Delhi in red: Air quality dips further; many places log 'very poor' index

Delhi's neighbours Uttar Pradesh's Noida and Haryana's Gurugram also reeled from poor air quality levels. Delhi's Mundka logged one of the poorest AQIs at 377, which is very close to 'severe' mark

The air quality index in Delhi dipped further on Friday, with multiple monitoring stations hovering near the 300 mark, which indicates ‘very poor’ air quality. The overall air quality in the national capital stood at 293, worse than the previous 24-hour average of 285, the data showed.

Visuals emerged from Anand Vihar showing officials undertaking measures such as sprinkling water on roads to tackle air pollution. The Graded Response Action Plan-1 (Grap-1) is already in place to improve air quality in Delhi. 

The System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (Safar) classifies the Air Quality Index into six categories: 0-50 (good), 51-100 (satisfactory), 101-200 (moderate), 201-300 (poor), 301-400 (very poor), and 401-500 (severe).

Anand Vihar, Mundka worst affected

According to data from the Air Quality Early Warning System, Dhyan Chand Stadium recorded an air quality index (AQI) of 270, while Mundka had a notably high AQI of 377. Najafgarh measured 278, and Narela - 317. Nehru Nagar’s AQI was 289, with North Campus slightly higher at 296. Okhla Phase 2 had an AQI of 295, and Patparganj recorded 338. Punjabi Bagh measured 309, while Pusa had a lower AQI of 212. RK Puram reported 274, and Rohini showed a concerning AQI of 363. Anand Vihar had an AQI of 342, Dwarka Sector 8 registered 325, and IGI Airport recorded 261.

Air quality to worsen by Sunday

Delhi’s neighbours Uttar Pradesh’s Noida and Haryana’s Gurugram also reeled from poor air quality levels. The past 24-hour average data showed an AQI of 178 in Gurugram and 242 in Noida. The Safar predicted that Delhi’s air quality would dip to ‘very poor’ category by Sunday, potentially leading to a respiratory illness crisis among the public. People have been warned against taking outdoor activities such as jogging or running and advised to wear N-95 masks when not at home.

In contrast to Delhi, other metropolitan cities such as Pune, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Lucknow had air quality levels below the mark of 100.