Smoke house Delhi gasps on seventh ‘severe’ air day this month | India News

NEW DELHI: The capital recorded its seventh ‘severe’ air day this November after the Air Quality Index (AQI) rose to 401 on Wednesday – from 397, the upper end of ‘very poor’ category, on Tuesday. The city has also witnessed five ‘very poor’ air days this month so far, according to the CPCB. Last November, there were just three ‘severe’ days (AQI above 400).
Incidents of stubble burning that worsen Delhi’s pollution surpassed the 30,000-mark this season in Punjab with 2,544 fresh farm fires reported on Wednesday – the second highest in a single day this season.

Satellites detected 62 farm fires in Haryana and 49 in Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday. The share of stubble burning in Delhi’s PM2.5 was estimated at 23.32% on Wednesday. In this season, the highest farm fires in a single day were reported on November 5 at 3,230. However, the highest per day counts recorded in 2022 were 3,916 on November 11 in Punjab. From September 15 to November 15, Punjab has witnessed 30,661 stubble burning counts this year as opposed to 45,464 in 2022. During the same period, Haryana recorded 1,940 farm fires in 2023 and 3,149 in 2022. In contrast, UP has seen a rise in paddy residue burning events during the same period from 1,457 incidents in 2022 to 2,057 in 2023.
As wind direction is likely to shift from north-westerly to easterly, the contribution of biomass burning in Delhi’s PM2.5 is predicted to reduce to 11.72% on Thursday and further to 4.74% on Friday.
Watch Air pollution update: National Capital clocks ‘severe’ AQI