The air quality in Gurgaon nosedived to hazardous levels on Thursday morning, with the Air Quality Index touching 700 at 8:30 AM, according to AQI.in. The city was covered by thick smog, which drastically reduced visibility and triggered health concerns amongst its residents.
Social media was filled with screenshots showing AQI readings as high as 899 around 7:00 AM. Many users urged authorities to declare a health emergency and shut schools and offices.
One X user wrote, “Gurugram AQI is more than 800 today. It's hazardous for my kid to go out to attend school. As a parent, I request to close down schools.”
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As per a report by the Mint, AQI.in noted that the city's pollution level equated to smoking almost 9.8 cigarettes a day.
Delhi Air Quality also 'hazardous'
Similar conditions prevailed in the national capital, with its AQI recorded at 705 at 9:00 AM. More than a dozen monitoring stations recorded ‘hazardous’ readings, such as Burari, Anand Vihar, Aerocity and Bawana.
The data from Decision Support System (DSS) indicated that vehicular emissions contributed 16.8% to Delhi's PM2.5 levels, whereas unidentified sources constituted nearly 44%. The report also stated that the Air Quality Early Warning System also cast that wind speeds may plummet below 10 kmph during the evening, thereby deteriorating the pollution levels further.
Stubble burning adds to the crisis
Satellite data from Wednesday showed 94 farm fire cases in Punjab, 13 in Haryana, and 74 in Uttar Pradesh - a key factor behind rising PM2.5 concentrations in the region. According to experts, such conditions trap pollutants closer to the ground, aggravating the smog situation across Delhi-NCR.
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Noida and Jaipur also affected
The AQI in Noida was above 600 on Thursday, which falls under the ‘hazardous’ category. Meanwhile, Jaipur in Rajasthan, about four hours from Delhi, recorded an AQI of 180, which is ‘unhealthy’ and also about 1.6 times higher than the state average.
