Delhi pollution improves slightly, air quality jumps to 'poor' category

Delhi's air quality improved to the 'poor' category on Monday morning a day after the weather agency predicted cold day conditions for the national capital.

The Air Quality Index (AQI) was 262 at 8 am, according to the Ministry of Earth Sciences' air quality forecast agency SAFAR. Readings below 50 are considered safe, 51 and 100 is 'satisfactory' and anything above 300 is considered hazardous or 'severe'.

This came after Delhi's air quality had slipped to 'very poor' category on Friday, days after it was 'satisfactory' after heavy rains lashed the national capital last weekend.

Delhi was this morning the world's fifth most polluted city in the world with an AQI of 194, according to IQAir.

Preliminary data from a month-long experiment has shown that indoor air pollution levels were nearly half of the outdoor levels in Delhi-NCR during November-December so far.

India is failing in efforts to improve its toxic air quality, with the number of smog-plagued cities increasing since the launch of a national program to tackle the issue, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.

A total of 132 cities now have pollution levels deemed below national standards, from 102 cities when the National Clean Air Programme began in 2019, according to a report by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.