New Delhi: Delhi's air quality deteriorated back to the 'very poor' category on Wednesday, as the 24-hour average Air Quality Index (AQI) settled at 313, merely a day after increased wind speed provided a slight improvement, lowering the pollution levels to the 'poor' category.
The transport sector is expected to be the largest contributor to pollution on Wednesday, while the impact of stubble burning is anticipated to increase on Thursday, potentially worsening air quality further over the next few days, according to Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) models.
According to the Air Quality Early Warning System (EWS) for Delhi, the particulate matter concentration in the air - PM2.5 and PM10 - is also set to see an increase for the next two days.
Of the 58 monitoring stations that recorded data on Wednesday, only one station was in the 'severe' category, 34 were in the 'very poor' category, 22 in the 'poor' category and only one in the 'moderate' category.
The air quality monitoring station in the Delhi Cantonment area recorded 'moderate' air quality, with an average AQI of 117.
The city's average AQI deteriorated from 299 on Tuesday to 313 on Wednesday.
According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), an AQI between 0 and 50 is classified as 'good', 51 and 100 as 'satisfactory', 101 and 200 as 'moderate', 201 and 300 as 'poor', 301 and 400 as 'very poor', and 401 and 500 as 'severe'.
PM10 was the predominant pollutant in the national capital on Wednesday.
According to the Decision Support System (DSS) for Delhi, the transport sector is set to be the largest contributor to the city's pollution on Tuesday, accounting for 17 per cent.
In contrast, stubble burning is expected to contribute only 7% on Wednesday, but projections suggest that this contribution could spike to 20% by Thursday. Meanwhile, the contribution from the Delhi transport sector is expected to decrease slightly to 13 per cent by Thursday.
Satellite data on stubble burning revealed that 927 incidents of residue burning were detected across six states on Tuesday.
Of these, 345 incidents were reported in Punjab, 14 in Haryana, 119 in Uttar Pradesh, 64 in Rajasthan, nine in Uttarakhand and 376 in Madhya Pradesh.
A total of 9592 farm-fire incidents have been detected across the six states between September 15 and November 10.
The data was provided by the Consortium for Research on Agroecosystem Monitoring and Modelling from Space (CREAMS) Laboratory of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute in its bulletin.