New Delhi, Oct 29: Delhi’s air quality improved slightly on Wednesday morning but remained in the “poor” category with an overall Air Quality Index (AQI) of 273, according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).
On Tuesday, the city recorded an AQI of 294 at 4 pm, a marginal drop from Monday’s reading of 301, which fell under the “very poor” category.
Despite the overall improvement, 11 out of Delhi’s 38 monitoring stations continued to record AQI in “very poor” range with reading above 300, data from the CPCB’s Sameer app showed.
A day before, Delhi conducted cloud seeding trials to induce artificial rain in the national capital amid surging pollution levels, even as the weather department did not record any traces of rainfall in the city.
The Delhi government, in collaboration with IIT-Kanpur, conducted the trials in parts of Delhi, including Burari, north Karol Bagh, Mayur Vihar, and Badli, with more such exercises planned over the next few days, Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa said.
Later, in the evening, the government in a report said that the cloud seeding trials helped in reduction of particulate matter at locations where the exercise was carried out even as conditions were not ideal for it.
The report said that two precipitation events were recorded — Noida at 4 pm (0.1mm of rain) and Greater Noida at 4 pm (0.2 mm).
“Before cloud seeding, the PM 2.5 level was 221, 230, and 229 in Mayur Vihar, Karol Bagh, and Burari, respectively, which reduced to 207, 206, and 203, respectively, after the first seeding. Similarly, PM 10 level was 207, 206, 209, which got reduced to 177, 163, 177 at Mayur Vihar, Karol Bagh, and Burari, respectively,” said the report.
Meanwhile, the minimum temperature in the national capital settled at 18.2 degrees Celsius, 2.1 notches above normal, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
The maximum temperature is likely to settle around 28 degrees Celsius, the IMD has it forecasted shallow fog in the city on Wednesday.
The relative humidity was 89 per cent at 8.30 am, it said. (Agencies)
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