditions have been fluctuating for a while, which is yet to bring the cold wave. There is still moisture in the winds leading to smog," said Saha.
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