Air quality ‘very poor’ at 17 out of 37 checkpoints

■ Thick blanket of smog covers entire region in morning

Many areas in the DelhiNational Capital Region recorded air quality in the “very poor” category on Wednesday morning, with particulate matter less than 10 micrometres in diameter being the primary pollutant.

Delhi’s overall Air Quality Index (299) also bordered “very poor” levels. On Tuesday, it stood at 270 at 4 pm.

Out of the 37 air quality monitoring stations in the national capital, 17 stations recorded the overall AQI in the “very poor” category, according to data of the Central Pollution Control Board.

The AQI at Mundka, Dwarka Sector 8, Delhi Technological University, Anand Vihar, Wazirpur, Rohini, Bawana, Ashok Vihar, Nehru Nagar and Jahangirpuri was 368, 362, 355, 328, 323, 323, 320, 319, 319 and 318. Other areas that experienced very poor air quality included Alipur (314), Narela (312), Vivek Vihar (311), Sirifort (309), CRRI - Mathura

Road (304), Okhla Phase 2 (303) and ITO (302).

The neighbouring areas of Ghaziabad (337), Loni Dehat (335), Noida (318) and Greater Noida (308) also recorded a spike in pollution levels.

The Centre-run System of Air Quality and

Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR) had on Tuesday noticed an “increasing trend” in stubble burning incidents in neighbouring states and predicted that the share of crop residue burning in Delhi’s PM2.5 concentration would be

around 6 per cent on Wednesday.

SAFAR’s claim that stubble burning in neighbouring states is responsible for only 10 per cent of the city’s pollution is “misleading,” Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Wednesday.