The national capital reeled under the ‘very poor’ air quality for the third consecutive day. The city’s residents struggled to breathe
easy in the toxic air on Tuesday with the average Air Quality Index (AQI) recording a rise by 24 points.

According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), average AQI here on Tuesday measured 376. The city witnessed fog and mist in the morning with smog, while the sky was mainly clear later during the day, according to the Met Department forecast.

The highest AQI in Delhi was recorded at Bawana 428, followed by Mundka 417, Punjabi Bagh 407 and Jahangirpuri 405, Nehru Nagar 401, Rohini and Wazirpur at 400.

Five areas in the city recorded air quality in the ‘severe’ zone.

However, based on predictions on weather in the upcoming days, the air quality will not be stepping into ‘severe’ category for now, Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai said while speaking to a news agency on Tuesday.

According to the pollution monitoring agency, the primary pollutant responsible for making the city air unfit continued to be PM 2.5.

The pollution figures released by the pollution control agency on Tuesday were based on readings from 36 air quality monitoring stations across the city.

There are a total of 40 such air quality measuring stations across the national capital functioning under agencies like Delhi Pollution Control Committee, CPCB and others.

Meanwhile, adjoining cities of Delhi including Gurugram, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Noida, Greater Noida, Rohtak and Bahadurgarh also reeled under toxic air falling in the ‘very poor’ category.

As per the CPCB, the AQI levels ranging between 0- 50 falls under the ‘good’ category, 101- 200 is considered ‘satisfactory,’ while 201- 300 marks the ‘poor’ category, 301- 400 very poor, 401- 450 ‘severe’ and above 450 is the alarming ‘severe plus’ level.

Meanwhile, the toxic air had initially witnessed improvement on Saturday taking a step down from ‘severe’ level.

On Monday, schools reopened in Delhi after the early winter break that was announced due to air pollution that had touched severe levels that were constant for a while earlier in the month.

Restrictions under the Graded Response Action Plan stages I, II and III continue to be in force across the city, along with several other measures underway by the Delhi government to curb pollution.