4 ‘moderate’ days, city sees cleanest start to Dec in 4 yrs

Noida: City saw the cleanest start to Dec in nearly four years with air quality being recorded in the ‘moderate' category at 116 on Thursday, for the fourth consecutive day. A steady breeze, experts said, has aided the dispersal of pollutants.

Between Dec 2 and 5, the air quality index (AQI) oscillated between 178 and 110, while it was at the lower levels of the ‘poor' category on Dec 1 (at 215). This is the first time since 2020 when the city, as well as Greater Noida, recorded ‘moderate' AQIs in Dec — a month that typically sees a toxic haze.

CPCB data shows that last Dec, the city saw three ‘poor' and two ‘very poor' air days. In 2022, AQI in the first five days were ‘very poor'. AQI oscillated between ‘severe' and ‘poor' during this period in 2021 and 2020.

While Ghaziabad saw one ‘moderate' air day on Dec 5 last year, this too was the city's cleanest start to the month with four ‘moderate' AQI days and one ‘poor' day on Dec 1.

According to CPCB's 4pm data, Noida's AQI on Thursday was recorded at 116, marginally up from 110 the day before. The Sector 1 air monitoring station recorded the best air quality in the city at 101, followed by Sectors 116 (109) and 62 (139). Sector 125 AQI was not recorded.

Greater Noida saw a slight deterioration in air quality but recorded AQI in the ‘moderate' category as well, with AQI slipping to 142 from 129 the day before. Neighbouring Ghaziabad saw a negligent change in air quality on Thursday, recording an AQI of 104, against 102 the day before.

In Delhi, the average AQI on Thursday was 165 against 178 a day earlier, both considered moderate.


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