On Monday, a dense and noxious haze, commonly known as smog, engulfed Delhi with the air quality dropping to ‘severe’ at several monitoring stations across the national capital.
At the Anand Vihar station, PM 10 and PM 2.5 levels were at 421, while the ozone plunged to 190 in the ‘moderate’ category and CO was at 95, according to CPCB.
Bawana station recorded PM 2.5 at 432 and PM 10 at 366 in the ‘severe’ and ‘very poor’ category respectively, while CO levels were at 94 and NO2 at 28.
In Dwarka sector-8 station, PM 2.5 reached 425 and PM 10 was at 405, both classified as ‘severe’ with CO at 110.
At Indira Gandhi International Airport T3 area, air quality was ‘very poor’ with PM 2.5 at 372, PM 10 at 316, and CO at 111.
At ITO station, PM 2.5 levels were at 500, PM 10 at 435, and NO2 at 290, all falling under the ‘severe’ and ‘poor’ category.
Jahangirpuri and Okhla Phase-II also recorded high levels of PM 2.5 and PM 10, placing them in the ‘severe’ category with moderate levels of CO and NO2.
According to the Air Quality Index (AQI), any reading between zero and 50 is considered ‘good’; 51 and 100 fall under the ‘satisfactory’ category; 101 and 200 are ‘moderate’; 201 and 300 are ‘poor’; 301 and 400 are ‘very poor’; and 401 and 500 are classified as ‘severe’.