Difficult to breathe in many cities including Delhi; AQI again reaches very poor category in NCR

On the evening of Diwali, the people of Delhi-NCR got relief from the bad air pollution after weeks, but after three days of respite, the air pollution in Delhi-NCR again went into a severe category on the night of Diwali. Despite the Supreme Court ban on bursting firecrackers, a lot of firecrackers were burst in Delhi. Due to this, pollution in the capital and its surrounding areas has reached dangerous levels.

People gathered in major areas of Delhi to burst firecrackers and the firecrackers burnt till late Sunday night. Although the air pollution levels had improved to some extent after the rains in Delhi-NCR on Thursday, the air quality fell into the poor category after Diwali.

Delhi's Shahpur Jat, Hauz Khas, Defense Colony, Chhatarpur, East of Kailash, Mandir Marg, and Paharganj are some of the areas where fireworks were fired after 6 pm. Many people in the locality and surrounding areas did not come out of their homes.

Speaking to news agency PTI, environmentalist Bhavreen Kandhari said the Supreme Court's strict stance on firecrackers went up in smoke. Despite warnings and a complete ban, the responsible authorities failed once again. Wonder what stand the Supreme Court will take on this." Now the court's decision? We are allowing our children to live a life of suffocation in the name of celebration."

According to the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC), in Anand Vihar, the concentration of PM2.5 levels was within 56 ppm till 5 pm on Sunday, which increased to around 2000 ppm at midnight. Let us tell you that the Supreme Court had said on November 7 that its order to ban barium-containing firecrackers would be mandatory for every state. This order of the court was issued for the entire country.

Apart from this, AQI in many major cities of the country has gone from bad to worse. On the next day of Diwali i.e. Monday (13 November), AQI was 340 in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, 317 in Cuttack, 306 in Angul, 334 in Balasore, 352 in Talcher, 381 in Begusarai of Bihar, 336 in Bhagalpur, 311 in Gaya, 311 in Patna. It has reached 338, 338 in Purnia, 352 in Rajgir, 315 in Katihar, 320 in Dholpur of Rajasthan, 304 in Kota, and 316 in Dhule of Maharashtra.

It is noteworthy that AQI between zero to 50 is 'good', 51 to 100 is 'satisfactory', 101 to 200 is 'moderate', 201 to 300 is 'bad', 301 to 400 is 'very poor' and Between 401 and 450 is considered 'severe'. When AQI goes above 450, the situation becomes a 'very serious' category.