When we talk of air pollution, the first thing that pops into our minds is Delhi’s smog-filled air. However, in the last few days it hasn’t been Delhi, but Mumbai, the country’s financial capital, that is choking from the poor quality air.
Over the last few days, Mumbai’s air quality index (AQI) has been worse than Delhi’s; on Thursday, while Mumbai recorded an AQI of 308, Delhi recorded an AQI of 262. The situation was no better on Friday when the financial capital saw an AQI of 309 compared to the Capital’s AQI of 249. On Monday morning, a similar trend was noticed, as Mumbai’s AQI was at 221 while that of Delhi’s was 180.
It is important to note that an AQI between 201 and 300 is considered ‘poor’, 301-400 ‘very poor’ and 401-500 ‘severe’, while the AQI between zero and 50 is considered ‘good’, 51 and 100 ‘satisfactory’ and 101 and 200 ‘moderate’.
Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray slammed the Maharashtra government for the situation, saying that while the public was feeling the ill-effects of the poor air quality, the government was keeping mum.
Congress’ Milind Deora also raised concerns about the dip in Mumbai’s air quality, mentioning on Twitter that it the city was logging its worst air quality and in some neighbourhoods, the air quality is worse than that of Delhi.
