Capital unable to shed its post-firecracker shroud

The national capital on Tuesday remained locked in the shackles of an oppressive smog two days after Diwali, with a combination of low temperatures, overcast skies and calm winds keeping the remnants from Sunday’s unfettered firecracker-burning trapped in the city’s air, pushing the air quality index (AQI) to the cusp of the deep red “severe” zone.

- Jasjeev Gandhiok

Delhi on Tuesday clocked a 24-hour average air quality index (AQI) of 397 at 4pm, a shade below the severe zone (which starts at a reading of 401) and significantly worse than 358 on Monday, which in turn was much worse than 218 on Diwali evening (Sunday).

Despite this, the city remained shorn of pollution data through much of Tuesday, with data from the 24 Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) air monitoring stations unavailable till 4pm.

As a result, the Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) Sameer app displayed an average AQI for Delhi that was far lower than accurate throughout the day.

The monitors went dark for eight hours, with DPCC attributing it to a “server error”, without giving further details.

To be sure, the monitors were back up by 3pm, and CPCB’s official AQI bulletin took into account data from all the active pollution stations in Delhi, the agency said.

The city is reckoning with a crisis purely of its making, as residents burnt firecrackers relentlessly on Diwali evening in petulant disregard of the Supreme Court’s directives and pushed the city’s air pollution up to noxious levels, overriding even favourable weather conditions. This meant that the city ended up squandering one of the best run-ups it had to Diwali in recent memory, and residents were left with pollution levels that were among the worst in recent years.