Air pollution: AQI of 9 Haryana cities reaches 'severe' level

(By Amit Kumar)
KARNAL: A thick blanket of smog engulfed the region on Friday. The Air Quality Index (AQI) of several Haryana districts deteriorated further and reached to 'severe' level.
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According to the Central Pollution Control Board’s environment app ‘Sameer’, Bahadurgarh was the most polluted city, with its AQI 452.
It is followed by Hisar 440, Jind 429, Faridabad 425, Gurugram 416, Bhiwani 412, Chatkhi Dadri 412, Rohtak 411, Fatehabad 402. These cities fall under severe category.
The AQI was in very poor category in Kaithal 399, Dharuhera 397, Manesar 395, Sonipat 365, Ballabgarh 352, Sirsa 333, and Panipat 326.
The air quality index of Kurukshetra was 283, Narnaul 269, Karnal 227, which comes under “poor” category.
Doctors have advised people, especially the elderly and children, to care for themselves as they are more vulnerable to smog-induced diseases.
On Friday, Haryana recorded 63 fresh field fires. With this, the state's total number of field fires has reached 2440 since September 25.
As per the data, Kaithal topped the chart with a maximum of 603 fire incidents, followed by Fatehabad (455), Kurukshetra (266), Karnal (279), Jind (273), Ambala (200), Yamunanagar (124), Sirsa (90), Hisar (45) and Palwal (39), Panipat (30), and Sonipat (18).
Kaithal district deputy director of agriculture (DDA) Karam Chand said several teams have been constituted to ensure that farmers do not set the crop residue on fire. So far, a fine of around Rs 9 lakh has been imposed on farmers for the violation and 7 FIRs have been lodged in the district.
Dinesh Sharma, SDO Karnal Agriculture department said that a total of Rs 5,00000 in fines has been collected from the violators.