NEW DELHI: Delhi residents awoke to dense smog on Thursday morning, causing a sharp drop in visibility and pushing air quality into the ‘severe’ category.
According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the city’s average Air Quality Index (AQI) stood at 432. Anand Vihar recorded an AQI of 473, IGI Airport (T3) 435, and ITO 421, AIIMS at 438, based on CPCB data at 7am.
A school student Raunak said that he had been coughing continuously due to the excessive pollution around.
“I go for running daily. However these days with the increase in pollution, I have been coughing continuously which could also affect my lungs. If there is a controlled use of pollution and more of CNG based vehicles, the problem could be solved. However there is no cooperation by the people,” Raunak said.
Prateek, another local said that the visibility had reduced, and people had started feeling suffocated.
“The pollution level has increased a lot. The visibility on the roads have reduced, there is barely any visibility, our eyes burn and we have started feeling suffocated. The government needs to do something on this,” Prateek said.
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‘Severe’ category
Delhi’s AQI has consistently stayed in the “very poor” range since October 30. Wednesday marked the first instance this season where it reached the “severe” category.
The smog, which had been lingering over parts of Punjab and eastern Pakistan for several days, extended to large areas of northern India by early Wednesday.
It quickly combined with local pollutants, creating a dense, toxic haze across the NCR. Delhi’s average AQI rose to 418, the worst in the country. The last time Delhi recorded a higher AQI was on January 14, at 447.
Despite the high AQI, the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) described it as an “episodic event” and opted not to implement restrictive measures under Stage III of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP).
The CAQM stated that AQI levels were likely to improve to the “very poor” range by Friday due to anticipated strong winds.
The CPCB classifies AQI as follows: 0-50 as “good,” 51-100 “satisfactory,” 101-200 “moderate,” 201-300 “poor,” 301-400 “very poor,” 401-450 “severe,” and above 450 as “severe plus.”
