Locals heave sigh of relief as air quality improves in most cities of Haryana

AQI IN FARIDABAD WAS 300, FOLLOWED BY KURUKSHETRA 296, KARNAL 294, ROHTAK 254, AMBALA 245

AND HISAR 238

KARNAL: People in Haryana heaved a sigh of relief as the air quality in most cities on Tuesday returned to ‘poor’ and ‘very poor’ from ‘severe’ category.

The air quality index (AQI) of most cities in the paddy sowing belts of the state remained in ‘poor’ category.

In Faridabad, the AQI was 300 followed by Kurukshetra (296), Karnal (294), Rohtak (254), Ambala (245), Hisar (238), Yamunanagar (228) and Bhiwani (219).

The air quality in some NCR cities is still in ‘very poor’ state.

The AQI in Panipat was 371, Jind (344), Palwal (322) and Gurugram (316).

It, however, improved to ‘satisfactory’ in Panchkula (84) and moderate in Sonepat (151).

It is pertinent to mention here that on November 3, the AQI in 17 cities of the state had slipped to ‘severe’ category with 498 AQI in Rohtak, which remained worst affected followed by Faridabad (496), Jind (491), Gurugram (486), Manesar (486), Fatehabad (478), Kaithal (467), Panipat (465), Karnal (456), Palwal (453), Hisar (445), Kurukshetra (442), Sirsa (432), Ambala (403), Yamunanagar (396) and Bhiwani (343).

According to the officials in the Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB), the air quality is improving following a dip in stubble burning cases.

The officials are expecting that the air quality in the state will improve further as the harvesting is in its last phase and only basmati varieties are left, which are harvested manually.

According to the officials of the Haryana agriculture department, area under stubble burning in Haryana has seen 34% reduction this year as compared to the corresponding period in 2018.

The state has witnessed lesser farm fires this year at 4,415 by November 4 as compared to 5,567 reported in the corresponding period last year.