Delhi’s air quality dips with start of crop burning in neighbouring states

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NEW DELHI: Delhi’s air quality dropped on October 9 to unhealthy from moderate on October 7. The increase in AQI is due to low wind speed and burning of agricultural waste in Punjab and Haryana.

On October 8, 2018, the Delhi government issued a statement raising concerns regarding stubble burning in neighboring states and that NASA satellite images indicate sudden spike in open burning cases as compared to last week.

The System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR) claims that air quality will dip further on October 10, 2018 and will stay in ‘poor’ category. The air quality is expected to drop further on October 11and will reach ‘very poor’ category.

The average air quality in past ten days of the current year (September 26-October 5) was176.1.

Imran Hussain, Environment Minister of Delhi, said, “In case effective steps to mitigate the menace of stubble burning are not initiated by the respective state governments, the Delhi government may be left with no other option but to knock on the doors of appropriate courts of law to seek their intervention.”