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Delhi AQI stays ‘very poor’, Ghaziabad hits ‘severe’ amid below-average temperature
Delhi AQI: Several areas remained in the ‘severe’ zone by 6 am on Monday, with AQI readings of 410 in Wazirpur, 419 in Bawana, and 414 in Jahangirpuri.
Delhi’s air quality continued to hover in the ‘very poor’ category for the fifth consecutive day on Tuesday, with the city recording an overall AQI of 341 at 6 am. This was a slight improvement from Monday’s 359 and Sunday’s 377, as winds picked up, reaching 15 km/hr on Sunday.
Despite the slight improvement, air in most parts of the national capital and its adjoining areas remained toxic to breathe.
Delhi, meanwhile, has been feeling the winter chill, with minimum temperature on Monday dropping to 8.7 degrees Celsius (°C), four notches down from the season’s normal temperature. It was also the lowest minimum for November, since 2022, when it was 8.3 degrees Celsius on November 30. The maximum temperature was recorded at 27.1 degrees Celsius on Monday.
Delhi AQI today
Wazirpur and Bawana recorded AQI readings above 400, placing them in the ‘severe’ category, according to Central Pollution Control Board's (CPCB) Sameer app. Wazirpur stood at 410, Bawana at 419, and Jahangirpuri at 414, by 6 am on Tuesday.
Forecasts indicate no relief AQI in Delhi in the coming days, with air quality expected to deteriorate again and touch the ‘severe’ zone until Wednesday.
“Delhi’s air quality is likely to be in the ‘very poor’ category from November 18 till November 20,” said the Early Warning System (EWS), a forecasting model under the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES).
Stage 3 measures of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) have been in effect in NCR since November 11 as Delhi AQI deteriorated significantly, when the air quality slipped into "severe" category with 428 AQI.
Ghaziabad tops pollution chart
Meanwhile, Ghaziabad became the most polluted city in the country on Monday and the only one to record a “severe” AQI, according to the CPCB’s daily bulletin.
The city’s AQI was 401, with PM2.5 identified as the primary pollutant. Indirapuram, Loni, and Sanjay Nagar recorded AQI levels of 365, 414, and 433, respectively, while figures from Vasundhara were unavailable due to a technical issue.
Sunday marked Ghaziabad’s first “severe” air day in 2025. The city had last experienced such levels on December 17, 2024, when the AQI touched 403.
Supreme Court rejects sweeping pollution curbs
On Monday, the Supreme Court declined to impose stringent pollution-control measures, such as a year-round construction ban or limits on vehicular movement in Delhi-NCR.
A bench led by Chief Justice of India Bhushan R Gavai observed that the Capital “cannot be brought to a standstill” in the name of fighting toxic air.
“We cannot bring everything to a standstill… There cannot be a complete stoppage of all activities,” said the CJI, responding to senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan’s submission that Delhi had turned into a “gas chamber” and required “drastic steps.”
The bench, also comprising Justices K Vinod Chandran and NV Anjaria, added, “We have to also think of migrants from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh who are here to work and are daily wagers. The solution proposed cannot be worse than the problem.”
