Delhi’s brief breath of relief fades as air quality slips back into ‘poor’ zone

Delhi awoke on Monday to a familiar pall, as the city’s air quality slid back into the ‘poor’ category after offering residents a fleeting day of respite in the ‘moderate’ range. The Air Quality Index (AQI) stood at 216, a noticeable deterioration from Sunday’s reading of 189, signalling the return of haze-laden skies over the capital.

Data from the Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) SAMEER app painted a worrying picture by mid-morning. Around 9 am, air quality at 25 monitoring stations across the city had dipped into the ‘poor’ category, while only 12 stations managed to cling to ‘moderate’ levels.

Under CPCB standards, an AQI between zero and 50 is classified as ‘good’, 51 to 100 as ‘satisfactory’, 101 to 200 as ‘moderate’, 201 to 300 as ‘poor’, 301 to 400 as ‘very poor’, and 401 to 500 as ‘severe’ — a scale that Delhi’s residents have come to know all too well.

Weather conditions offered little consolation. The minimum temperature at Safdarjung settled at 9.1 degrees Celsius, about a notch above the seasonal average. The day is expected to remain cool, with the maximum temperature hovering around 23 degrees Celsius, accompanied by a generally cloudy sky and a lingering haze through the daylight hours.

Station-wise readings reflected mild variations across the city. Palam recorded a minimum temperature of 9.8 degrees Celsius, close to normal, while Lodhi Road dipped to 9.4 degrees Celsius, slightly above average. The Ridge registered 10.8 degrees Celsius, marginally below normal, and Ayanagar was the coolest at 8.8 degrees Celsius, two notches below the norm.

As winter loosens its grip only reluctantly, Delhi once again finds itself grappling with the twin burdens of chill mornings and air that is increasingly hard to breathe.

With PTI inputs