Air quality stable as strong winds continue to blow

Air quality in the city improved on Sunday morning, with an air quality index (AQI) value of 219 at 10am as per the Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) air

Air quality in the city improved on Sunday morning, with an air quality index (AQI) value of 219 at 10am as per the Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) air quality monitor at Vikas Sadan. This is the cleanest that the city air has been since Diwali.By evening, however, pollution levels rose once again, and Gurugram’s average daily AQI for Sunday came to 282 (very poor). This is just marginally better than the previous day’s reading of 290.

HT Image

CPCB data showed the concentration of PM2.5, the city’s most prominent pollutant, was 248ug/m3, as opposed to 249ug/m3 on Saturday, suggesting that air quality in the region has remained stable over the past day. “This is due to the continuous presence of northwesterly winds that are blowing directly over Gurugram on their way to the Capital,” said a senior scientist at the CPCB’s air quality lab in Delhi.

Private monitors also recorded improved air quality, with some monitors also recording “moderate” air on Sunday. Tau Devi Lal Biodiversity park, in fact, recorded “satisfactory” air on Sunday evening, with an AQI of 85 and particulate matter concentrations ranging from 50 to 50ug/m3. Meanwhile monitors in South City 1 and DLF Golf Links recorded AQI values of 156 and 149 respectively at 6:30pm on Sunday.

According to SAFAR’s early air quality warning system for Delhi-NCR, “The air quality is likely to deteriorate on November 11 and may remain in the ‘very poor’ category with higher values. The air quality is likely to deteriorate marginally further on November 12 and may remain in upper end of ‘very poor’ category and may reach ‘severe’in case of fire crackers pollution.”

However, experts said that Gurugram, Faridabad and Manesar would remain less polluted than the Capital due to the influence of strong winds, which are expected to touch a speed of 12 kmph on Monday, up from Sunday’s 8kmph. Air quality in Gurugram is, in fact, expected to improve on Monday with a predicted AQI of 240, according to CPCB forecast.