Poor air chokes Delhi again, venom to take health toll

As Delhiites continued bursting crackers on Thursday night Delhi's air quality continued to remain in "severe" category on the second day even after Diwali. The air quality index was recorded at 421 which falls in the severe category. Delhi Environment Minister Imran Hussain on Friday met officials in order to discuss the deteriorating air quality. Hotspots like Bawana, Anand Vihar, Mundka, North Campus, Dwarka continued to remain in a severe category.

As per System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR), the air quality in the national Capital will continue to remain in the severe category as the smoke from fireworks would gradually aggravate and even the stubble burning in neighbouring states would directly have an impact on the air quality of the capital. Delhi's air quality showed "significant" improvement as compared to Thursday when it went off the charts to the "severe plus emergency" category.

On Friday the AQI was recorded in the severe category at 421. Satellite images showed heavy fire counts recorded in the last 24 hour and the latest SAFAR model results shows a movement of cold front carrying heavy air mass towards Delhi region, SAFAR said.

(Heavy smog due to smoke from firecrackers clouds the Delhi sky)

Elaborating on it, the weather forecast system said the air in the surrounding stubble-burning areas is already heavy due to increased moisture and pollutants. This heavy air will travel towards Delhi, where a similar situation exists, in the next 24 hours. This combined effect might add to the pollution woes."There is a possibility that the wind may pick up at the upper level, late in the night and push the level of pollution and keep it in severe zone tomorrow with intensified fog which will further trap the pollutants," it said.

Hussain met officials of the Environment Ministry to discuss the deteriorating air quality and plan of action if the air quality remains hazardous, officials said. The Supreme Court-appointed Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority on Thursday said it was closely monitoring the situation and if the pollution shows an increasing trend then emergency measures will be imposed in the national capital. The emergency measures would be implemented as prescribed under the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP). Under the GRAP, stringent actions are implemented based on the air quality of the city. (with agency input)