Air quality in Delhi had already reached the upper end of the ‘very poor’ category as a 24-hour average on Thursday when it stood at 382. (PTI) A day after Diwali celebrations, there seems to be no respite from Delhi’s air quality as the pollution levels in the region entered the “severe plus” category on Friday.
Levels of pollutants rose sharply from Thursday night onwards, data from the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) indicates. At the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium station for instance, PM2.5 levels increased from 389 µg/m3 at 8 pm Thursday to a high of 1,553 µg/m3 at 1 am on Friday. This is nearly 26 times the standard of 60 µg/m3 for PM2.5. It stood at around 1,164 µg/m3 at 6 am on Friday.
Since this morning, Delhiites have been steadfastly posting photos and tweeting about the smog and increased levels of smog and the low visibility. Here’s how they reacted:
This is exactly why as a child I spent half the time at the hospital,couldn’t breathe, had to take offs from school.
Nothing has changed. #Delhi #DelhiAirPollution pic.twitter.com/9vhJjSwbc1
— Ridhima Bhatnagar (@ridhimb) November 5, 2021
Who needs smoke tunnels when you can test your rockets in #Delhi air! pic.twitter.com/kyhOwHwgiM
— Kunal Jain (@kj7kunal) November 4, 2021
An Air Quality Index of 150 is bad. This is the AQI in Delhi rn. It is beyond 1100 now. Even the AQI scale considers 500 to be fatal, imagine what will happen when you breathe 1100 pollution air. We’re all dying because of this festival pic.twitter.com/xpa2lWixuW
— Sankul Sonawane (@Sankul333) November 4, 2021
Scientists at the SAFAR forecasting system had predicted earlier that air quality, which was already in the ‘very poor’ category, would plummet to the ‘severe’ category if even 50 per cent of the firecracker emissions from 2019 were witnessed this year.
Air quality in Delhi had already reached the upper end of the ‘very poor’ category as a 24-hour average on Thursday when it stood at 382.
No country delights more in passing laws and then by-passing them than ours. Today, Delhi particularly is facing the consequences of this feature of our lives. Air pollution is at its most dangerous peak.
— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) November 5, 2021
The air in Delhi reminds of the hostel corridor the night before an exam#AirPollution
— Amandeep (@awwmandeep) November 5, 2021
A guy who smokes packs of cigarettes everyday is worried about hazardous air in delhi post diwali. 🤡
— Noop (@omnipeasant) November 5, 2021
Today i checked the air quality index of Delhi.
Seems like i am breathing everything except oxygen.
#delhi #airquality #oxygen pic.twitter.com/Q8TZzKOns0
— Vinayak Gautam (@vinayakgautam03) November 5, 2021
- The Indian Express website has been rated GREEN for its credibility and trustworthiness by Newsguard, a global service that rates news sources for their journalistic standards.
