Halve farm fire count and Delhi will see no severe air day this Oct, Nov: Safar
Hindustan TimesThe national capital would not see a single ”severe” air day -- when the air quality index reading climbs above 400 -- in October or November this year, provided the stubble fire incidents are halved to what they were last year, when around 80,000 fire incidents were reported, forecasts by the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research said. Gufran Beig, founder director at Safar, said in the first ”business as usual” scenario -- if the number of fire incidents is similar to last year‘s count of 80,000 with the events peaking towards mid-November -- then Delhi is expected to see around five to six ”severe” air days.The city will “While this will still keep “severe” air days count lower than last year’s, since Diwali will be celebrated in the last week of October, there will be “smog-like” episodes,” said Beig. “In the second scenario, factoring in the early Diwali and with all the other parameters remaining the same, if we limit the fire count to 40,000 or half of what it was last year, with events peaking towards end of October, then Delhi will not see any “severe” air day and the ”very poor” days may increase slightly or remain the same as last year,” he said. While October 2021 saw only six “poor” air days and zero ”very poor” or ”severe” days, November 2021 recorded 11 ”severe” days, 17 ”very poor” days and two ”poor“air days.