It is not news that the air in Delhi has gone worse ever since the weather started to get cold. And with Diwali being a major weather hazard and less of a celebratory event, Delhi’s air is most likely to be significantly polluted that the previous two years.
The Central Pollution Control Board's air quality index reading was 397 on Friday. The "severe" level begins from 400. But the worse may lie ahead as the model run by SAFAR indicates that the air quality of Delhi will be under “severe” zone.
SAFAR said that the PM2.5 particulate concentration in the air on Diwali is likely to be around 322 micrograms per cubic meters. This level is going to persist when there is no further addition in the pollutant level s from firecrackers. But Diwali has become synonymous to bursting firecrackers, so levels of pollutants in air are likely to go high up.
Check out the live status of air pollution level across Delhi here.
The PM 2.5 particulate concentration is likely to be lower areas of the "severe" zone, if firecrackers emissions were to reduce by about 50%.
To give you a perspective, the PM2.5 level was 217 micrograms per cubic meter on Diwali last year. And same PM 2.5 level was 260 in 2014. So this Diwali even with the no firecrackers bursting, the pollution levels have crossed and jumped in the “severe” category.
The share of PM2.5 in PM 10 may increase by up to 20% after Diwali. The PM2.5 is a component of PM10, usually their share is about 50% of PM10 emissions but during Diwali it may go up 70%. All depends on the wind speed, if these is any increases in the wind speed in next couple of days then there are chances of that the air quality may better dramatically.
Noida is likely to experience the highest pollution followed by PUSA, Delhi University, Mathura road, Palam, Dhirpur, Aya Nagar and Lodhi road.
Image Credit: Millenium