Guwahati: While New Delhi welcomed rain a couple of days back that brought the air quality index (AQI) down, Diwali — the festival of lights — has again elevated the pollution in the national capital region (NCR) and it topped in terms of the most polluted city across the world.
Two more cities of the country also joined in — Mumbai and Kolkata — with the former coming sixth and the latter placed in the seventh position.
Delhi had an air quality index (AQI) figure of 407, putting it in the “hazardous” category, according to the Swiss group IQAir.
Mumbai had an AQI of 157 whereas Kolkata had an AQI of 154.
An AQI level of 400-500 impacts healthy people and is dangerous to those with existing diseases, while a level of 150-200 brings discomfort to people with asthma, lung and heart problems. Levels of 0-50 are considered good.
As every year on the Diwali night, the capital region turned worse in terms of pollution. A thick layer of smog began to circulate in New Delhi from Sunday night, sending its AQI to an alarming 680 a little after midnight.
Year after year there are bans have been imposed by the authorities and lawmakers but still people seem to hardly care about this and the result has been quite dangerous in the last couple of years during the winter season in the NCR.