The morning of Diwali on Tuesday (21st October) was filled with poisonous air. Even on Monday, i.e. the evening of Diwali, the pollution level at 34 out of 38 monitoring stations in Delhi was recorded in the ‘Red Zone’. Red zone means ‘very poor’ to ‘severe’ air quality. At the same time, on the intervening night of Monday-Tuesday, a thick blanket of smog was seen in Delhi and the average AQI was recorded at 531. This is 1.8 times more than the national average.

Not only this, the air quality index in Narela crossed 550 and reached 551 and in Ashok Nagar it reached 493. A lot of firecrackers were burst in Delhi on the evening of Diwali. Meanwhile, the situation in Noida and Gurugram of NCR is also not very good. Noida’s AQI was recorded at 407 while Gurugram’s was recorded at 402.

The Meteorological Department says that due to no wind on the evening of Diwali, there was fog in the sky. There is a possibility of partly cloudy sky in many areas of Delhi on Tuesday morning.

According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB)’s ‘Sameer’ app, four monitoring stations already reported air quality in the ‘severe’ category, with AQI levels above 400. In this, AQI was recorded at 417 in Dwarka, 404 in Ashok Vihar, 423 in Wazirpur and 404 in Anand Vihar.

AQI of 6.00 am on October 21

Delhi
Anand Vihar: 352
Burari Crossing: 393
Ashok Vihar: 386
Ayanagar: 349
Bawana: 418
CRRI Mathura Road: 341
Chandni Chowk: 347
NSIT Dwarka: 389
IGI Airport T3: 294
Dilshah Garden: 346
ITO: 345
Jahangirpuri: 404
Lodhi Road: 334
Narela: 354
DU North Campus: 352
Patparganj: 339
RK Puram: 369
Rohini: 367
Siri Fort: 310
Wazirpur: 408
Vivek Vihar: 367

Ghaziabad
Indirapuram: 329
Loni: 329
Vasundhara: 351

Noida
Sector-125: 326
Sector-1: 322
Sector-116: 340

Gurugram
Sector-51: 346
NISE-357

Grap-2 implemented in Delhi

Amidst increasing pollution in Delhi, Graded Response Action Plan i.e. Grap-2 has been implemented. Even before Diwali, Delhi’s air had become poisonous. In such a situation, diesel generators were banned. Parking fees were increased to reduce the use of private vehicles. Service of CNG-electric buses and metro was increased. Permission was given to run generators running on natural gas, bio gas, LPG.

38 extremely bad in places AQI

Around 30 monitoring stations in Delhi reported the AQI to be in the ‘very poor’ category with its level above 300. According to the data, air quality was recorded in the ‘very poor’ category at 31 out of 38 monitoring stations in the afternoon, while it was in the ‘severe’ category at three stations.

Alert for next two days

The air quality in Delhi is expected to reach ‘severe’ category on Tuesday and Wednesday. An AQI between zero and 50 is considered ‘good’, 51 to 100 ‘satisfactory’, 101 to 200 ‘moderate’, 201 to 300 ‘poor’, 301 to 400 ‘very poor’ and 401 to 500 ‘severe’.

Second phase of restrictions implemented

Decision Support System (DSS) data showed that transport emissions contributed 15.6 per cent to air pollution in Delhi on Monday, while other factors, including industries, contributed 23.3 per cent. Earlier, the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) imposed restrictions in the second phase of the Phased Response Action Plan (GRAP) in Delhi-NCR.

The court gave permission with conditions

On October 15, the Supreme Court had given permission for the sale and use of green firecrackers in Delhi-NCR with certain conditions. Under this, permission was given to burst green crackers a day before Diwali and between 6 am to 7 pm on the day of the festival and again from 8 pm to 10 pm.