Air quality severe in 13 districts of Haryana, very poor in five

Jind was the worst-affected with average air quality index (AQI) of 480, followed by Faridabad (479)

With farmers continuing to defy the ban on stubble burning, a blanket of haze engulfed Haryana as several districts in the states reported air quality index in severe and very poor categories on Saturday.

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Jind was the worst-affected with average air quality index (AQI) of 480, followed by Faridabad (479), Gurugram (469), Rohtak (467) Bhiwani (466), Sirsa (462), Hisar (458), Kaithal (448), Ballabhgarh (438), Bahadurgarh (435), Manesar (427), Panipat (421) and Karnal (407), all under severe category.

The AQI is rated poor between 201 and 300, very poor between 301 and 400 and severe between 401 and 500.

AQI is used by agencies to communicate to the people how polluted the air is. Public health risks increase as the AQI rises.

Districts with very poor air quality included Fatehabad (393), Kurukshetra (383), Palwal (369), Ambala (350) and Yamunanagar (322). Narnaul and Mewat were rated as poor with AQI 236 and 235, respectively.

The number of stubble burning incidents in the state shot up to 4,340 on Saturday against 4,844 last year in the corresponding period. The number of farm fire incidents till Friday was 4,288.

On Saturday, Kaithal topped the list with 914 farm fire incidents followed by Karnal 893, Kurukshetra 694, Fatehabad 612, Ambala 317, Jind 226, Palwal and Sirsa, 194 each and Yamunanagar 186.