Delhi and its fight against pollution feels like a never-ending story. The air quality in the national capital has deteriorated again and now the air quality index (AQI) is hovering near 303. In comparison, the city’s AQI on Friday was much lower at 218.
According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Delhi’s AQI was around 303 at 4 pm on Friday.
The worst AQI was reported from Wazirpur, which languished below an AQI of 383 according to its monitoring station, placing it in “very poor” quality. The other 37 monitoring stations in Delhi showed ‘poor’ readings.
AQI classification
According to the CPCB, an AQI between zero and 50 is considered “good”, while values between 51 and 100 are “satisfactory”. 101-200 falls into the “moderate” category, while 201-300 falls into the “weak” category. 301-400 is considered “very poor” and 401-500 is considered “severe”.
On Saturday, Delhi recorded a maximum temperature of 30.5 degrees Celsius, which was 3.3 degrees above normal, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD).
The humidity level on Saturday was 73 per cent at 5.30 pm, according to a PTI report.
Sirsa inspects pollution control measures
Amid rising pollution in the capital Delhi, Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa reviewed the pollution control measures being implemented in Anand Vihar.
During the visit, he announced that there are 13 pollution hotspots in Delhi and the government is paying attention to each of them.
“”There are 13 major hotspots where pollution is very high and our government is constantly working on these areas. All hotspots are extra monitored. Today we toured the Anand Vihar bus stand; then we will visit Shalimar Bagh and Ashok Vihar in North Delhi. We aim to address traffic congestion in these hotspots, inadequate road management and degraded infrastructure there,” the minister told reporters, according to an ANI report.
He also alleged that the Rekha Gupta government in Delhi was pulling all the strings to deal with pollution.
As soon as CM Rekha Gupta’s government came to power, it started fighting pollution. From charging stations to e-bus systems, work has begun on all dust-prone roads in Delhi. Roads are being renovated by various departments which cost more ₹400 million crowns. Work has also started to install permanent fog water sprinklers in these hotspots,” Sirsa told reporters.
The atmosphere of Delhi in winter is not suitable for the multiplication of clouds
Meanwhile, IIT-Delhi has reported that Delhi’s atmosphere during winters is not suitable for cloud seeding. This is because during these months, the amount of moisture content and saturation in the atmosphere is not enough for artificial rain.
Necessary atmospheric conditions are rare and often coincide with natural rainfall, limiting the potential marginal gain,” PTI quoted the report as saying.
