New Delhi, 27 Oct

The air quality deteriorated in the national capital on Sunday, with the Air Quality Index (AQI) being recorded at 352, in the 'very poor' category, according to System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR). This is worse than the average AQI recorded at 255 on Saturday, categorized as 'poor'.

Moreover, AQI in Anand Vihar area crossed the 400 mark, being recorded as 405 at 7am, categorised as 'severe', worse than the AQI of 367 recorded on Saturday.

Himanshu, a visitor to the national capital said that the increasing pollution feels 'suffocating.'

"It feels suffocating due to pollution...The govt should look into what can be done to reduce pollution," he told ANI.

Moreover, a cyclist in the city told ANI that they are facing a lot of problems with breathing.

"We are from Delhi and we (the cyclist group) cycle daily here, but this situation of air pollution since the last few days we are facing a lot of problems. We can't breathe properly; we get tired faster due to the pollution. We take precautions like wearing a bandana but nothing is working because the pollution is increasing a lot," he said.

Meanwhile, ahead of Deepavali, a survey conducted in Delhi-NCR has revealed that 18 per cent of the respondents plan to burst firecrackers during the festival of lights, while 55 per cent don't intend to do so.

The survey conducted by LocalCircles with a sample size 10,526 said, "Among those who responded to the query, 55 per cent said they will not burn firecrackers as they cause pollution, whereas 19 per cent said they would like to burn crackers, and 9 per cent said they will burn crackers.

As per the survey, some residents showed indifference towards the government advisories regarding firecrackers, as evidenced by the significant use of crackers during the Karva Chauth celebrations on 20 October. -Agencies