Delhi’s air quality deteriorates to ‘very poor’, to get worse

NEW DELHI: Air quality in the national capital region has deteriorated to “very poor” level and will become worse on Saturday as many more fumes from farm fires in Haryana and Punjab are expected to contaminate the atmosphere because of unfavourable wind condition.

Before it deteriorates further, air quality in Delhi is likely to improve a bit on Friday because of higher wind speeds associated with a western disturbance. A change in direction of the wind can bring in much more smoke from the burning of harvest residue, which is also called stubble.

“Thereafter by October 19, fast deterioration in air quality is forecast as there is high probability of significant stubble intrusion,” the earth sciences ministry’s System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (Safar) said in its latest assessment.


The share of “external biomass” or fumes from farm fires in Delhi’s air is currently about 8%, but it is forecast to rise to 18% by Saturday. The main pollutant in the air is PM 2.5, or minute particles, which are extremely dangerous. The US embassy’s monitoring system classified the air quality as “very unhealthy”.

Delhi’s air quality is suffering due to Dussehra smoke and active stubble burning in Punjab, Haryana and parts of Uttar Pradesh. However, the dominant factor for the increase at this stage is changing local weather conditions rather than external intrusion, according to Safar.

Air quality in Delhi started deteriorating on October 10, when the Southwest Monsoon started withdrawing from the country’s mainland.