Itchy throats, watery eyes: Post Diwali, air quality turns ‘hazardous’ in India’s national capital Delhi

A thick and heavy acrid smog engulfed the residents of India’s national capital Delhi and surrounding regions on Friday, a day after people blatantly disregarded the government’s ban and burst firecrackers.

Several people complained of itchy throat and watery eyes as a thick layer of smog lingered over the region.

On Friday morning, the air quality entered the ‘hazardous’ category, according to the Ministry Earth Sciences’ SAFAR-India application.  On Thursday night, the air quality had entered the severe zone around 8 pm as low temperature and wind speed allowed the accumulation of pollutants.

The concentration of Particulate Matter 2.5, which is considered harmful for human health, stood at 774.69 at 3am on Friday. The average AQI for the city touched an alarming 1645 around 1am.

The neighbouring cities of Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon and Noida also recording ‘severe’ air quality with crackers burst peaking after 9 pm.

Experts said the air quality turned severe owing to unfavourable meteorological conditions —calm winds, low temperature and low mixing height —and a poisonous cocktail of emissions from firecrackers, stubble burning and local sources.

According to the SAFAR forecasting, the air quality is not likely to improve until Sunday.

“The improvement would, however, just fluctuate in the `Very Poor` category."The overall air quality of Delhi is plunged into the upper end of very poor category...It will continue to fall now and may enter at the edge of the "very poor" to "severe" category by tonight...," it said.

“If firecrackers are burned even 50 per cent of last year then PM2.5 will enter `severe` category by midnight and shoot up rapidly by today early morning with AQI even crossing 500+,” it added.

The authorities had predicted that pollution levels would shoot up in Delhi with the share of stubble burning in the national capital's pollution rising to 25 per cent on the day of Diwali itself.