As was expected, the air quality in the national capital deteriorated alarmingly with the pollution levels reaching as much as 23 times higher than normal. Project director of SAFAR Dr Gufran Beig said, “In all likelihood, air quality this Diwali is going to be inferior compared to past year, primarily due to weather factors”.
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The IGI Airport station of System of Air Quality, Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR) showed a severe reading of PM 2.5 and PM 10 at 325 microgram per cubic metre and 452 microgram per cubic metre respectively at around 3 pm. With or without firecrackers, the residents of Delhi have been longing to breathe free for while now.
Pollution levels in Delhi have been touching risky levels for the past 10 days with the burning of paddy crop residue in nearby farming regions adding to pollution levels already made high by heavy traffic movement. While these have been the peak levels and they’re often not in contrast with ambient air requirements, specialists stated the peaks mirror how poor the air actually turned and the havoc crackers can play.
Delhi has been covered with smog since the last two weeks.
Officials said safe limits for PM 2.5 is around 60 micrograms per cubic metre while it is 100 micrograms per cubic metre for PM 10.
The ministry’s monitoring agency forecast a range from PM2.5 levels of 281-430 micrograms per cubic metre and PM10 of 620-965 micrograms per cubic meter as daily averages on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Particles less than 2.5 (PM2.5) microns are more unsafe because these can penetrate deeper into the lungs and enter the bloodstream. This is the reason we organized Diwali celebrations and taught children to decorate using flowers. According to their evaluation, this yr its cooler than final Diwali which was in October main to the boundary layer or the bottom a part of environment coming additional down and trapping pollution very shut to the floor.
The forecast is based on the assumption that the same number of crackers will be burst this year. With air quality hovering at a critical level in the last few weeks, the Delhi government has been running an anti-firecracker campaign, as a result of which the capital’s major firecracker sellers have reported a sharp drop in sales.
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If you’re stuck in Delhi, you can prepare for the pollution in several ways.
