Delhi: Farm fires drag AQI into very poor zone

NEW DELHI: The city’s air quality deteriorated from “poor” on Thursday to “very poor” on Friday, when Punjab also recorded the highest single-day fire count of the season at 3,916. The overall air quality index (AQI) of the capital was 346 against 295 on Thursday.
The share of stubble burning rose from 8% to 19% in the past 24 hours due to favourable transport-level wind direction. Although the air quality is likely to improve to the “poor” category on Saturday, it may again turn “very poor” on Monday.
Experts said that though the wind speed picked up during the day, other meteorological factors like drop in temperature, fog and stubble burning led to the deterioration in AQI. The minimum temperature dipped to 14.6 degrees Celsius and low temperature hampers the process of dispersion of pollutants.
System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research, a central forecasting agency, said, “Stubble burning emissions contributed 19% to PM2.5 in Delhi. Local surface winds (12-24km/hour) improved dispersion, while the drop in minimum temperature helped in accumulation of pollutants.” R K Jenamani, senior weather scientist, said, “The wind speed between 1pm and 3pm was 20kmph, gusting to 35kmph. The visibility dipped to 500 metres for two hours in the morning.”
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According to Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), which follows the standard protocol 2021 notified by the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM), the satellite detected 3,916 residue burning events in Punjab, 152 in Haryana and 36 in Uttar Pradesh. The previous single-day highest count in Punjab was 3,634 on November 2.
IARI’s data shows that Punjab, Haryana and UP have recorded less stubble burning incidents from September 15 to November 11 this year against last year. Between September 15 and November 11, Punjab witnessed 40,677 farm fires in 2022 against 55,718 in 2021. The count for Haryana during the same period was 2,880 against 5,063. UP has reported 1,134 such incidents till now against 2,117 last year.