Delhi AQI remains ‘very poor’ at 367; rain may bring marginal relief in coming days

Delhi's air quality stayed in the "very poor" bracket on Saturday, though the India Meteorological Department noted that upcoming rainfall could bring marginal relief over the next few days.

The capital recorded a 24-hour average Air Quality Index (AQI) of 367—a slight dip from Friday's reading of 373—keeping it firmly in the "very poor" range. Both the Air Quality Early Warning System (AQEWS) and the Air Quality Early Warning System (EWS) for Delhi forecast modest improvements ahead, noting that PM2.5 and PM10 levels are expected to drop over the next 48 hours.

Across the 59 active monitoring stations reporting data on Saturday:

• 17 recorded "severe" levels
• 38 fell into the "very poor" range
• 3 registered as "poor"
• 1 was in the "moderate" zone

Per Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) standards, AQI readings are categorized as "good" (0–50), "satisfactory" (51–100), "moderate" (101–200), "poor" (201–300), "very poor" (301–400), and "severe" (401–500).

Key pollution drivers

• Primary Pollutant: PM10 was the main pollutant affecting the national capital on Saturday.
• Sectoral Breakdown: Data from the Decision Support System (DSS) indicated that vehicular transport was the top contributor to Delhi's pollution at 20.5%, followed by stubble burning at 13.3%.

Regional farm-fire data

A bulletin from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute's Consortium for Research on Agroecosystem Monitoring and Modelling from Space (CREAMS) Laboratory reported 537 satellite-detected crop residue-burning incidents across six states on Saturday:

• Madhya Pradesh: 246
• Punjab: 214
• Uttar Pradesh: 33
• Rajasthan: 33
• Haryana: 11

Between September 15 and November 13, satellites tracked a cumulative total of 11,342 farm fires across these regions.