After several days, Delhi records air pollution in 'moderate' category with PM 2.5 at 132

Delhi breathed a little easy on Wednesday morning with air pollution recorded in the 'moderate' category after 40 days of severe pollution.

New Delhi: The national capital breathed a little easy on Wednesday (November 18, 2020) morning with air pollution recorded in the 'moderate' category. The PM 2.5 level in Delhi was registered at 132.  

The change of pollution level is a welcome change after the national capital region reported 'severe' AQI levels for nearly 40 days.

The PM 2.5 recorded at Pusa was 111, at Lodhi road 121, at Delhi University 108, at IGI Airport 173 and at IIT Delhi 139.

In Noida, the PM 2.5 level is at 173 while in Gurugram the PM 2.5 level was recorded at 169.

On November 16, the air quality had improved significantly in Delhi and surrounding areas in Noida, Greater Noida, Ghaziabad and Gurgaon due to light rain and favourable wind speed and was recorded in the 'poor' category after a 15-day spell of 'very poor' and 'severe' air days.

The city's 24-hour average Air Quality Index (AQI) improved to 221 on Nov 16, which falls in the 'poor' category. The AQI recorded on November 15 was 435 and on Nov 14 (Diwali) AQI was 414. 

The last time Delhi's AQI was recorded in the 'poor' category was on November 2. 

Delhi had recorded the worst pollution levels on Diwali in the last four years due to the combined effect of stubble burning, firecrackers and unfavourable meteorological conditions.

The air quality on the day after Diwali was also the poorest since 2016.

An AQI between 201 and 300 is considered 'poor', 301-400 'very poor' and 401-500 'severe', while the AQI above 500 falls in the severe plus category.