Delhi wakes up to haze; air quality stays in ‘very poor’ category

Delhiites woke up to a hazy morning with cloudy skies on Tuesday with the citys air quality remaining in the very poor category at 305 data showedOn Monday Delhis 24hour average Air Quality Index AQI stood at 301 at 4 pm Central Pollution Control Board CPCB data shoedAccording to the Sameer app developed by the CPCB 27 of the 38 monitoring stations in the city reported very poor air quality with readings exceeding 300Siri Fort recorded the highest AQI at 351 followed by Wazirpur at 342According to the CPCB an AQI from 0 to 50 is considered good 51100 satisfactory 101200 moderate 201300 poor 301400 very poor and 401500 severeAccording to the India Meteorological Department IMD the minimum temperature was recorded at 20 degrees Celsius on Tuesday 39 notches above normal while the maximum temperature is likely to settle around 28 degrees CelsiusThe relative humidity in Delhi stood at 95 per cent at 830 am IMD data showedMeanwhile Delhi Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa on Tuesday said that a cloudseeding operation to induce artificial rainfall in the national capital is likely to take place today depending on favourable weather conditions in Kanpur where the aircraft designated for the operation is currently stationedSpeaking to ANI Sirsa explained that the current visibility in Kanpur is around 2000 metres while a minimum of 5000 metres is required for the aircraft to take off safely He added that if conditions improve and the aircraft successfully takes off cloud seeding over Delhi could be carried out between 1230 pm and 1 pmSpeaking to ANI Sirsa stated Regarding cloud seeding as soon as the weather clears up in Kanpur our aircraft will take off from there today If it succeeds in taking off from there cloud seeding will be done in Delhi today Through that cloud seeding there will be rainfall in Delhi Right now the visibility in Kanpur is 2000 metres Visibility of 5000 metres is being awaited there Visibility is low in Delhi too We hope that this will be possible by 12301 pm Then it will take off from there do cloud seeding here and returnPostDiwali the Air Quality Index AQI in Delhi and the National Capital Region NCR has been reeling under the poor and very poor categories in several areas even as Stage 2 of the Graded Response Action Plan GRAP remains in effectCloud seeding involves artificially generating rainfall by introducing specific particles such as silver iodide crystals or saltbased compounds into moistureladen clouds Aircraft are used to disperse these particles which condense smaller cloud droplets into larger raindrops potentially leading to precipitationWith inputs from ANI