The blanket of haze over Delhi thickened on Friday morning with the national capital's pollution levels increasing overnight by around 50 points, taking to ‘severe’ levels with the overall air quality index (AQI) to 400 at 12:10 am.
23 of the 36 air quality monitoring stations across Delhi recorded air quality in the severe category on Saturday morning. Anand Vihar was the most-polluted area with an AQI of 450, followed by Wazirpur (444) and Shadipur (444), Punjabi Bagh (432).
Experts attribute the increase to the low temperatures and calm winds, and an increase in incidents of stubble burning in Punjab. So far