New Delhi: The National Capital Region (NCR), which is considered to be among the world’s most polluted area, will soon have a common air quality index based on data from around 50 monitoring stations located across Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan. Currently, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and the ministry of earth sciences (MoES) put out separate air quality indexes, while the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) shares real-time data.
By October, data from the monitoring stations coming under these agencies will be integrated and a common AQI, which is essentially an advisory for common people on the level of pollution.
“This will help cut through the confusion and an accurate picture of the air quality status will emerge. Currently, there are days when AQI of CPCB does not match with that of SAFAR, which comes under the MoES,” a member of the Supreme Court-appointed Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA) said.
The air quality index or AQI is basically a figure and a series of colour codings shared by agencies.
An AQI between 0-50 is considered ‘good,’ 51-100 ‘satisfactory,’ 101-200 ‘moderate,’ 201-300 ‘poor,’ 301-400 ‘very poor,’ and 401-500 ‘severe.’ Each category comes with its own advisory. In case of ‘moderate,’ it warns of breathing discomfort to people with lungs, asthma, and heart diseases while ‘severe’ means the air quality is so bad that it may affect even healthy people. Currently, the DPCC operates six stations, SAFAR has 10 and the CPCB runs another 10 in these states.
