Haryana woke up to a thick blanket of smog on Tuesday morning, a day after Diwali celebrations, with Jind topping the national Air Quality Index (AQI) chart in the ‘severe’ category — recording the worst air in the country.
According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the 24-hour average AQI for Jind stood at 421, followed by Dharuhera (412), Narnaul (390), Rohtak (376) and Gurugram (370) — all from Haryana. These cities occupied the top five spots in the CPCB bulletin.
Overall, eight towns from Haryana ranked among the top ten most polluted cities in India, surpassing even Delhi’s AQI of 351. These included Bahadurgarh (368), Charkhi Dadri (353) and Sirsa (353) in addition to the top five.
The AQI acts as a measure of overall air quality on a scale of 0 to 500, with six categories: good (0–50), satisfactory (51–100), moderate (101–200), poor (201–300), very poor (301–400), and severe (above 401). The CPCB calculates AQI based on at least three pollutants, one of which must be either PM2.5 or PM10.
In almost all affected regions, PM2.5 — fine particulate matter considered most harmful due to its ability to penetrate deep into the lungs — remained the dominant pollutant.
Other Haryana cities also reported worrying figures, with Manesar (320) and Bhiwani (327) falling in the ‘very poor’ range. The air in Ballabgarh (297), Kaithal (273), Faridabad (268), Karnal (266), Fatehabad (266), Ambala (234), Kurukshetra (230), Yamunanagar (224), Panipat (216), Palwal (209), Hisar (204) and Panchkula (202) was classified as “poor”.
Experts attribute the sharp spike in pollution to the extensive bursting of firecrackers beyond the Supreme Court’s permitted time window, though incidents of stubble burning in Haryana remain comparatively low this season.
Data from the state agriculture department shows 17 cases of stubble burning were reported on Monday and Tuesday, including 13 on Diwali day — the highest single-day count this season.
Since September 15, 55 cases have been registered across Haryana, a steep 85% decline from 655 cases during the same period last year. Jind accounted for 15 cases, followed by Sirsa and Fatehabad (5 each), Hisar, Kaithal and Sonepat (4 each), Yamunanagar, Palwal, Karnal and Faridabad (3 each), and Bhiwani and Panipat (2 each). Jhajjar reported a single case, while Ambala, one of the state’s key paddy-producing districts, reported none so far.