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Bollywood actor Shahid Kapoor's wife Mira Rajput expressed her disappointment over the severely polluted air quality in Delhi. Rajput, took to Instagram and shared a post indicating the air quality level in the Capital, a day after Diwali celebrations, and wrote, “Seriously why? Who is even bursting these crackers?”
She then requested people to stop doing bursting firecrackers. She then shared a picture of the city's skyline covered in smog and wrote, “This can't be my home... Please let's do our bit. Don't burn crackers, segregate your waste (whatever isn't gets burnt) and support groups that are creating awareness about the stubble burning.”
Rajput was born and raised in New Delhi. She moved to Mumbai following her wedding with Shahid.
Along with Kapoor and their two children – Misha and Zain—Rajput is currently in Punjab, for two years now. In an interview Rajput had revealed that the the family of four had travelled to Punjab for a break, but have been staying there, ever since the lockdown restrictions were first implemented in the country in March 2020, due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
“We moved just days before the lockdown happened. We kinda felt like maybe we should take off for a little while. I thought we were moving away for two weeks till things settle down. Now nobody knew that things would take two years to settle down,” she had said in the interview, as reported by Hindustan Times.
“So, we've been here (Amritsar) ever since. It's been lovely because my parents are nearby and my in-laws have a home near so the kids are literally hopping and skipping from one home to another so it's great,” she added.
The post-festival air quality in Delhi on November 5 was the poorest it has been in five years. The deadly cocktail of noxious fumes from firecrackers as well as the toxic smoke from stubble burning pushed the 24-hour average AQI to 462, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) noted on Friday. Residents in many parts of Delhi-NCR complained of an itchy throat and watery eyes on Friday. The neighbouring cities of Faridabad (469), Greater Noida (464), Ghaziabad (470), Gurgaon (472) and Noida (475) also recorded 'severe' air pollution levels.
Dr BS Murthy, Project Director, System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR), which provides a dedicated air quality information service under the Ministry of Earth Science, is of the view that bursting of crackers indeed enhanced the existing pollution (PM2.5) level. As per SAFAR's estimate, bursting crackers can lead to a 700 microgram meter cube spike in PM2.5 pollution in seven hours. That means from 7 pm on November 4 to 2 am on November 5, ie on the night of Diwali, the pollution level peaked at about 1000 microgram m-3.
Weather experts on Saturday informed that owing to higher wind speed, the air quality in the national capital has improved slightly. The wind is expected to flush out pollutants further over the next two days.
Central Pollution Control Board's (CPCB) Sameer app,showed that the city's air quality index (AQI) stood at 449 in the severe category at 8 am on Saturday while yesterday, it was 462.
(Inputs From Pinkvilla)
