Another Toxic Day As Sun Can't Snap Delhi's Severe-Plus Streak

A fourth straight day of "severe" air held Delhi in an unrelenting stranglehold on Tuesday, with residents forced to breath lungfuls of toxins as a bleak sun failed to neutralise the cocktail of slow winds, dipping temperatures and the effect of farm fires in Punjab that kept the Capital sheathed in a grey haze.

- Jasjeev Gandhiok

Delhi logged a 24-hour average air quality index (AQI) of 460 at 4pm on Tuesday, lower than the record 494 clocked on Monday, but still in the "severeplus" classification. An AQI between 401 and 450 is classified as "severe" and 451 and 500 as "severe-plus". The scale is capped at 500.

Experts stressed that such levels of pollutants expose people of all ages to a range of short- and long-term ailments, adding that minor variations within the "severe-plus" range are unlikely to offset any of these dangers.

The city's AQI has been severe on six of the past seven days, shows data from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). It was 441 on Sunday, 417 on Monday, 396 on November 15, 424 on November 14 and 418 on November 13.

The Capital's last such fourday streak of unbroken "severe" air was between November 3 and 6 last year.

Weather forecasters said there would be little respite for the city over at least the next three days, with surface-level winds unlikely to get stronger and disperse any of the accumulated pollutants that have gripped Delhi's air for days now.