National
Capital and its suburbs were seen layered with smog on Thursday morning as
stubble burning and calm wind speed continues to aggravate the air quality making
it so far, the worst in 2020.

While
the winter season in India has not set its foot yet, Delhites complained of prickling throats
and watery eyes owing to the heavy acrid haze in the region

“I
can feel the pollutants in my throat despite wearing a mask. My eyes are
burning. It is going to make the pandemic worse. I am scared” Piyush
Vohra, a resident of Jangpura told PTI

Notably,
Experts blamed unfavorable meteorological conditions like calm winds, lower
temperatures and f farm fire smoke from the neighboring states contributing to
the dense smog pushing the Air Quality Index (AQI) to ‘Severe’

Delhi
recorded an Air Quality Index (AQI) of 461 at 8 am. It was 279 at 10 am on
Wednesday.  All the 36 monitoring stations recorded the air quality in the
”severe” category, reported ANI

While
the noxious haze reportedly reduced visibility to 600 meters at the Safdarjung
Observatory, a large number of people across Delhi-NCR were seen bursting
firecrackers to celebrate the occasion of Karwa Chauth compounding the
pollution levels.

“People
are bursting crackers and it is not even Diwali yet. The city has already
become a gas chamber. This happens every year. We don’t know for how long this
will continue”, PTI quoted Shiv Shrivastava, a resident of south Delhi as
saying.

Health
expert Ajit Jain told PTI that he believes that the augmenting air pollution
has become a grave concern amid the ongoing COVID-19 illness that causes severe
hazards to the respiratory system.

According
to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the maximum wind speed was 5 kilometers
per hour on Thursday morning and the minimum temperature 11.2 degrees Celsius.

“The
wind speed slowed down suddenly after 10 am in the Delhi-NCR region. The
temperatures have dipped alarmingly over the last few days,” V K Soni, the
head of IMD’s environment monitoring research center, said.