Delhi`s air quality slipped back to the `severe` category on Saturday morning with an AQI of 420 while the minimum temperature was recorded at 11.4 degrees Celsius. Out of 38 monitoring stations, nine recorded air quality in the `severe plus` category with AQI exceeding 450.

The daytime temperature was recorded at 29.4 degrees Celsius, four notches above the seasonal average, according to IMD.

Whatever the causes of the smog, by one ranking Delhi was not just the most polluted city in the world, but “nearly five times as bad as the second most polluted city, Dhaka,” in Bangladesh next door, as Shashi Tharoor, a leader of the opposition in Parliament and best-selling author, posted on X.

Delhi and its adjoining National Capital Region, including Noida and Greater Noida, has been grappling with dangerous levels of air quality that are considered harmful to human health.

At 6 am on Saturday, the CPCB recorded Delhi’s AQI at 419, which placed it back in the ‘severe’ category.

Unhealthy

Offline classes are likely to resume on November 25, while the schedule for examinations and interviews remains unchanged. The development comes as the authorities had ordered the closure of schools till November 23.

Residents of the national capital breathed in despair on Saturday, with the air quality plunging back to the 'severe' category as average Air Quality Index (AQI) pegged at 412.

The AQI in Anand Vihar was recorded as 457; the AQI in Ashok Vihar was 455; Chandni Chowk's AQI was 439 and RK Puram recorded an AQI of 421.

With the overall Air Quality Index (AQI) reading 422 at 6 AM on Saturday, Delhi was once again engulfed in a dense layer of poisonous haze as the air quality fell into the "Severe" category. According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB),