Gurgaon: The city’s skyline, its glossy corporate offices, highrises and multi-crore condominiums, was absent from view as air quality on Monday plummeted to ‘severe’ for the first time this season.
The city’s average air quality index (AQI) rose 159 points in 24 hours, from 310 (very poor) on Sunday to 469 (severe) on Monday. Meteorologists said calm winds and colder weather trapped pollutants over Delhi-NCR, creating a dome of smog over the region.
According to data by the central govt’s weather forecasting agency SAFAR, farm fires contributed almost 40% of the pollution in Delhi. Experts said the remaining share was that of emissions from vehicles and dust pollution.
“The region has been witnessing a high influx of biomass from Punjab and other districts of Haryana, where paddy stubble is being burnt. These farm fires could decrease over the next few days, but this will not clear up the skies because local sources are still adding pollutants into the air,” said Sunil Dahiya, founder and lead analyst at think-tank Enviro-Catalysts.
On Monday, the air quality monitoring station in Gwalpahari recorded the highest AQI — at 494. Vikas Sadan was at 462 and Teri Gram at 452. Despite being in the middle of an annual public health crisis, readings were not available at the Sector 51 station. Neighbouring cities weren’t any better.
Delhi’s 24-hour AQI was 494, Noida’s was 423 and Ghaziabad’s was 438 on Monday – all ‘severe’. Air quality was slightly better in Faridabad, though still very poor (367).
Concentrations of particulate matter 2.5, which can get embedded into the lungs when inhaled, reached hazardous levels on Monday. It was 416 µg/m3 at Gwalpahari, more than 120 times the level considered safe according to the World Health Organization (WHO). At Vikas Sadan, this reading was 374 µg/m3 and at Sector 51 station, it was 321 µg/m3.
The larger problem, experts said, was that measures to cut pollution weren’t taken in time even though ‘severe’ air quality was an annual winter feature.
“Once again, residents are enduring the harsh reality of severely polluted air. It’s easy to blame stubble burning and meteorology, but the larger issue lies in the delayed implementation of pollution control measures under GRAP,” said Manoj Kumar, analyst at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).
The Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology had forecast ‘severe’ air quality for Delhi-NCR in mid-Nov. Even then, Kumar said, GRAP 3 was not implemented in time.
“This delay meant that critical actions to curb emissions were postponed. Eventually, GRAP 3 was enforced on Nov 14 and GRAP 4 on Nov 18, when air quality was already bad. Such reactive measures are insufficient,” Kumar said.
As the public health crisis worsened, the Commission For Air Quality Management (CAQM) on Monday halted all construction work, even for public infrastructure projects, in NCR to impose the fourth stage of Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP).
Other GRAP restrictions include a ban on the use of BS IV petrol and diesel vehicles, and all trucks except those carrying essential goods. According to the norms, NCR govts can order offices to work from home and call off in-person classes for younger students.
Kumar said it was too late for any of the measures to work now. “Enforcement of GRAP remains inconsistent, and the lack of publicly available data to track implementation measures and their outcomes undermines accountability. The way forward should focus on more impactful GRAP action points that directly target emissions at their source,” he said. Met department officials warned that weather and wind speed are unlikely to change for at least a week.
“We expect this situation to persist for the next couple of days, with visibility remaining low and air quality deteriorating further. As there is no forecast of strong northwest disturbance, any immediate relief is unlikely,” an official of the IMD said.
Experts said a combination of factors — high local and regional pollution levels, harvest stubble fires, unfavourable meteorological conditions, including calm winds, dense fog, low temperature and inversion — caused AQI to spike. On Monday, Punjab reported 1,251 new farm fires, making it the season’s highest tally in a single day. The count was 36 in Haryana, 133 in UP, 152 in Rajasthan and 639 in Madhya Pradesh. The contribution of stubble burning to Delhi’s PM2.5 was 25.1% on Saturday, but data was unavailable for Sunday and Monday.
Meanwhile, Delhi’s AQI on Monday was 494 on a scale of 500 at 4pm, the worst reading this season and the second highest since AQI began to be recorded in 2015.
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