Though Anand Vihar recorded high levels, a report shows that pollution in Delhi has gone down in the past four days.
A central school in Uttar Pradesh's capital city, Lucknow, has recorded the highest level of suspended particulate matter, PM 2.5 on Monday, followed by Delhi's Anand Vihar according to the latest report by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).
The peak levels of PM 2.5, harmful microscopic particles that can penetrate deep into the lungs, were recorded at 477 in a central school in Lucknow yesterday afternoon.
Anand Vihar recorded a level of 469 yesterday evening at 7pm.
These two locations come under the 'severe' category.
Lucknow had a total of three places with high PM 2.5 levels in the ten most polluted areas of the country, said the report.
But there is hope for Delhi as a System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR) study shows a 'steady fall' of pollutants over the last four days.
This despite the sudden fall in the city's temperature has the potential to elevate the quantity of such pollutants.
"This is another indicator that indeed something worked in favour of relatively much better PM figures for this time of the year with such cooler weather conditions. There is one rider though, the wind speed is not high but at the same time, it is not really as calm as it should have been at this time," said Gufran Beig, Chief Project Scientist of SAFAR who prepared the report.
The safe limits of PM 2.5 and PM 10 are 60 and 100 and anything beyond that poses threat to a healthy respiratory system. They have been consistently high, at times multiple times, in the capital, prompting the government to resort to a host of anti-pollution measures.
Mr Beig said the fall was noteworthy as the weather conditions, "drop in temperature, normal wind flow pattern and relatively calm local wind", were congenial for the formation of off-white (light brownish) haze.
SAFAR has also observed a slight increase in the level of gaseous pollutants like Carbon Monoxide (CO) and Ozone (O3) "although, still well within the permissible limit."