Delhi air quality in ‘very poor’ category for fourth day in a row

Delhi pollution: The Air Quality Index (AQI) of the city was recorded at 349 at 10 am.

Delhi air pollution: The air quality in Delhi on Tuesday continued to remain in the "very poor" category for the fourth day in a row

Commuters out on a smoggy morning amid rising air pollution at Kartavya Path in New Delhi on October 27. (Arvind Yadav/ Hindustan Times)

The Air Quality Index (AQI) of the city was recorded at 349 at 10 am, according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) showed.

An AQI between 0-50 is considered "good", 51-100 "satisfactory", 101-200 "moderate", 201-300 "poor", 301-400 "very poor" and 401-500 "severe". An AQI above 500 falls in the "severe plus" category.

On Monday, the city's 24-hour average AQI was recorded at 347 at 4 pm, worsening from 325 on Sunday. On Saturday it was 304 and 261 (poor) on Friday, the data from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) showed.

According to the Centre's Air Quality Early Warning System for Delhi, the city's air quality has been deteriorating to 'very poor' levels due to slow wind speed at night and a dip in the temperatures. It is expected to remain in the same category for a few more days.

Data from the Union ministry of earth sciences has showed that vehicular emissions and pollution from the neighbouring regions were the major reasons behind Delhi’s deteriorating air quality on Monday.

Smoke due to stubble burning was the third major contributor to the pollution in the city, according to the Decision Support System (DSS), which estimates the contribution of different sources of pollution to Delhi’s particulate matter (PM) 2.5 every day. According to DSS, vehicles contributed around 13.9% to the “very poor” air quality on Monday, followed by 13.1% pollution from Gautam Budh Nagar, while the share of stubble burning share for the day was pegged at around 9.8%.