Gurgaon: The city’s air quality improved marginally on Sunday after six consecutive days of very poor readings, with the overall Air Quality Index (AQI) dropping to 296 by 4.05pm, which falls in the poor category. The overall AQI had been above 300 from Nov 9 to 14, at 334, 323, 301, 320, 324 and 340, respectively. On Sunday it stood at 320 at 9.05am before dropping to 296 by 4.05pm, ending the spell.Pollution remained high at individual monitoring stations. TERI Gram recorded an AQI of 320 and Gwalpahari 317, both in the very poor category. Vikas Sadan recorded 300, while Sector 51 reported 248. All four monitoring stations were active.Pollution levels have been considerably higher this year than in the past two. Between Nov 1 and 14, Gurgaon had already recorded 11 days above the 300 AQI mark, compared with six in the first 15 days of Nov 2024 and four in 2025. The city’s average AQI for Nov 1–14 stood at around 311 this year, against 283 for the first 15 days of Nov 2024 and 278 for the corresponding period in 2025. The periods are not identical, so the averages should be treated as indicative rather than a like-for-like comparison.The improvement came even as the forecast pointed to continued pollution concerns across Delhi. India Meteorological Department and Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology’s Nov 14 bulletin projected very poor air quality in Delhi through Nov 17.Mixing depth was forecast at 1,500 metres on Sunday rising to 2,350 metres on Monday before declining to 1,500 metres on Tuesday. Winds were forecast from the north to northeast on Sunday and northwesterly on Monday and Tuesday, at speeds of up to 15 kmph.Mixing depth determines the vertical volume of air available for pollutants to disperse. A higher mixing depth generally allows greater dispersion, while a lower one can restrict it. Despite the rise on Monday, the forecast kept Delhi’s air quality in the very poor category over the next two days.
