The National Capital Region saw a "very-poor" air quality on Thursday, which experts believe may further deteriorate within the next two days due to weather conditions, stubble burning and festival season.

The stubble burning increased in the neighbouring states of Punjab and Haryana, with environment activists asserting that farmers have intensified burning the crop resedue protesting the lack of official support.

The stubble burning, however is neither a sole reason for Delhi's pollution nor has it affected the NCR's air-quality to its full potential yet, weather analysts said.

On Thursday, a total of 48 regions across NCR, of which 36 were in Delhi, saw an average very-poor air-quality.

Due to several meteorological reasons, there was a shoot-up in the major air pollutant PM2.5, or particles with diameter less than 2.5 mm, and PM 10 or particles with diameter less than 10mm, in the past 24 hours.

Anand Vihar in east Delhi and Rohini in north Delhi, Bavana in northwest Delhi, Dwarka in southwest, Okhla in outh and Wazirpur in north Delhi saw severe air-quality with PM2.5 ranging above 300 units. The peak PM2.5 levels in Anand Vihar was 466 units on Thurday morning.

The permissible range or PM2.5 is 60 as per national standards and 25 by the international standards.Meanwhile, the satellite images from NASA's FIRMS web Fire Mapper showed a slight hike in the stubble burning in neighbouring Punjab and Haryana, where farmers are trying to make up for the small window between summers and winters crops.

According to the data from Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), at 4 pm the Air Quality Index (AQI) in Delhi was 297 labelled poor, while on Wednesday it was moderate.

In Noida, despite a very light rain shower at some places, the pollution levels remained very-poor.

"The situation may worsen and the AQI which is poor at 4 pm may drop to very-ppor in few days, due to several resons, including Dussehera and the meteorological conditions," Shambhavi Shukla from Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) told IANS.

Meanwhile, Central Government's organistation System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR), labelled NCR air-quality as toxic and recommended sensitive groups to keep the relief medicine handy.

SAFAR recommended everyone from abstained from doing outdoor physical activities.

"Right now Delhi is experiencing light wind, which is not definetive due to which whatever pollution we are facing here are mostly due to local pollution sources, with stubble burning not playing much role. In the coming days, it may worsen," said Mahesh Palawat, director private weather forecasting agency Skymet.

"The Centre has only released Rs 600 crore to manage stubble burning in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. The endowments have not reached at ground due to which farmers, incited by politicians, are collectively burning stubble," RTI and Environment activist Vikrant Tongad told IANS.

According to a SAFAR study, vehicle and industrial pollution is biggest contributor of PM2.5 in Delhi-NCR.

"The industrial emission increased by 48 per cent in 2018 compared to 2010, due to increase in industrial activities in fringe areas of Delhi and not inside Delhi," said a study by SAFAR. It also said that heavy commercial vehicles and private four-wheelers have emerged as main pollution sources in Delhi.

--IANS

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