Delhi air quality ‘very poor’, pollution predicted to improve this week

Delhi air was toxic on Monday as a state monitoring system predicted the pollution to get worse until Tuesday due to firecracker emissions and the cold.

The city’s Air Quality Index (AQI) was at 366 --'very poor'-- at 8 am, according to the Ministry of Earth Sciences' air quality forecast agency SAFAR. Readings below 50 are considered safe, while anything above 300 is considered hazardous or 'severe'. On Sunday, Delhi’s 24-hour average AQI was 404.

Scientists at the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said that Sunday’s AQI spike was due to accumulated pollutants over the last two days, caused by combination of low temperatures and crackers on New Year’s Eve and January 1, 'Hindustan Times' reported.