Delhi Air Quality : Remains Enveloped in Dense Haze as AQI in ‘Severe’ Category, exceeding 400

• At 8 am, the air qual­i­ty index (AQI) in most areas of Del­hi was in the ‘severe’ cat­e­go­ry.
• Mul­ti­ple mon­i­tor­ing sta­tions report­ed AQI read­ings above 400.
• AQI record­ed at spe­cif­ic loca­tions: 466 in RK Puram, 402 in ITO, 471 in Pat­par­ganj, and 488 in New Moti Bagh.
• Data from the Sys­tem of Air Qual­i­ty and Weath­er Fore­cast­ing (SAFAR) indi­cat­ed PM2.5 lev­els at 321 and PM10 lev­els at 488 in Del­hi.
• These fig­ures reflect the wide­spread ‘severe’ air pol­lu­tion con­di­tions across the city, rais­ing health con­cerns and the need for urgent mea­sures to address the issue.

Delhi Air Quality : AQI in NCR Region

• The Nation­al Cap­i­tal Region (NCR), includ­ing Del­hi, con­tin­ues to suf­fer from severe air pol­lu­tion, with air qual­i­ty index (AQI) in the ‘Severe’ cat­e­go­ry.
• Noi­da and Guru­gram, both part of NCR, report­ed ‘severe’ air qual­i­ty, with AQI read­ings of over 616 and 516, respec­tive­ly.
• AQI cat­e­gories: ‘Good’ (0–50), ‘Sat­is­fac­to­ry’ (51–100), ‘Mod­er­ate’ (101–200), ‘Poor’ (201–300), ‘Very Poor’ (301–400), ‘Severe’ (401–500), and ‘Haz­ardous’ (beyond 500).

Stage 4 of GRAP Activated in Delhi-NCR

• The Com­mis­sion for Air Qual­i­ty Man­age­ment (CAQM) has ini­ti­at­ed Stage IV of the Grad­ed Response Action Plan (GRAP) across NCR to curb air pol­lu­tion.
• Stage IV includes addi­tion­al mea­sures on top of those in Stages I, II, and III, aim­ing to pre­vent fur­ther dete­ri­o­ra­tion of air qual­i­ty.
• Mea­sures under Stage IV: Ban on con­struc­tion for lin­ear pub­lic projects, restric­tions on entry of pol­lut­ing trucks and com­mer­cial four-wheel­ers, and spe­cial pro­vi­sions for CNG, elec­tric, and BS VI-com­pli­ant vehi­cles from oth­er states.
• Medi­um and heavy goods vehi­cles not engaged in essen­tial ser­vices are com­plete­ly banned in Del­hi under this stage.

GRAP Stages Overview

• GRAP cat­e­go­rizes actions into four stages: Stage I (‘Poor’ with AQI 201–300), Stage II (‘Very Poor’ with AQI 301–400), Stage III (‘Severe’ with AQI 401–450), and Stage IV (‘Severe Plus’ with AQI >450).

Health Experts’ Concerns

• Air pol­lu­tion has tak­en a severe toll on pub­lic health and is affect­ing peo­ple of all age groups, includ­ing unborn chil­dren.
• Health experts empha­size a strong link between air pol­lu­tion and var­i­ous types of can­cer, res­pi­ra­to­ry dis­eases, coro­nary artery dis­eases, heart attacks, brain strokes, and arthri­tis.
• Air pol­lu­tion not only impacts the res­pi­ra­to­ry sys­tem but can also lead to coro­nary artery dis­eases, brain strokes, and arthri­tis.
• Air pol­lu­tion has the poten­tial to trig­ger anx­i­ety and dam­age the brain and heart, regard­less of age, if ade­quate pre­cau­tions are not tak­en.

Severe air pol­lu­tion in NCR has raised sig­nif­i­cant health con­cerns, with experts high­light­ing its far-reach­ing impact on var­i­ous health con­di­tions. The imple­men­ta­tion of Stage IV of the GRAP reflects the urgency of address­ing the dete­ri­o­rat­ing air qual­i­ty in the region.

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