Delhi Air Pollution: AQI Dips to ‘Poor’ Category, Smog Engulfs NCR
In Delhi's Lodhi road area was PM 2.5 was at 273 (poor category) and PM 10 at 266 (poor category), news agency ANI reported. Since a week, the air quality in the national capital has been oscillating between ‘poor’,‘very poor’ and 'severe' categories.
New Delhi, November 21: The air quality in Delhi and its surrounding areas continued to be under the ‘poor’ category on Wednesday. According to the Centre-run System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR), the Air Quality Index (AQI) in In Delhi's Lodhi road area was PM 2.5 was at 273 (poor category) and PM 10 at 266 (poor category), news agency ANI reported. Since a week, the air quality in the national capital has been oscillating between ‘poor’,‘very poor’ and 'severe' categories.
Residents in the national capital woke up to a hazy morning with smog engulfing the entire city. Sulfur Oxides, dust and soot are a growing threat to the health of lakhs of people residing in and around Delhi. Reports inform that the worst AQI was recorded in Anand Vihar at 447 which was in the 'Hazardous' category. In NCR, Gurugram with an AQI of 302 also fell into the 'very poor' category. The AQI was 396 in Ghaziabad, 377 in Greater Noida, 386 in Noida and 380 in Faridabad. Delhi: AIIMS Launches Research Project on Air Pollution’s Impact on Public Health.
Earlier this week, the overall air quality of Ghaziabad was at 396, which is the worst in the National Capital Region (NCR). Meanwhile, Noida, Gurgaon, Faridabad and Greater Noida too recorded 'very poor' overall air quality.
Reports inform that during the past two decades, the air quality in the national capital was the "most deadly" in 2016. The alarming level is believed to reduce the life expectancy of a resident by more than 10 years, a new study said on Monday, asserting that the national capital was the second among 50 most polluted areas of the country.
India is today the world's second most-polluted country. The study pointed out that over the past two decades, the concentration of fine particulates increased by 69 per cent on an average across India, reducing the life expectancy of a typical Indian citizen by 4.3 years compared to 2.2 years in 1998.
In the wake of the deteriorating level of air quality, Minister of State in the Ministry of Environment, Mahesh Sharma on Tuesday said that if the situation gets worse, the Centre will roll out a notification to induce artificial rain over Delhi. The initiative is believed that such practice will wash away toxic pollutants from the atmosphere and give people some respite from the toxic air quality.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 21, 2018 09:26 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).