On Sunday, various locations in Punjab and Haryana experienced air quality levels classified as ‘very poor’ and ‘poor’, with Karnal being the most affected, reporting an AQI of 316.
At 9 am, the AQI in Amritsar, Punjab, stood at 301, while in Haryana, Bahadurgarh and Karnal recorded AQIs of 313 and 316, respectively, as detailed by the Sameer app, which provides hourly national AQI updates from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).
In Haryana, other recorded AQI levels included 293 in Bhiwani, 280 in Charkhi Dadri, 238 in Faridabad, 202 in Fatehabad, 266 in Gurugram, 266 in Hisar, 253 in Jind, 258 in Rohtak, 296 in Sonepat, 251 in Sirsa, 238 in Kurukshetra, 187 in Panipat, 142 in Yamunanagar, and 112 in Ambala. In Chandigarh, the AQI was noted to be 183.
In Punjab, the AQI readings varied with Bathinda at 119, Jalandhar at 214, Khanna at 171, Ludhiana at 153, Patiala at 207, Mandi Gobindgarh at 184, and Rupnagar at 141.
The AQI classification is as follows: 0-50 is considered good, 51-100 satisfactory, 101-200 moderate, 201-300 poor, 301-400 very poor, 401-450 severe, and above 450 ‘severe plus’.
Additionally, Punjab reported a total of 379 farm fires on Saturday.