Delhi: Smog screen thins, but air more toxic

NEW DELHI: Even though

visibility

improved on Thursday with the

dense smog thinning out past noon

,

Delhi’s air quality

showed no signs of improvement for the third straight day. The AQI rose from 478 the previous day to 486 on Thursday — the highest this winter — as the capital continued to ‘choke’. While the situation visually seemed better than the past two days, actual pollution levels at all monitoring stations remained alarming.

Other location in the National Capital Region fared no different, with Ghaziabad recording the highest AQI of 499 — just one point below AQI scale ender of 500, which marks a “public health emergency”. Gurgaon and Noida recorded AQI readings of 494 and 487, respectively, with all stations indicating “severe” air quality.

To cope, Delhi has already initiated “emergency” measures under the Graded Response Action Plan, including stoppage of construction activity, banning entry of trucks into Delhi (other than those carrying essential goods) and announcing odd-even road rationing from Monday till November 17.

Experts were optimistic that

air quality

would begin improving from Friday when wind speeds picked up that afternoon. “The westerlies are still blowing in pollutants, though visibility improved on Thursday afternoon,” said Kuldeep Shrivastav, scientist at the regional meteorological department. He said dense fog was likely on Friday morning, but the haze would start diminishing from the afternoon. “The fog is already moving towards eastern UP due to the prevailing north-westerly winds,” added Shrivastav.

Dipankar Saha, head of CPCB’s air laboratory, corroborated the weekend outlook for improvement. “Wind speeds are increasing and you will likely see a change in the air quality around the weekend, even though the north-westerly is still blowing,” said Saha.

According to the Union ministry of earth sciences’ System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR), the concentration of both coarse PM10 pollutants and respirable PM2.5 pollutants were 8-10 times the safe standard based on a 24-hour rolling average. Delhi’s PM 2.5 level on Thursday was 546 micrograms per cubic metre, or nine times the safe standard of 60 micrograms per cubic metre. The PM10 level was 895 micrograms per cubic metre, around nine times the safe standard of 100.