Delhi’s Anand Vihar woke up to a toxic haze as the air quality dipped to 412 in the “severe” category on Saturday morning, according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). Overall, however, air quality in the capital has improved considerably today. On Saturday morning, Delhi’s AQI improved to 257 at 5:30 am, down 36 points from Friday’s 293, the Early Warning System said.
An AQI of 325 was recorded on Thursday, while 345 was reported on Wednesday.
A video shared by news agency PTI outside the CPCB office in ITO showed the AQI in the ‘poor’ category at 250.
To deal with rising pollution levels, truck-mounted water sprinklers sprinkled water on Janpath Road as AQIs remained mostly in the “very poor” category along the road in an effort to mitigate the effects of air pollution.
Other areas that follow closely include Shadipur (328), Bawana (318), Wazirpur (314) and Punjabi Bagh (301).
Several other parts of the capital also reported unhealthy air:
- Vivek Vihar – 300
- Jahangirpuri – 296
- Alipur – 289
- Burari Crossing – 289
- Ashok Vihar – 278
- Dilshad Garden – 274
- Nehru Nagar – 274
- Rohini – 273
- RK Puram – 271
Dwarka Sector 8 – 268
Delhi’s air quality has been deteriorating since Diwali after people set off firecrackers during the festival despite a court order to use less polluting crackers. The city, which is plagued by high pollution from sources such as car emissions and dust throughout the year, has seen another drop in air quality in recent days.
Delhi is stepping up measures to combat air pollution
The Delhi government on Thursday said measures are underway to tackle air pollution across the capital.
Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa said “around 2,000 teams are in the field day and night to evaluate and implement the state government’s anti-pollution measures”. He added that work would begin to deploy “70 more mechanized sweepers, 70 more anti-smog guns, water sprinklers and 140 garbage collectors covering 1,440 km of roads”.
Meanwhile, Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta informed that “preparations to induce artificial rain through clouds in the capital have been completed”.
She also congratulated Delhi Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa and other officials involved in the process, noting that “the weather department has indicated the possibility of cloud cover on October 28, 29 and 30.” The CM added that this method “is also set to fight pollution in Delhi”.
