The air pollution levels in Delhi and National Capital Region (Delhi-NCR) increased on Tuesday morning due to a dust storm, which also resulted in reduced visibility. Areas such as India Gate, Patparganj, and Pusa were particularly affected by the dust storm, resulting in an alarming increase in the air quality index (AQI) for these regions.

The AQI levels at various monitoring stations showed higher pollution levels. Pusa, Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, and Patparganj monitoring centres recorded an extremely high AQI of nearly 999, indicating a severe level of pollution. Other areas, such as Mandir Marg (AQI 549), Satyawati College (AQI 792), R K Puram (AQI 872), PGDAV College (AQI 964), Anand Vihar (AQI 829), and Sri Aurobindo Marg (AQI 643), were also adversely affected by a substantial decline in air quality.

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Regions hit by dust storm

The dust-raising winds prevailed over Haryana, South Haryana, Delhi-NCR, Western Uttar Pradesh, and North-East Rajasthan. The weather department issued a warning, stating that Delhi, NCR, Jhajjar, Farukhnagar, Sohana, and Nuh (Haryana) were likely to experience dust storms and gusty winds with speeds ranging from 40 to 75 km per hour on Tuesday.

Additionally, there was a possibility of dust storms, thunderstorms accompanied by rain, and gusty winds of 40 to 60 km/h in areas such as Kosali, Mahendragarh, Rewari, Narnaul, Bawal (Haryana), as well as Khairthal, Kotputli, Alwar, Viratnagar, and Rajgarh (Rajasthan).

16/05/2023: 02:20 IST; Dust storm/gusty winds with speed of 40-75 Km/h would occur over and adjoining areas of entire Delhi and NCR, Jhajjar, Farukhnagar, Sohana, Nuh (Haryana) . Dust storm/Thunderstorm with rain (followed by rain) and

— RWFC New Delhi (@RWFC_ND) May 15, 2023What's the reason behind the dust storm?

Kuldeep Srivastava, an India Meteorological Department (IMD) official in Delhi, said the main reason behind the dust-raising winds is "that a western disturbance has passed away and strong winds are prevailing". Apart from that, the temperature was quite high for the last week, mostly 40°C or above, he added.

"The atmosphere is dry, and the soil has become loose because of the hot atmosphere. That's why winds that are blowing at 40–45 kmph are raising the dust from the surface and spreading it in the atmosphere, and mainly these are spreading up to a height of 1-2 km," Srivastava was quoted by ANI as saying.

Earlier on Tuesday, the IMD said the dust storm was caused by a prevailing cyclonic circulation over Rajasthan. The cyclonic circulation resulted in dust storms and light rain activities in North Rajasthan, with its impact extending to Delhi, Haryana, and parts of Punjab, which may continue for the next few days.

Prior to the dust storm, Delhi experienced slightly warmer weather, with temperatures reaching 41.3 degrees Celsius on Monday, two degrees above the normal average for this time of the year.

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Earlier on Monday, Delhi's environment minister, Gopal Rai, unveiled plans to deploy mobile vans across the city's 13 pollution hotspots for a week. These vans will help identify individual pollution sources, enabling targeted action to mitigate pollution levels. Rai's announcement came after a productive round-table conference, which aimed to evaluate a real-time source apportionment study initiated in January. This comprehensive study successfully identified the primary pollutants in the capital city to be secondary inorganic aerosols and vehicle emissions.

(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)

First Published:May 16, 2023 12:07 PM IST