Delhi AQI today: Hazardous air continues to choke Delhi, with several areas breaching ‘severe’ mark

Delhi AQI

Delhi’s air quality remained in the ‘severe’ category for a second day on Wednesday, with several monitoring stations recording hazardous levels of pollution that breached the 400-mark.

The overall Air Quality Index (AQI) for the capital registered at 325, a reading that signifies a significant health risk to the public. The situation was particularly dire in areas such as Holambi Khurd Village and Narela, where AQI levels hit 410, placing them in the most severe band of the scale. Other severely affected zones included Aerocity (340) and Bawana (328), as per a report by The Indian Express.

The AQI scale categorises air quality from ‘Good’ to ‘Severe’, with readings between 401 and 500 considered the most hazardous. The data, recorded at 7 am, revealed a grim picture across the metropolis, with at least ten other stations, including Anand Vihar (337), Ashok Vihar (318) and Sukhdev Vihar (335), logging ‘very poor’ to ‘severe’ conditions.

The pollution crisis extended beyond Delhi’s borders into the National Capital Region (NCR). Ghaziabad recorded a ‘very poor’ AQI of 345, while Noida and Greater Noida registered 349 and 339 respectively.

Conditions varied within these cities; Noida's Sector 1 area showed a slightly better, though still ‘poor’, AQI of 227, while Sector 62 had a ‘moderate’ reading of 172. In Gurugram, air quality near Vikas Sadan was ‘very poor’ at 300, but improved to a ‘poor’ 263 near Sector 51.

In response to the escalating environmental emergency, civic authorities have intensified mitigation efforts. Truck-mounted water sprinklers and other dust-control measures are being deployed across the city in an attempt to suppress particulate matter and curb the rising pollution levels.