Amid an expectation of some relaxations in the curbs by the Supreme Court on Thursday when it hears a plea relating to air pollution, Delhi’s air quality remained marginally above 300 AQI this morning. The AQI was 300-303 the entire day on Wednesday, and experts said that the pollution may improve in the coming days with a reduction in case of stubble burning.
The Supreme Court on Monday refused to relax the restrictions under GRAP Stage-IV, emphasising that the curbs could only be eased if AQI levels consistently decreased.
At 7 a.m., Delhi’s Air Quality Index (AQI) was 306, but it rose to 310 at 8 a.m., further to 313 at 9 a.m., and was on average 316 at 10 a.m., according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data. At 10 a.m., as many as 29 of the national capital’s 39 monitoring spots from where data were available had AQI above 300. The highest AQI was 380 at Mundka, and the lowest was 251 at Dwarka (NSIT).
An AQI between 0 and 50 is considered ‘good’, 51 and 100 ‘satisfactory’, 101 and 200 ‘moderate’, 201 and 300 ‘poor’, 301 and 400 ‘very poor’, 401 and 450 ‘severe’ and above 450 ‘severe+’, as per classification by the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM).
The CAQM had first invoked curbs under the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) Stage I from October 15 after AQI turned ‘poor’. It further invoked GRAP II restrictions from October 22 when AQI turned ‘very poor’ and GRAP III curbs from November 15 after air quality fell to ‘severe’. However, from November 18, GRAP IV restrictions were invoked very soon after air quality deteriorated to the ‘severe+’ category (above 450 AQI).
There has been a considerable drop in cases of stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana in the past few days as the normal sowing window of wheat is over and more than 95 per cent of the paddy area has been harvested or at harvesting stage as of November 27, sources said.
Meanwhile, the India Meteorological Department Thursday said that minimum visibility, which was 600 meters at Safdarjung at 7:30 a.m., had improved to 900 meters by 9:30 a.m., and winds had been mainly calm throughout Wednesday night. The city’s minimum temperature settled at normal at 10.1 Degrees Celsius, it said.
Hundreds of construction workers staged a protest near the Delhi Lieutenant Governor’s office on Wednesday, demanding compensation for the income loss they have suffered due to the ongoing ban on construction activities under GRAP IV.