• Delhi’s air turns toxic on Diwali, air quality drops to ‘hazardous’ category

    National
    Delhi’s air turns toxic on Diwali, air quality drops to ‘hazardous’ category

    New Delhi: The air quality in the national capital reached ‘hazardous’ category on Friday following the festival of Diwali. The ban on firecrackers went for a toss on Thursday and Friday as the air saw pollutants enveloping the entire city.





    Despite the ban on firecrackers by the Kejriwal government, many were seen bursting crackers on streets and societies contributing to the degradation of the air facet, amid increased contribution from farm fires. The concentrations of Pollution Meter (PM) 2.5 stood at 655.07 in Janpath today morning.





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    As per the Centre-run System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR), the air quality in Delhi will not improve until Sunday evening (November 7). The improvement would, however, just fluctuate in the 'Very Poor' category.





    SAFAR stated, "The overall air quality of Delhi is plunged into the upper end of very poor category. It will continue to fall now and may enter at the edge of the 'very poor' to 'severe' category by tonight. If firecrackers are burned even 50 per cent of last year then PM2.5 will enter 'sever' category by midnight and shoot up rapidly by today early morning with AQI even crossing 500+."