Heavy rainfall combined with consecutive lockdowns has significantly brought down the pollution level in the national capital. On Thursday, as Delhi received heavy rainfall due to the impact of Cyclone Tauktae, the air quality index (AQI) dropped below 50 at several places during the first half of the day.
Although, the overall AQI for Thursday was recorded at 58, which accounts for satisfactory, but still this was the city’s lowest AQI so far this year.
While the AQI in parts of East Delhi drifted below the 100-mark that falls in the ‘moderate’ category, some parts of North, South and West Delhi recorded AQI reading below 100. Apart from this, Ghaziabad, which always topped the list of bad air quality last year, the AQI was recorded at 38, making the city fall in the ‘good’ category.
The air quality in Gurugram as well was hovering between 5-29 in several parts, which is also in the ‘good’ category.
The major reason behind the falling pollution in the capital is the series of lockdowns that the city underwent in order to curb the spread of COVID-19 infections. It is being estimated that the current situation of ‘good air quality’ is likely to continue for several days.
The air quality got improved to ‘good’ across the national capital region last year as well because of the minimal vehicular movement on the roads and the industries and construction work shut due to the nationwide lockdown during the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic.
However, the pollution level usually gets down during the rainy season and therefore it is expected that the AQI levels of Delhi will stay in moderate categories as monsoon is likely to hit Delhi by June-end.