Due to low wind speed and a thick blanket of fog over the national capital, the air quality in Delhi remained in the ‘severe’ category for the second consecutive day. The environment minister, Gopal Rai, announced that for the time being, the third phase of the Graded Response Action Plan would not be implemented.
“For the first time this season, AQI has crossed 400 in Delhi for the past two days. Many are asking why AQI suddenly spiked to ‘severe’ when it was just fluctuating between ‘poor’ and ‘very poor’ since October 14. According to meteorologists, fresh snowfall in mountains has brought down Delhi’s temperatures, making the atmosphere dry during mornings and evenings in North India,” Rai said.
According to the CPCB, Delhi’s overall AQI stood at 428 at 9 am, well in the ‘severe’ category. Out of the total 39 monitoring stations in the city, 32 recorded AQI above 400. Prominent areas included Anand Vihar, IGI Airport, Mandir Marg, and Patparganj as the most affected locations. This makes it the worst air quality in this season and highest in the country, after recording an AQI of 418 for a period of 24 hours on Wednesday- an increase from 334 reported the previous day.
Rai added that this implies there is a possibility the levels of pollution may further improve over the next days and GRAP 3 could be avoided. He called for a strict implementation of rules envisaged under GRAP 2 to prevent the situation from deteriorating beyond control. “Should pollution levels once again touch ‘severe,’ the Delhi government will take necessary actions in collaboration with the public,” he added.
Weather reports said the national capital recorded a minimum temperature of 16.1 degree Celsius, about three degree above normal. The unrelenting smog was also causing poor visibility, affecting the flight operations at Delhi Airport, even though the conditions showed a slight improvement on Thursday morning when the visibility was recorded at 400 meters by 8:30 am.
Meanwhile, in a related development, the Supreme Court has granted an urgent hearing into the measures for rectifying hazardous levels of pollution in the city on November 18.
