Air quality severe in 13 Hry dists, very poor in five

CHANDIGARH METEOROLOGICAL DEPARTMENT DIRECTOR SURINDER PAL SAYS RAIN IS EXPECTED IN THE COMING DAYS WHICH WILL GIVE RELIEF TO PEOPLE FROM SMOG

CHANDIGARH: With farmers continuing to defy the ban on stubble burning, a blanket of haze engulfed Haryana as several districts in the states reported air quality index in severe and very poor categories on Saturday.

Jind was the worst-affected with average air quality index (AQI) of 480, followed by Faridabad (479), Gurugram (469), Rohtak (467) Bhiwani (466), Sirsa (462), Hisar (458), Kaithal (448), Ballabhgarh (438), Bahadurgarh (435), Manesar (427), Panipat (421) and Karnal (407), all under severe category.

The AQI is rated poor between 201 and 300, very poor between 301 and 400 and severe between 401 and 500.

AQI is used by agencies to communicate to the people how polluted the air is. Public health risks increase as the AQI rises.

Districts with very poor air quality included Fatehabad (393), Kurukshetra (383), Palwal (369), Ambala (350) and Yamunanagar (322). Narnaul and Mewat were rated as poor with

AQI 236 and 235, respectively.

The number of stubble burning incidents in the state shot up to 4,340 on Saturday against 4,844 last year in the corresponding period. The number of farm fire incidents till Friday was 4,288.

On Saturday, Kaithal topped the list with 914 farm fire incidents followed by Karnal 893, Kurukshetra 694, Fatehabad 612, Ambala 317, Jind 226, Palwal and Sirsa, 194 each and Yamunanagar 186.

The Met department has predicted rain on November 6 and 7 in the northern region because of western disturbances, which will give relief to people from smog.