Delhi air quality improves amid sharp drop in stubble burning in farms

Delhi's air quality improved significantly on Tuesday amid a sharp decline in farm fires in Punjab over the last two days.

The capital's 24-hour average Air Quality Index (AQI) stood at 227 on Tuesday. It was 294 on Monday and 303 on Sunday.

An AQI between 201 and 300 is considered 'poor', 301 and 400 'very poor', and 401 and 500 'severe'.

The air quality is likely to improve further on the back of strong winds, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said

The city recorded a minimum temperature of 15.4 degrees Celsius and a maximum of 29.5 degrees Celsius on Tuesday, it said.

According to Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) data, Punjab reported 141 farm fires on Tuesday and just four on Monday. A total of 2,467 incidents of stubble burning were reported in the agrarian state on Saturday.

The share of farm fires in Delhi's PM2.5 pollution dropped to 3 per cent on Tuesday from 13 per cent on Monday, according to SAFAR, a forecasting agency under the Ministry of Earth Sciences.

In view of the improvement in the air quality, the Commission for Air Quality Management had on Monday directed authorities to revoke the curbs enforced in Delhi-NCR under stage three of the Graded Response Action Plan with immediate effect.

The curbs under stage 3 included a ban on construction and demolition activities, barring essential projects.