Delhi left to pick up Diwali pieces as capital reports highest average AQI at 462 since 2016

At around 9pm on Thursday, the air quality in Delhi dropped to “severe” category for the first time this season, and the condition deteriorated gradually over the night as citizens flouted the blanket ban imposed on firecrackers by the government.

A day after Diwali, Delhi recorded the highest average air quality index (AQI) at 462 in five years. Last year, the AQI on the following day of Diwali was recorded at 435.

The air quality in several places of Delhi continue to remain in the “severe” category (Amal KS/HT PHOTO)

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-led government in the national capital had imposed a blanket ban on bursting firecrackers, including green ones, on Diwali and till January 1. However, the prohibition was openly violated by the citizens of the city.

On Thursday, around 9pm, the air quality of Delhi dipped to “severe” category for the first time this season. The AQI started increasing as the night rolled on and so did the bursting of firecrackers. By early Friday morning, the Janpath area – located in the central part of the capital, recorded an air quality index in the “hazardous” category, news agency ANI reported. The particulate matter (PM) 2.5 concentration was recorded at 655.07 and as per government standards, exceeding the 380-mark is deemed as “severe”.

Hindustan Times reported earlier in the day that the PM 2.5 levels over the previous 24 hours in Delhi was also the highest in three years as the capital faced a double whammy of firecracker bursting as well as stubble burning, an analysis of the Union earth science ministry’s System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR) revealed.

However, the analysis also showed that the PM 2.5 concentrations in this year’s Diwali was “much less” compared to those recorded in 2018.

The air quality in several places of Delhi continue to remain in the “severe” category, according to data by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). The AQI in Anand Vihar was recorded at 467 at 6pm on Friday, at 443 in Chandni Chowk, at 481 in Jahangirpuri, at 457 in NSIT Dwarka, and at 465 in Sirifort, among other stations.

Meanwhile, Delhi environment minister Gopal Rai said that “some people had intentionally” asked the citizens of the capital to burst firecrackers during Diwali. “The Delhi Government has already made several appeals to the people regarding the pollution condition, but opposition parties just for the sake of politics encouraged people to burn firecrackers, which now resulted in deteriorated conditions,” he told reporters on Friday, according to ANI.