Delhi air worsens ahead of Diwali as severe readings spread and Bikaner tops pollution list

Delhi's readings on 4 November

Delhi's city-wide Air Quality Index reached 369 on Wednesday, 4 November, with 20 of the capital's 59 monitoring stations recording severe air quality and 33 recording very poor air, according to ABP Live's report of Central Pollution Control Board data. Jahangirpuri and Punjabi Bagh topped the city's pollution chart with an AQI of 447 each, while other badly affected areas included IIT Delhi at 438, Mundka at 436, Rohini at 433 and DTU at 432. PM2.5 was identified as the primary pollutant.

The deterioration followed the implementation of Stage II of the Graded Response Action Plan on 2 November, after the city's 24-hour average AQI reached 324 and entered the very poor category for the first time this season. The Air Quality Early Warning System forecast that pollution levels could remain in the very poor category until at least Friday, 6 November, with no immediate weather relief expected.

Bikaner tops a separate real-time list

Beyond Delhi, Rajasthan's Bikaner emerged as the most polluted city in the country in a separate real-time list, with its AQI reportedly reaching 1,357 on the morning of 4 November. Bathinda in Punjab ranked second at 883, followed by Karnal in Haryana at 850, with Ghaziabad, Sonipat, Meerut, Panipat, Hapur and Kaithal also featuring in the top ten.

Those figures come from real-time data published by Navbharat Times and cited by ABP Live, and the report itself cautions that they may vary across monitoring platforms and should not be treated as official Central Pollution Control Board readings or mapped directly to CPCB categories. That distinction matters: the same list put New Delhi at 630 in tenth place, a different figure from the CPCB-based city-wide reading of 369 reported elsewhere on the same day, reflecting different trackers, times and methods rather than a single official number.

What is driving the pollution

According to the Decision Support System cited in the Delhi report, transport emissions contributed the largest share of Delhi's pollution at 15.8 per cent, closely followed by stubble burning at 15.3 per cent. Residential emissions contributed 3.9 per cent, industries in Delhi and surrounding areas 3 per cent, construction 2.2 per cent and waste burning 1.4 per cent.

Satellite data detected 219 farm fire incidents across six states on 2 November, with Punjab recording the highest at 98, followed by Rajasthan with 67 and Madhya Pradesh with 48. Between 15 September and 2 November, 3,535 farm fire incidents were recorded across the six states, with Punjab accounting for 1,612 of them, according to data from the CREAMS Lab at ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute cited by PTI.

Diwali firecracker rules

With Diwali approaching, restrictions on firecrackers are in focus. In Delhi-NCR, Stage II of the Graded Response Action Plan remains in force, bringing additional measures against dust and vehicular emissions. In Tamil Nadu, the Pollution Control Board has said people can burst firecrackers only between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. and between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. on Deepavali, and has appealed to the public to use low-noise, less-polluting green firecrackers.

The Tamil Nadu two-hour window has been in place since 2018, following Supreme Court directions of 23 October 2018, and the board has advised bursting crackers at designated common locations with permission from the district administration or local bodies, preferably through local welfare associations. Firecrackers should not be burst in silence zones such as areas around hospitals, schools, courts and places of worship, or near huts and other fire-prone locations.

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