New Delhi: Residents in Delhi, Noida, Gurugram and other areas in the national capital region woke up to a blanket of toxic smoke the morning after Diwali, as people defied a ban on firecrackers on Thursday night causing severe noise pollution and reducing visibility.
Several areas, including Lajpat Nagar, Kalkaji, Chhatarpur, Jaunapur, East of Kailash, Saket, Rohini, Dwarka, Punjabi Bagh, Vikaspuri, Dilshad Garden, Burari and many other neighbourhoods of east and west Delhi saw firecrackers being burst.
At 6 am, areas including Burari Crossing (394), Jahangirpuri (387), RK Puram (395), Rohini (385), Ashok Vihar (384), Dwarka Sector 8 (375), IGI Airport (375), Mandir Marg (369), Punjabi Bagh (391), Anand Vihar (395), Siri Fort (373) and Sonia Vihar (392) saw the air quality at the higher end of the ‘very poor’ category and were at risk of reaching the ‘severe’ category, CPCB data showed.
The air quality in Delhi’s Anand Vihar was in the “very poor” category, with an AQI of 395 at 6am on November 1. NCR areas Noida, Ghaziabad and Gurugram recorded AQI levels at 293, 316 and 348, respectively, with the former in the ‘poor’ category while the latter two in the ‘very poor’ category.
The pollution levels at many of the pollution measuring stations of Delhi NCR touched the peak around midnight. While the PM2.5 and PM10 levels dipped significantly after 1 am, they still remain critical. The deterioration started after 5 pm on Thursday, around the time the bursting of firecrackers was reported in the national capital.
Due to the defiance of the cracker ban, PM2.5 levels in several areas soared as high as 900 micrograms per cubic meter – over 15 times the acceptable limit.
At 8 pm, monitoring stations like RK Puram and Jahangirpuri recorded these alarming levels. By 10 pm, other areas, including Nehru Nagar, Patparganj, Ashok Vihar, and Okhla, showed PM2.5 levels between 850–900 micrograms per cubic meter, far exceeding the safety threshold of 60 micrograms per cubic meter.
An AQI between zero and 50 is considered ‘good’, 51 and 100 ‘satisfactory’, 101 and 200 ‘moderate’, 201 and 300 ‘poor’, 301 and 400 ‘very poor’, 401 and 450 ‘severe’ and above 450 ‘severe plus’.
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