As residents celebrated Deepavali by bursting firecrackers late into Sunday night, data from the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) showed that pollution levels in some parts of the city were nearly 120 times the prescribed limit of the World Health Organization (WHO).
As per DPCC data, the level of the key pollutant PM2.5 — particulate matter that is 2.5 microns or less in diameter — at Patparganj as of 1 a.m. on Monday was 1,856 micrograms per cubic metre. This is about 123 times the WHO’s permissible limit of 15 micrograms per cubic metre for 24 hours.
At Dwarka, the PM2.5 level was 1,396 micrograms per cubic metre as of 1 a.m. — almost 93 times the WHO limit.
Problem worsens
Violation of the Supreme Court’s order against bursting firecrackers on Deepavali, followed by a spike in air pollution the next day, is a regular occurrence in Delhi. The daily Central Pollution Control Board bulletin showed that the Air Quality Index (AQI) reading for Monday, as measured at 4 p.m., was in the ‘very poor’ category at 358 as against 218 on Sunday.
This was higher than last year’s post-Deepavali AQI count of 302. In the last few years, this reading has been dangerously high — 302 in 2022, 462 in 2021, 435 in 2020, 368 in 2019, 390 in 2018, 403 in 2017, and 445 in 2016.
