AQI woes: Delhiites go the green way as air purifying plants go out of stock

With worsening AQI, Delhiites queue up at nurseries to buy air purifying plants in bulk. Many plant varieties are already sold out at about 16 nurseries in NCR.

Are you too finding it difficult to breathe as Delhi gets enveloped in a thick blanket of smog? How about taking the green route like many other residents of NCR. At 343, the air quality index (AQI) was in the ‘very poor’ category on Thursday morning. Since the pollutant particles in the air have become the talk of town, Delhiites have started rushing to nurseries to hoard indoor plants that act as natural air purifiers.

Demand for plants like areca palm, peace lily, money plant, and aglaonema, has been on the rise since these are known to purify the air. (Photo for representational purposes only) (Photo: Sakib Ali/HT)

Money plant is currently available at Sunder Nursery, Masjid Nursery and Kirti Nursery.

“The demand for plants such as areca palm, peace lily and money plant has gone so high since the last week of October that we have run out of stock,” informs Kamal Saini, owner at Masjid Nursery, Pandara Road, adding, “I’ve sold at least 100 saplings each of money plant and silver king, and 20kgs of seed for snake plant as these are easy to grow. Most of these grow in monsoon and humne socha hi nahin tha ki itni bikri ho jayegi ki paudhe kum padenge.”

Aglaonema is currently available at Sunder Nursery, Sunder Nagar and Masjid Nursery, Pandara Road.

Mitali Kashyap, who lives in Chhatarpur, shares, “As soon as I started feeling something obstructing my respiratory system, I rushed to Kirti Nursery in Ghitorni and bought 20 plants for my home. These are natural air cleansers and don’t make the room dry or stuffy like electronic air purifiers. So why not opt for natural choices for as long as we have a choice?”