The overall Air Quality Index of Delhi at 8:15 am was recorded at 428.
Thick blanket of smog and fog have shrouded the national capital after the country celebrated the festival of light- Diwali. According to the autonomous meteorological body set up under the Union Ministry of Earth Sciences, SAFAR, the overall Air Quality Index of Delhi at 8:15 am was recorded at 428, which falls under the 'hazardous' category.
An AQI between 0-50 is considered good, 51-100 is satisfactory, 101-200 moderate, 201-300 poor, 301-400 very poor and 401-500 is marked as severe/hazardous.
At Dhirpur, the AQI was 724 at 8:30 am, while in Mathura Road area it dipped to 'very poor' category at 625. The quality of air in Pitampura, Airport, Terminal 3 and Delhi University stood at 679, 481 and 801 respectively. The haze and smog will continue to persist during the early morning and late evenings for the next couple of days.
On Friday, the humidity level in Delhi was 100 per cent with visibility 0.5 miles.
According to a report published by a research group Urban Emissions, as much as 5 million kilograms of firecrackers were burnt in the region leading to an emission of 150,000 kilograms of Particulate Matter (PM) 2.5 despite the Supreme Court's order stating that bursting of firecrackers will only be allowed from 8 pm to 10 pm on Diwali.
Experts believe that not only the burning of crackers has been responsible for the deteriorating air quality but replacement of moderate winds with light and calm winds, low temperatures, increased humidity levels are also contributing in increasing the toxicity in the air by a considerable figure.