AQI improves today morning; Delhi air now in ‘very poor’ zone

livemint.com:

The air quality index (AQI) in Delhi and several cities of the National Capital Region improved to the “very poor" zone on Tuesday morning. Of the 10 cities with the worst air quality as of 11 am, five were in Haryana, three were in Rajasthan, and one in Uttar Pradesh. Just four cities recorded a “severe" AQI, down from seven a day ago.

In the national capital, Delhi, the 24-hour average AQI was 390, a significant drop since Monday, data from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) showed. This is the first time in five days that Delhi's AQI came below the "severe" level. But that’s no respite since even a “very poor" AQI value (300-400) is said to be unhealthy and may cause respiratory illness on prolonged exposure, with potentially greater impact on people with lung and heart diseases, as per the CPCB.

For several days leading up to this, Delhi's air quality had consistently languished in the 'very poor' category, before turning severe (AQI above 400) on Friday, 3 November, for the first time this season. Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh and Fatehadbad in Haryana recorded the worst AQI in the country on Tuesday morning, at 442 and 427, respectively. The number of stubble burning incidents, a key factor behind the pollution at this time of the year, was recorded at 2,060 on 6 November in Punjab, down from the previous day's high of 3,230.

Haryana and Uttar Pradesh recorded 65 and 87 such incidents on 6 November. The sharp increase in stubble burning incidents after 28 October has been instrumental in the worsening of the air quality in the region. The Mint AQI tracker relies on the data released every hour by the CPCB, which in turn uses the data collected from several monitoring stations across the country.