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

The Air Quality Index (AQI) in the national capital was at 366 --'very poor'-- at 8 am, according to SAFAR

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.

Officials at the department said temperatures in Delhi are expected to rise from Monday, bringing the city respite from the high pollution,

Delhi this morning was the world's third most polluted city with an AQI of 283, said IQAir, a website that tracks air quality worldwide.

Preliminary data from a month-long experiment has shown that indoor air pollution levels were nearly half of the outdoor levels in Delhi-NCR during November-December so far.

Air pollution costs Indian businesses $95 billion or roughly 3 per cent of its GDP every year, according to U.K.-based non-profit Clean Air Fund and the Confederation of Indian Industry, Bloomberg has reported.