Delhi: ‘3-fold rise in number of severely polluted days’

Delhi had more than three times as many "severely polluted" days in the eight-month period between May and December in 2016, as compared to the corresponding period the previous year, the government said in Parliament Tuesday. In reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, Environment Minister Anil Madhav Dave said Delhi had experienced 28 severely polluted days during this period in 2016 as compared to only eight in 2015. In addition, the capital had 97 days in 2016 when the air quality was "very poor" as compared to only 54 the previous year. Similarly, on 120 days during this period in 2016, the air was observed to be of "poor" quality as against only 73 days in 2015.