Air quality remains severe as AQI crosses 500-mark in Delhi, 600 in Noida

Delhi-NCR air pollution typically worsens in October and November due to farmers burning off stubble and coal-fired power plants in surrounding states, traffic fumes and windless days.

New Delhi: The increased pollution in the Delhi-NCR region is showing no sign of improvement as the AQI continued to remain at 'severe' category even on Friday (November 6, 2020).

The AQI level at several places in Delhi remained above 500. The highest AQI was recorded in the area near IIT Delhi with AQI at 563. The overall pollution level in Delhi was recorded at 486 which includes other pollutants besides PM 2.5 particles. This is the worst air quality recorded in the city since November 14, 2019.

On Thursday, the national capital recorded the concentration of poisonous PM2.5 particles at 14 times over the World Health Organisation safe limit.

In Noida, the pollution level was even worse than Delhi with AQI going up to 610 as per SAFAR data. The Noida Authority on Thursday said it has slapped penalties worth Rs 2.63 lakh on entities that were found violating anti-air pollution guidelines here.

On the other hand, Gurugram recorded AQI at 462 on Friday. 

The pollution in Delhi and surrounding cities today broke the record of this season. For the last 48 hours, the condition of these cities is so bad that you cannot breathe properly. The pollution has also eclipsed Sun and there is no sunshine in Delhi.

The pollution effect has now also reached Uttar Pradesh's capital city Lucknow as the AQI level crossed 350-mark here. The increased smog caused health issues to the residents of Lucknow as people compliant of burning sensation in eyes.

Notably, an AQI between zero and 50 is considered "good", 51 and 100 "satisfactory", 101 and 200 "moderate", 201 and 300 "poor", 301 and 400 "very poor", and 401 and 500 "severe"