Delhi’s air quality drops to ‘very poor’ as farm fires rise in Punjab, Haryana, UP

Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh recorded a combined fire count of 4,104 fires on Friday, up from 1,961 on Thursday

Delhi’s air quality worsened into the “very poor” zone on Friday, with calm local winds doing little to wash pollutants away, prompting the central pollution control commission to underscore that restrictions under Stage 3 of the Graded Response Action Plan will remain in place across the National Capital Region (NCR) for now.

North-westerly wind flow is conducive to increasing the impact of stubble burning in neighbouring states on the Capital’s air quality. (Archive)

The city logged an air quality index (AQI) of 346 on Friday, according to the Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) 4pm bulletin, up from 295 a day ago.

An AQI between 201 and 300 is classified as “poor”, and 301 and 400 is “very poor”.

A sub-committee of the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) on Friday said that actions implemented under Stage 3 of the Graded Response Action Plan (Grap) will continue due to the prevailing meteorological conditions.

“Considering the significant spike in Delhi’s overall AQI from 260 [on Wednesday] to 346 in the last two days, north-westerly wind flow conducive to increasing the impact of farm fires on the AQI of Delhi and the need to continue with the steps to prevent deterioration of air quality...ongoing actions under Stage 3 of Grap shall continue and should not be withdrawn at this stage,” said CAQM in a note on Friday.

Punjab clocked 3,916 farm fires on Friday, the most so far this season. To be sure, most paddy fields in the state (upwards of 93%, according to state government data) have been cleared.

Smoke from stubble fires contributed to 19% of Delhi’s PM2.5 levels on Friday, up from 8% on Thursday and the highest since 21% on November 5, according to data from the Union ministry of earth science’s air quality monitoring centre, System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (Safar).

According to the Safar forecast, the air quality is expected to be in the ‘very poor’ category till Saturday.

By Sunday, air quality is expected to reach the “upper end of very poor” category due to strong upper-level wind flow (blowing from the northwest), enhancing the transport of pollutants.

“The rate of inflow of pollutants is likely to be more than that of dispersion, resulting in accumulation and deterioration of AQI to ‘upper end of very poor’ on Saturday and Sunday,” stated the forecast. While local surface winds with a speed of 12-24kmph might aid the dispersion of pollutants, the dip in minimum temperature will lead to the accumulation of pollutants, it added.

According to the early air quality warning system for Delhi-NCR, the air quality is likely to remain in the poor category on Saturday and Sunday.

The maximum temperature on Friday settled at 28.5°C, a degree below the normal temperature for this time of year. Friday’s minimum temperature settled at 14.6°C, a degree above the normal for this time of year. According to the India meteorological department’s weekly forecast, the maximum temperature is expected to hover around 29°C on Saturday while the minimum may touch 14°C. A mainly clear sky with mist and shallow fog in the morning is expected in some places, the forecast said.