Delhi AQI now in poor category at 331
Delhi’s average air quality index on Sunday continued to be in ‘very poor’ zone with a reading of 331, according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).
Delhi’s average air quality index on Sunday continued to be in ‘very poor’ zone with a reading of 331, according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).
The Graded Response Action Plan or GRAP is categorized into four stages – Stage I, Stage II, Stage III and IV.
The air quality in Gurugram also remained in the 'poor' category as the city recorded an AQI of 228. While the AQI in Noida was recorded at 201, which was in the poor zone. In IIT Delhi, the AQI was 197 marginally little away from the poor category.
There was no mechanism in place to enforce the Environment Protection Act. In a vast country like India and in a federal set up, a law cannot be imposed unilaterally. In the final analysis, it is the States who are the main stakeholders and are primarily responsible for the protection of forests and environment. It was as complicated an affair as the introduction of a single tax like the GST
Centre government is highlighting the issue of stubble burning to divert people's attention from the unfortunate incident that took place in Gujarat (Morbi rope bridge tragedy), they said.
The national capital witnessed a dip in pollution levels on Saturday morning even as the air quality in the city remained in the "severe" category.
The forecast also said that the drizzle delayed the recovery and improvement to the ‘very poor’ category is now expected only by Sunday.
Delhi’s air quality index (AQI) is at emergency levels again on Wednesday with an overall count of 476 and not much relief is expected for the next two days till Friday.
While overall AQI is in the severe category, PM10 count is at 489 and PM2.5 at 326 is also in the severe category.
Delhi, leading the NCR with a combination of adverse factors, has already broken the world record for Air Quality Index (AQI), making the headlines bold and telling. But perhaps waking up will take some time. There is no dearth of authorities who are and were aware of the impending environmental hazard, but instead of a well thought-out long term strategy or some short-term relief our approach appears to be a classic case of ad-hocism. On the other hand, as is well known, the two-stroke two-wheelers and three-wheelers emit far more hazardous mixture of hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides, some of which like Benzene are known to be carcinogenic, but their numbers continue to increase.
