Delhi Pollution: AQI slides, still in 'Very Poor' category

NEW DELHI: The air quality in Delhi witnessed a relative improvement on Sunday morning as the Air Quality Index (AQI) of the national capital stood at 320, as per the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR) at 8:00 am.

Despite this relative improvement, the city's air quality is still in 'very poor' category. On Saturday it was recorded at 353.

The National Capital Region (NCR) also continued to witness bad air as Noida also registered very poor air quality with an AQI of 341 while Gurugram's AQI stood at 324 and continued to remain in the 'very poor' category.

AQI recorded at all major monitoring stations in the national capital also stood in the 'very poor' category. Pusa recorded an AQI of 326 while Dhirpur recorded an AQI of 319.

Lodhi Road recorded 315, Delhi Airport (T3) recorded an AQI of 315 and Mathura road recorded an AQI of 324. The AQI at Delhi University stood at 317 and at IIT Delhi stood at 349 in 'very poor category.'

Air Quality Index from 0 to 100 is considered as good, while from 100 to 200 it is moderate, from 200 to 300 it is poor, and from 300 to 400 it is said to be very poor and from 400 to 500 or above it is considered as severe.

Meanwhile, as SAFAR earlier had noted that stubble-burning contributed 34 per cent to Delhi's PM 2.5 pollution, the National Human Rights Commission, gave four weeks to the Chief Secretaries of Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, and Uttar Pradesh for specific reports to check air pollution in Delhi-NCR and to appear before it on the next hearing scheduled to be held on November 18.

"The Chief Secretaries should remain present again either in person or hybrid mode on November 18 for the next hearing in the matter and submit prior to this, their response/affidavits within four days positively on the points raised by it, among others, during the deliberations and considerations of their responses," NHRC said on Saturday.