NEW DELHI: The capital’s air quality was “very poor” for the third consecutive day on Sunday and is likely to remain so for the next two days.
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Though the number of fire counts dropped to 867 on Saturday, the contribution of stubble burning to Delhi’s PM2.5 shot up to 19% on Sunday against 9% on Saturday due to wind direction and moderate wind speed.
Delhi’s air quality index (AQI) was 349 on Sunday, according to the daily bulletin of Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (Safar), a central forecasting agency, has predicted that AQI will be “very poor” for the next two days “without any further deterioration”.
“The average wind speed has been recorded at eight kmph and conditions have been extremely calm at night and in the early hours of the day, affecting dispersion of pollutants,” said Kuldeep Srivastava, scientist at India Meteorological Department. “The wind speed is expected to pick up to 12-15kmph on Tuesday afternoon and the air quality may improve slightly on Wednesday.”
According to Safar, though a marginal improvement in the current condition is expected by Monday, AQI is likely to remain “very poor”. Though stubble fire counts recorded a reduction on Saturday, the boundary layer wind direction is north-westerly and wind speed is moderate and “this will lead to an increase in pollutant transport towards the Delhi region”, it stated.
Dipankar Saha, former head of CPCB’s air laboratory, said, “The overall ventilation coefficients in northern India being very poor, the same is reflected in AQI too. The passage through the Indo-Gangetic plain is not clear and no diversion and dilution of pollution is taking place.”
Met officials have predicted that mist in the morning will be witnessed for the next few days. On Sunday, the minimum temperature dropped to 13.8° Celsius, three notches below normal. It was the second lowest temperature recorded this season after 13.7° on Tuesday, the lowest in 11years for October. The maximum temperature was 33.9 degrees Celsius on Sunday.
“The minimum and maximum temperature will start decreasing in the coming days,” added an IMD scientist.