Delhi air still 'very poor' biomass burning top pollutant

     New Delhi, Nov 14 (PTI) Delhi's air quality remained in the "very poor" category on Saturday, with biomass burning emerging as the largest contributor to the city's pollution.

     Stubble burning and domestic solid biofuel combustion such as dung cakes and wood contributed 25.5 per cent to Delhi pollution, according to records.

     A slight improvement, however, is expected in the coming days due to rain, India Meteorological Department said.

     The 24-hour average Air Quality Index (AQI) in the day settled at 367, in the "very poor" category.

     According to the Air Quality Early Warning System (AQEWS) for Delhi, the particulate matter concentration in the air — PM2.5 and PM10 — is also set to see a decline over the next two days.

     Of the 59 monitoring stations that recorded data on Saturday, 17 were in the "severe" category, 38 in the "very poor" category, three in the "poor" category and one in the "moderate" category.

     The city's average AQI improved slightly from 373 on Friday to 367 on Saturday.

     According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), an AQI between 0 and 50 is classified as "good", 51 and 100 as "satisfactory", 101 and 200 as "moderate", 201 and 300 as "poor", 301 and 400 as "very poor", and 401 and 500 as "severe".

     PM10 was the predominant pollutant in the national capital on Saturday.

     According to the AQEWS, after biomass, the highest pollutant was secondary organic aerosols at 23.6 per cent, followed by vehicular emission.

     Mixed combustion contributed 12.6 per cent, while secondary inorganic aerosols accounted for 10.7 per cent of the pollution.

     Waste burning, including municipal waste and plastic- and rubber-containing waste, contributed 6.8 per cent to total pollution, while mineral dust and ash accounted for 1.5 per cent.

     Firecrackers contributed 1.4 per cent and industrial emissions 0.7 per cent.

     Satellite data showed 537 residue-burning incidents across six states on Saturday.

     Of these, 214 incidents were reported in Punjab, 11 in Haryana, 33 in Uttar Pradesh, 33 in Rajasthan and 246 in Madhya Pradesh.

     A total of 11,342 farm-fire incidents have been detected across these states between September 15 and November 13.

     The data was provided by the Consortium for Research on Agroecosystem Monitoring and Modelling from Space (CREAMS) Laboratory of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute in its bulletin.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)