In 2018 the Supreme Court of India had banned the use of conventional firecrackers in a last ditch measure to curb air pollution in Delhi-NCR. Only green crackers were allowed and there was a 2-hour window to burst crackers.
However, a day after Diwali the air quality index has dropped to ‘very poor’. The Supreme Court order was violated by several people who burst crackers before and after the specified time limit. There is also no way to find out if they were green crackers or the conventionally used crackers.
A day after Diwali The Quint went to various location between 5:00 am and 8:00 am across Delhi and Noida to check the AQI and PM 2.5 levels. Healthy AQI ranges from 0-50. Anything above 300 is hazardous. Here’s the ratings of five locations recorded between 5:00 am-8:00 am.
NITHARI, NOIDA
AQI: 431 ; PM 2.5: 390
SECTOR 25, NOIDA
AQI:410 ; PM 2.5: 344
LAJPAT NAGAR, DELHI
AQI: 360 ; PM 2.5: 303
SANT NAGAR, DELHI
AQI: 360 ; PM 2.5: 300
NORTH CAMPUS, DELHI
AQI: 412 ; PM 2.5: 348
In 2018, after Diwali Delhi’s AQI had shot up to more than 600. This year Delhi seems to have fared much better but there’s still a long way to go before the city gets to breathe in clean air.
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