New Delhi continues to be thronged by heavily polluted air that has been categorised as ‘severe’ for the second consecutive day, with the Air Quality Index (AQI) reading at 9 am on Wednesday standing at 414, according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).
The city has witnessed alarmingly-high AQI levels this season, with the worst being recorded on Tuesday at 423, which is categorised as ‘severe’, forcing the Central government to invoke stricter anti-pollution measures under Stage III of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP).
According to the CPCB classification, an AQI between 0 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”.
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Besides being heavily congested with traffic and exhumes from car exhausts, the festival of Diwali saw the city’s air quality worsening, and has since remained in the “poor” or “very poor” category, occasionally slipping into the “severe” zone.
Meanwhile, temperatures in the city continued to dip since last week, going down to 10.4 degrees Celsius on Wednesday, which is 3.1 notches below the season’s normal.
The maximum temperature is likely to settle around 27 degrees Celsius, according to the India Meteorological Department. The weather office has also forecast shallow fog in the day.