Delhi air quality turns very poor as stubble-burning share rises, AQI hits 348

Delhi's air quality worsened on Tuesday, with the Air Quality Index rising to 348 in the 'very poor' category, news agency Press Trust of India reported. Stubble burning is expected to account for an increasing share of the city's PM2.5 pollution over the next three days.

Delhi's AQI rose from 261 on November 1 to 324 on November 2 and 348 on November 3. A forecast by the Decision Support System for air quality management in Delhi, under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, showed that the contribution of stubble burning to the city's PM2.5 concentration was likely to increase from 8.583 per cent on November 2 to 15.301 per cent on November 3.

The contribution is expected to rise further to 20.057 per cent on November 4 and 22.207 per cent on November 5. The forecast for the next three days is based on past data on fire counts and emissions.

The increase comes amid continued detection of farm fires in neighbouring states. Satellites detected 219 paddy residue-burning incidents across the monitored states on November 2, including 98 in Punjab, 67 in Rajasthan, 48 in Madhya Pradesh, four in Uttar Pradesh and two in Haryana.