Delhi: Air quality remains severe, schools closed

The air quality in Delhi and NCR region remained in the 'Severe' category on Thursday morning as the private and government-run schools in the national capital remained closed for today and tomorrow.

According to the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR), the overall air quality of the national capital docked at 472 at 7:00 AM on Wednesday.

The overall Delhi AQI is at the higher end of the 'Severe' category.

"The effective stubble fire counts estimated by Safar-integrated multi-satellite methodology has shown decreasing trend (480 counts on November 12) Hence, a decline in biomass share in Delhi's air quality is estimated as 13 per cent for November 14 in spite of favorable transport-level wind trajectory," SAFAR stated.

Though a slight improvement in day time pollution concentration is expected today, but PM 2.5 levels will start to increase immediately after sunset, it added.

It went on to share that the air quality is likely to deteriorate during stable night and tomorrow and stay in the 'Severe' category.

Air quality condition is likely to marginally improve by tomorrow (Friday), but a reasonable improvement to the 'very poor' is expected only by November 16 (Saturday).

The Supreme Court had on Wednesday asked the central government to explore Hydrogen based fuel technology to find solutions to combat air pollution in Northern India including Delhi-NCR.