Prateek Tanmay
4 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Jul 13, 2026 10:35 AM IST
Barely days after successive monsoon showers gave Delhi its cleanest air in nearly three years, the national capital has seen its pollution levels spiking — owing to a dust storm from West Asia.
On Monday morning, the air quality deteriorated rapidly, inching towards the ‘Very Poor’ category.
On Sunday, Delhi’s daily average Air Quality Index (AQI) climbed to 261 (‘Poor’) — the first ‘Poor’ air day of this month. At 9 am on Monday, the city’s AQI touched 294.
Across the National Capital Region, Greater Noida recorded an AQI of 352 (‘Very Poor’), while Gurgaon stood at 271 and Noida at 261.
From ‘Good’ to ‘Poor’ in three days
The sharp deterioration comes less than a week after Delhi recorded its first ‘Good’ air day of the year.
On July 9, the city’s daily average AQI had dropped to 48, the lowest recorded this year and the cleanest air Delhi had witnessed since September 10, 2023. Back-to-back spells of monsoon rain had washed pollutants out of the atmosphere, keeping air quality in the ‘Good’ and ‘Satisfactory’ categories for several days.
The latest spike has effectively wiped out those gains, with the AQI jumping more than 200 points within three days.
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Dust storm from West Asia behind spike
According to the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM), the sudden deterioration is being driven by a large-scale transboundary dust event rather than local pollution sources.
“The decline in air quality is attributed to long-range transboundary mineral dust transport, with a storm originating near Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan moving towards north western India including Delhi, resulting in elevated atmospheric PM10 concentrations,” the commission said after a meeting of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) Sub-Committee on Sunday.
The commission added that strong winds over the Indo-Gangetic Plain were carrying mineral dust into Delhi-NCR, leading to a sharp increase in Particulate Matter (PM) 10 levels across monitoring stations.
Dr Shashi Kant, senior scientist at the India Meteorological Department (IMD), said satellite imagery indicates that the dust-laiden wind is arising from South Pakistan and adjoining areas, resulting in transboundary dust transport into India.
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No GRAP Stage-I despite AQI crossing 200
Despite the daily average AQI breaching the 200-mark, the CAQM decided against invoking Stage I of GRAP.
“Delhi’s air quality is in the ‘Poor’ category as of today and likely to remain in this range. AQI is expected to improve in a couple of days as the transboundary dust spell subsides,” the commission said.
It further noted that since the present deterioration was primarily due to transboundary dust transport, GRAP Stage I was not being invoked. However, the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) and State Pollution Control Boards in NCR have been directed to intensify dust-control measures on the ground.
“The Sub-Committee shall be keeping a close watch on the air quality scenario and review the situation from time to time for further appropriate decisions, depending upon the air quality and forecast made by IMD/IITM,” the statement added.
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PM 10 emerges as dominant pollutant
The current pollution episode is markedly different from the winter smog that is typically driven by locally generated emissions and secondary particulate formation.
Data from the Central Pollution Control Board’s monitoring network shows PM 10 has emerged as the dominant pollutant across most stations as coarse mineral dust suspended by strong winds replaced the rain-cleansed atmosphere.
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