Day after Diwali: Delhi air quality enters 'severe-plus emergency' category

Delhi doctors have reported an increase in the number of patients with respiratory problems due to a rise in pollution levels

Delhi air quality plummeted to severely bad levels on Thursday under the impact of unabated bursting of crackers on Diwali, as people in most parts of the region in and around the national capital openly flouted the Supreme Court guidelines .

According to the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR) under the Union ministry of earth sciences, the Air Quality Index (AQI) in Delhi and adjoining regions at 4 pm averaged over 500 (it is a measure of the concentration of five pollutants). This was almost 10 times more than the permissible outer limit. The morning after