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Continuing with the pattern witnessed Tuesday, Delhi’s air quality remained in the upper end of the ‘very poor’ category all through Wednesday. Meanwhile, Punjab saw an uptick in farm fires, recording the second highest single-day figure of the season.
On Wednesday, the Capital’s 24-hour average AQI was 398 at 4 pm, with PM2.5 as the main pollutant, according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB); the AQI stayed over 390 all day.
Out of 35 stations for which 24-hour average data was available at 7 pm, 17 recorded AQI in the ‘severe’ category, with the highest figure of 444 at Nehru Nagar.
Meanwhile, Punjab recorded 2,544 farm fires on Wednesday, up from 1,776 on Tuesday and 1,624 on Monday, going by data from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI). This is the second highest single-day farm fire count the state has recorded this season, after 3,230 on November 5. Farm fires continued in Haryana as well with 62 instances recorded on Wednesday, up from 21 on Tuesday.
Last week, the Supreme Court had asked the states of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan to take urgent steps to stop paddy stubble burning.
The contribution of stubble burning to PM2.5 levels in Delhi saw a spike on Tuesday, and conditions remain favourable for the transport of smoke from burning into Delhi, according to experts.
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On Tuesday, the contribution of stubble burning to PM2.5 levels in Delhi was 19.875%, up from 11.313% on Monday, going by data from the Decision Support System.
“Surface winds in Delhi are expected to be very calm over the next two days. Transport level winds are also favourable for the transport of stubble burning smoke,” said Gufran Beig, founder project-director SAFAR, and chair professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies.
While a feeble western disturbance is expected to affect the Western Himalayan Region on November 19, and bring very light rainfall over Jammu and Kashmir, its impact over Delhi could remain limited to a change in wind direction to easterly as opposed to the northwesterly winds that are now prevailing, according to Kuldeep Srivastava, scientist, India Meteorological Department (IMD).
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