Grap 2 enforced, CAQM says air may deteriorate

The federal anti-air pollution agency for the National Capital Region (NCR), Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM), on Saturday enforced measures such as banning use of diesel generators and allowing agencies to charge more for public parking to curb use of private vehicles as the quality recorded a sharp drop on Saturday and was forecast to reach the "very poor" band by Monday.

- Sadia Akhtar

The measures are listed under Stage 2 of the Graded Response Action Plan (Grap) and are enforced at various stages of air pollution, which becomes a crisis during this time of the year.

The decision was based on the forecast by the Early Warning System (EWS) for Delhi-NCR. The system developed by Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology wed the air quality is likely to remain in the poor category on Sunday as well, but it may worsen to very poor on Monday.

On Saturday, the national capital recorded the average air quality index of 248, a sharp increase from 195 on Friday. According to the Central Pollution Control Board's (CPCB) air quality index (AQI), an index value between 0-50 means "good" air quality, 51-100 means "satisfactory", 101-200 signifies "moderate", 201-300 means "poor", 301-400 "very poor" and 401-450 means "severe".

VK Soni, scientist at India Meteorological Department (IMD) and member of the CAQM sub-committee, attributed the declining air quality to calm winds. "The winds are particularly slow now and boundary layer height is shallow. These factors are favourable for accumulation of pollutants. The contribution from stubble burning is still very small, but picking up," said Soni.

Smoke from paddy stubble burning in upwind states of Punjab and Haryana usually becomes pervasive over the region between the last week of October and the first half of November.