NEW DELHI: It's official. The capital's air quality reached emergency levels on Tuesday and was the worst in nearly 11 months. With the noxious morning smog thickening amid dipping temperatures, Delhi recorded its first 'severe' air day of the year, prompting the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) to enforce Stage III restrictions under the Graded Response Action Plan (Grap) across NCR. The city's average AQI on Tuesday stood at 428 on a scale of 0 to 500, the worst since Dec 19 last year, when the index touched 451. The last 'severe' AQI in Delhi was logged on Dec 23, 2024, at 406. The sharp rise in AQI, from 362 on Monday, followed a night of calm winds and plummeting temperatures that allowed pollutants to accumulate near the surface, creating a dense smog blanket over the

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