Delhi’s Air Quality Sees Slight Improvement, Remains in ‘Poor’ Category at 273 AQI
New Delhi: Delhi’s air quality showed a marginal improvement on Wednesday morning but continued to remain in the “poor” category, with the overall Air Quality Index (AQI) recorded at 273, according to data from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).
On Tuesday, the city’s AQI stood at 294 at 4 pm, slightly lower than Monday’s reading of 301, which had fallen under the “very poor” category.
Despite the overall dip, 11 of Delhi’s 38 monitoring stations continued to register AQI levels above 300 — in the “very poor” range — as per CPCB’s Sameer app.
The improvement followed cloud seeding trials conducted a day earlier by the Delhi government in collaboration with IIT-Kanpur to induce artificial rain amid worsening pollution. However, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) reported no measurable rainfall in the city.
According to Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa, the cloud seeding experiments were carried out in Burari, north Karol Bagh, Mayur Vihar, and Badli, with more trials planned over the coming days.
A government report later stated that the exercise led to a reduction in particulate matter levels at trial sites, despite less-than-ideal weather conditions. Light precipitation was recorded in Noida (0.1 mm) and Greater Noida (0.2 mm) around 4 pm.
The report noted that PM2.5 levels dropped from 221–230 to 203–207 across Mayur Vihar, Karol Bagh, and Burari, while PM10 levels reduced from around 207–209 to 163–177 after the first seeding round.
Meanwhile, the minimum temperature in Delhi was recorded at 18.2°C, about 2.1 degrees above normal, and the maximum temperature is expected to hover around 28°C, the IMD said. Shallow fog is likely in parts of the city, with humidity levels at 89% as of 8:30 am.
