It is for the fifth consecutive day that the National Capital’s air quality index (AQI) is in the ‘severe’ category. The AQI, today morning, touched 459, which was higher than the previous day’s average of 416.
The neighbouring cities of Noida, Gurugram and Faridabad gasp for breath as the AQI readings showed worse air quality than Delhi with 475, 472 and 469 readings respectively. As reported by a national daily, Kuldeep Srivastava, Head, Regional Weather Forecasting Centre, said, “There is moderate fog with visibility of only 400 m. No wind is blowing. The AQI has spiked further because of calm and stable conditions at night and in the morning.”
As per scientists and experts, the poor condition of the air quality in the National Capital Region (NCR) can be attributed to the heavy load of pollutants from stubble burning raging in neighbouring Haryana and Punjab. According to the data from Ministry of Earth Sciences, as many as 4900 farm fires were recorded in Punjab on Saturday and 3500 on Sunday.
