Smog engulfs capital, several areas witness ‘severe’ air quality

NEW DELHI: Wind speed dropped by 40 per cent leading to drop in visibility as thin smog engulfed the city on Tuesday morning. The overall air quality in Delhi stayed "very poor" but near severe. Several monitoring stations like Anand Vihar showed "severe" air quality.

The Central Pollution Control Board observed that Delhi's average air quality index was 386 on Tuesday which is very near to the "severe" category which is 400. The haze did not disrupt the proceedings of the ongoing test match between India and Sri Lanka at the Feroz Shah Kotla, however, the Lankans wore N95 anti-pollution masks while fielding.

One of the players even threw up a couple of times. The concentration of NO2 breached the 24-hour safe limit of 80 micrograms per cubic metre (ug/m3) in areas like Dilshad Garden, ITO, Mandir Marg, Anand Vihar and RK Puram.

"The wind speed has gone down by 40 per cent and the absence of proper sunlight is causing, the smog," said Anumita Roychowdhuri of Center for Science and Environment.

She added that the Graded Response Action Plan has helped the city to stay out of the very dangerous level of pollution. "If you compare with the last year you will see due to GRAP this year there are much lesser days with air quality more than 400 which implies that the GRAP has worked well," she said.

Roychowdhuri stressed that the need for more comprehensive action plan is needed and the government should ensure implementation of the plan.

At RK Puram, a densely populated residential area, NO2 was recorded at 135 ug/ m3 while levels at ITO, which witnesses heavy volume of traffic, was 206. During the week, NO2 had climbed to levels as high as 195 at Anand Vihar while the same was 155 and 127 at RK Puram and Dilshad Garden, respectively.

According to the Central Control Room for Air Quality Management of the CPCB, the concentration of the most dominant pollutants, PM2.5 and PM10, were 261 and 438 ug/m3 around 5 pm. Pollution is considered a severe plus or emergency when readings of PM2.5 and PM10 cross 300 and 500 ug/m3, respectively. The corresponding prescribed standards are 60 and 100.

Six out of the CPCB'S 17 stations had 'severe' quality air, which affects healthy people and seriously impacts those with existing respiratory or cardiovascular diseases, by 6 pm. The rest was in the 'very poor' zone, which comes with the warning that people may develop respiratory illness on prolonged exposure.