Morning after Diwali, Delhi air quality ‘severe’ but better than last year’s, relief likely
Post-Diwali pollution levels Sunday were marginally lower than what was recorded in 2019 with AQI at 459 at 11 am. Last year, AQI on the day after Diwali in Delhi had touched 506.
New Delhi: Despite the ban imposed on the sale and use of firecrackers, Delhi saw widespread use of crackers on Diwali, leading the hourly average concentrations of PM2.5 levels to touch over 1,000 micrograms per cubic meters around midnight.
Even so, the post-Diwali pollution levels were marginally lower than what was recorded last year, with AQI at 459 at 11 am Sunday. In 2019, AQI on the day after Diwali in Delhi had touched 506. The SC ban on firecrackers last year too had failed to curb their use.
SAFAR, the pollution forecasting system run by Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) Pune, had predicted Saturday that Delhi would see much better AQI as compared to the past four years around the Diwali period that if firecracker ban was successful .In 2018, the overall AQI the day after Diwali was recorded at 642. In 2017, this figure was at 367 while 2016 saw the index recording 425. This year, Diwali coincided with a spike in stubble burning incidents in Punjab and Haryana, along with winds that transported smoke from the neighboring states to the national capital.
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