Air pollution scare fuels purifier sales in India as winter sets in

As the festival fever grips the country and companies gear up for bumper sales, consumers in north India are arming themselves with an essential device amid falling temperatures: air purifier.

Sales of air purifiers have risen in recent weeks as air pollution scare looms large over the region, electronics retailers told Business Standard.

“While there are hardly any sales of air purifiers throughout the year, this is the time when they start selling more in Delhi and surrounding areas. We have started seeing sales inch up again as the pollution season draws closer,” Nilesh Gupta, managing director of Vijay Sales, said.

Its stores, which usually sell five to seven air purifiers a day, sold 50 purifiers in a single day earlier this week. At the peak of the ‘pollution season’ earlier, the stores did daily sales of 200-250 air purifiers.

“This is just the beginning, as these are early buyers,” Gupta said. “Last year, pollution in north India was still under control. People were also masking up due to Covid, which also brought down the sales of air purifiers. This year, however, masks are off. Sales will now depend on how bad the pollution gets,” he added.  

Pollution levels in north India typically go up in the winter season due to stubble burning in Haryana and Punjab, vehicular congestion, and smoke from the burning of crackers. 

A sales executive at a Croma store in South Extension, Delhi, said the demand for air purifiers had started inching up. While the store was doing sales of just one to two air purifiers a day until a month ago, “the number has inched up to 10-12 a day now,” the executive said. “We expect these numbers to go up significantly as diwali is still some time away.”

Those stocking up usually turn to brands like Dyson and Philips, Gupta said.

Dyson recently launched the Dyson Purifier Big+Quiet, which can purify air in spaces up to 1,000 sq ft. It also launched the Dyson zone headphones, which come with an attachable travel visor that supplies purified air to the wearer.

To ensure pollution levels remain under control, the Delhi government re-imposed its ban on the production, storage, sale, and utilisation of firecrackers in the capital on September 11. Measures under the Centre’s Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) stage I came into effect in Delhi on October 6, when its average air quality index (AQI) clocked 212.

According to the latest data from the Central Pollution Control Board, air quality in Delhi was in the moderate category, with an AQI of 195 as of 4 pm on Friday. Air quality in Ghaziabad (AQI 195) and Gurugram (AQI 171) was also ‘moderate’. However, it slipped into the poor category in Noida (AQI 214), Greater Noida (AQI 238), and Faridabad (AQI 291).