After smoggy November, Gurugram sees a three-day spell of clean air

GURUGRAM: The city recorded the cleanest air quality after Manesar in Delhi-NCR for three days in a row though the index level (AQI) increased slightly on Thursday but remained in the ‘moderate’ zone. Gurugram has recorded eight days of ‘moderate’ air quality since Diwali, and 99 days so far this year.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, the AQI was recorded at 186 and 104.While the index was recorded at 172 (moderate) on Sunday, it slipped to the ‘poor’ level on Monday and was clocked at 232.
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After Diwali, the city’s air quality remained in the ‘very poor’ and ‘severe’ categories for most days. It was only on November 6 — around 10 days after Diwali — that the index dropped to ‘moderate’ level owing to an increase in wind speed and change in its direction. Following this, the air quality continued to deteriorate till November 17.
Manesar, on the other hand, recorded the cleanest air quality on Thursday at 92 (moderate). On Thursday, the indices of Delhi, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Greater Noida and Noida were clocked at 106 (moderate), 110 (moderate), 105 (moderate), 110 (moderate) and 101 (moderate). According to the SAFAR forecast, the air quality might remain in the ‘moderate’ category for next three days as wind speed is expected to go up. However, the pollution level might worsen again from December 4 onwards.
The city recorded the season’s lowest temperature on Thursday. The maximum temperature that was recorded at 28.2°C on Tuesday and 26.5°C on Wednesday came down to 22.5°C on Thursday.
According to the Met department, there is a forecast of partly cloudy sky with mist and shallow fog in the morning. The maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to be between 24°C and 15°C. On Thursday, the minimum temperature was recorded at 15.2°C.
In Delhi and NCR, the level of PM2.5 — tiny particulate matter less than 2.5 microns in diameter that can enter the lungs and the bloodstream — was 37.5 microgram per cubic metre at 7.30 pm, which is within the safe limit of 0-60. The region had last recorded such levels on October 5.
Most of the 37 air quality monitoring stations in Delhi recorded AQI in the ‘satisfactory’ category. Pusa registered the best AQI of 64.
An AQI between 0-50 is considered ‘good’, 51-100 ‘satisfactory’, 101-200 ‘moderate’, 201-300 ‘poor’, 301-400 ‘very poor’ and 401-500 ‘severe’. An AQI above 500 falls in the ‘severe plus’ category.
Weather experts said parts of Delhi and NCR cities received showers on Wednesday and Thursday, improving the air quality further. Also, the share of stubble plume in Delhi-NCR’s pollution was negligible as Punjab and Haryana received light rains for the third consecutive day on Thursday, they said.
Haryana recorded around 45% decline in incidents of stubble burning and the problem will be resolved completely in next two years, state pollution control board member secretary S Narayanan said on Thursday.
He claimed that the state achieved these results “purely through enforcement” and no major policy changes were made.
Stubble burning in Haryana and Punjab in October-November is considered one of the major reasons behind the annual episodes of smog in Delhi-NCR.
(With agency inputs)