New Delhi: The pollution levels in Delhi NCR and several cities across India turned severe post-Diwali but were a tad better thanks to the SC enforced cracker ban with many sensible citizens and especially kids promoting the green Diwali.
According to data accessed by NewsMobile the Air Quality Index (AQI) value on Thursday in Delhi was 319, which is ‘very poor’; while the AQI for last year on Diwali was ‘severe’ at 431, data sourced from AQICN revealed.
The pollutants had violated the corresponding 24-hour safe limits of 60 and 100 respectively, by up to 10 times.
While it is difficult to quantify the immediate effect of the ban on firecrackers, residents across the national capital felt the beginning was promising with neighbourhoods reporting much lesser noise and smoke till about 6 pm, compared to the previous years.
But as the festivities picked up, the faint echoes of crackers started growing louder.
According to the SAFAR (System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research), the 24-hour rolling average of PM2.5 and PM10 were 154 and 256 micrograms per cubic metre respectively, at around 11 pm on Thursday.
Mumbai
Even the financial capital was also affected by Diwali where the air quality has reported an AQI of ‘hazardous’ at 410, and PM 2.5 at as high as 535 on Friday morning. The city witnessed very high levels of PM 2.5 at 535 on Friday morning. Last year Mumbai had recorded AQI 278 on Diwali compared to AQI of 305 this year.
