Air quality improves, at ‘moderate to poor’

New Delhi: Delhi’s air quality improved on Sunday due to dispersion of pollutants and rapidly decreased the pollution level to “moderate to poor” category from the “severe plus” for the first time in six days, monitoring agencies said.

According to the data by Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the PM10 level (presence of particles with diameter less than 10 mm) was recorded at 339 in Delhi-NCR and 343 in Delhi on Sunday.

The pollution level that dipped to “severe plus” state on Tuesday came down to “moderate to poor” category on Sunday due to rapid dispersion of pollutants, the Centre-run System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research institute (Safar) said.

The dispersion of pollutants has become faster after the local winds picked up speed, which in turn has rapidly decreased the pollution level and improved air quality, said Gufran Beig, a scientist at the Safar, adding that the air quality is expected to improve further.

The PM10 level had climbed to 778 in Delhi-NCR area and 824 in Delhi on Wednesday, bringing to light that severe pollution could be a “summer-time problem” too.

The PM10 between 0-100 is considered “good”, 101-250 “moderate ”, 251-350 “poor”, 351-430 “very poor” and 431-550 “severe”.

The PM2.5 level (presence of particles with diameter less than 2.5 mm) that deteriorated from “very poor” to “severe” has now come to “moderate to poor” category. It was 98 in Delhi-NCR and Delhi on Sunday, the CPCB data said.

The PM2.5 between 0-60 is considered “good”, 61-90 “moderate ”, 91-120 “poor”, 121-250 very poor  and 251-350 “severe”.

There was a dip in the air quality level on Tuesday due to dust storms in western India, particularly Rajasthan, which increased coarser particles in the air, it added.