Gurgaon sees 'very poor' air for 2nd day in a row, to stay so till Saturday

GURGAON: The city's air quality index (AQI) on Wednesday was 'very poor' for the second consecutive day at 341, up from Tuesday's 331. Winter chill is also setting in as the minimum temperature dropped to 12.6 degrees Celsius on Wednesday, the season's lowest so far.

Gwalpahari recorded the city's highest AQI on Wednesday at 367, followed by Teri Gram (364), Vikas Sadan (324) and Sector 51 station (311).Wind speed improved slightly at 6kmph on Wednesday, up from 5kmph the day before, but this did not help pollutants to disperse as the humidity was 68%, which made the process of dispersion slow.
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Neighbouring Delhi (395), Faridabad (356), Noida (341) and Ghaziabad (344) were in the 'very poor' category as well.
The air quality is likely to deteriorate in the coming days and is expected to be 'very poor' due to a dip in both mercury and wind speed, according to the central government's System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (Safar).
"The weather conditions for Delhi-NCR are likely to be highly unfavourable for dispersion of pollutants in the next three days. The predominant surface winds are likely to be coming from the southeast/east directions with wind speed of 8kmph-10kmph which will become calm during evening/night. Mainly clear sky and shallow fog in the morning are expected on November 23 and 24. The air quality is likely to remain in the 'very poor' category," it stated.
According to satellite data from Nasa, collated by the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, on Wednesday, 62 farm fires were detected in Haryana whereas 512 were observed in Punjab.
"Stubble burning isn't very high right now, but instances are still being reported. what pollutes the air is a combination of local sources and regional emissions from industries, power plants and transportation sector leading to high emission loads which doesn't disperse as much in the winters as it does in summers, so the only solution to air pollution is reduction of emission load at source," said Sunil Dahiya, analyst at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).
The PM2.5 level was highest at Gwalpahari (320 g/m³) on Wednesday, followed by Sector 51 (250 g/m³), Teri Gram (220 g/m³) and Vikas Sadan (208 g/m³). The level of PM10 was the highest at Sector 51 (356 g/m³), followed by Teri Gram (348g/m³) and Gwapahari (319 g/m³). Vikas Sadan doesn't record PM10 data. According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the annual average permissible limits for PM2.5 and PM10 are 60g/m³ and 100 g/m³, respectively.
When AQI is in the 'moderate' category, there can be breathing discomfort to the people with asthma and lung or heart disease. In 'poor' AQI, breathing discomfort can be felt by most people on prolonged exposure. An AQI between zero and 50 is considered 'good', 51 and 100 'satisfactory', 101 and 200 'moderate', 201 and 300 'poor', 301 and 400 'very poor', and 401 and 500 'severe'.
Health experts said that patients with pre-existing respiratory conditions or medical conditions are at more risk now and may also require short hospitalisations.
Meanwhile, the city's maximum temperature was 25 degrees Celsius on Wednesday. "Severe winter conditions are yet to develop. In the coming days, there will be a gradual drop in mercury," said Manmohan Singh, the director of IMD (Chandigarh).